'THE CORNERED CUSTOMER'
... and other highlights from this year’s ACC/AAAE symposium
By John F. Infanger, Editorial Director
April 2001
DENVER — Each year, consultants, airports, suppliers, and others meet for the Airport Planning, Design, and Construction Symposium, held this year in the Mile High City. Heading the highlights from this year’s event were discussions on planning and security, along with a spirited luncheon keynote address by Michael Boyd.
The three-day symposium is hosted by the
Airport Consultants Council and the American Association of Airport Executives,
both based in Alexandria, VA.
Boyd, president of The Boyd Group based
in Evergreen, CO, discussed airline service and system problems in a presentation
entitled, "Airline Service: The Cornered Customer."
The consultant told the audience that no
airline merger has ever increased competition or brought about wide-spread
fare reductions. The airlines, he says, are "anti-consumer and rubbing
the consumer’s nose in it." Customer service, he says, is what’s
needed, not passenger processing.
Boyd says new entrants will become less
likely after the proposed United/U.S. Airways and Ameri-can/TWA deals,
because of the economics of starting a new carrier along with the fact
that few niches remain.
Regarding the U.S. air traffic control system,
Boyd says that if the Federal Aviation Administration had taken over the
phone system 20 years ago, "today we’d have lines up to payphones
to call, and FAA would be blaming us because we want to make calls."
The ATC system is failing, adds Boyd, and
the thing those running the system do best is "a song and dance to
Congress." ATC is allowed 20 times the number of equipment errors
as an air carrier would be, he says, and a carrier that had the failures
ATC has would be shut down.
Also from Boyd ...
• Airline performance statistics actually
show that comparatively they are doing a good job versus other services/industries.
However, the problem is the airlines have forgotten they’re moving
people, not cattle or boxes, and people have feelings.
• AIR-21 is giving the industry something
it deserved, not something extra.
• By 2005, 29 airports will drive one-half
of the U.S. airline passenger traffic, and 60 percent of the growth will
come from those same airports.
• By 2004, sales of regional jets will
decrease dramatically and airlines might even begin to retire them. The
large RJ orders of the 1990s occurred largely because of a need to replace
old turboprops, though not necessarily for the same routes. A key consideration:
50-seat RJs are still "commuter cabins" that do not afford the
same passenger comforts as a larger aircraft. In time, a number of communities
can expect to lose service.
• Peak period pricing at congested
airports "won’t solve anything." What is needed is additional
capacity at congested airports and ways to increase capacity at existing
facilities. That is, airlines generally schedule flights based on what
the market wants, so the challenge is figuring out how to accommodate
them.
Planning
The consultants association is working closely
with FAA on updating the June 1985 Advisory Circular 5070-6 on master
planning. Belinda Hargrove, managing partner of Transolutions LLC, based
in Ft. Worth, says that a problem with the current, outdated AC is that
some consulting firms and FAA personnel look at it as "the Bible,"
as do many international personnel.
Some areas of concern which Hargrove sees
with the current master planning process:
• a need for improved communications
among all parties involved, from airport personnel to the sponsor to the
public;
• a lack of focus on specific infrastructure
components;
• financial concerns are often too
heavily focused on architectural components;
• master planning fails to place enough
focus on anticipating problems that could arise and doesn’t place
enough emphasis on landside activities;
• in today’s environment, there
is still too little emphasis placed on the role of information technology.
The AC rewrite will be a key agenda item
at this year’s joint ACC/FAA Planning Workshop, scheduled for July
9-10 in Washington, D.C.
Parts 107, 108
FAA’s Art Kosatka says that the long-awaited
rewrites of Federal Aviation Regulations Parts 107 and 108 for security
were at the printer in January, but were put on hold following President
Bush’s order to not implement regulations approved by the Clinton
Administration but not yet made effective.
Part 107 regarding airport security, says
Kosatka, has been finished "for months and months," while Part
108 for air carriers had been slowed because of a debate over the carriage
of weapons by different law enforcement segments. In addition, he says
that the Air Transport Association and its member airlines worked to slow
the approval of the rewrite to save money.
One significant new regulation to come,
he says, gives FAA jurisdiction over both airlines and employees when
violations occur. Also, Kosatka says airport tenants "will become
a regulated party" with the soon-to-be-released rewrites.
