Airlines’ Unadvertised Advantages
While airlines are quick to tout differences in their offerings, especially with fares, reservations and in-flight services, there are some subjects they don’t promote even though the variations can be significant.
One is the equipment jets have for landing in poor weather, especially fog. Some jets are better equipped for this operation than others, but airlines are generally loath to push this information in their ads and other promotional material because it means raising a negative subject.
“Our instrument landing capabilities are superior, but fog is an infrequent problem,” said Glenn Bozarth, a Western Airlines spokesman. “Western’s advertising dollars are better spent promoting competitive advantages that we deliver every day.”
Another reason airlines don’t cite any advantages their jets have in this regard is that the information tends to be on the technical side.
According to Chuck Novak, spokesman for United Airlines: “Fog and bad weather aren’t common occurrences, and this is a highly technical subject, which simply doesn’t lend itself to advertising.”
Useful to Consumers
Yet some knowledge of this subject can be quite useful to consumers, especially when flying in the winter or when the weather isn’t cooperating. Two examples: Seattle, which was fogged in over the Christmas holidays, and Reno, during its mammoth snowstorm last November.
In both cases, the jets of some carriers fared better than others. Some airports are also better equipped than others to cope with inclement weather, and sometimes Mother Nature makes it impossible for any flight operations at all.
Both jets and airports are placed in specific categories (with some sub-categories) by the Federal Aviation Administration as to their capabilities in dealing with weather-caused visibility problems.
For example, some jets can land under Category III conditions when the runway visual range (RVR) is down to 700 feet. Other jets are capable of landing in a Category II situation when the RVR is reduced to 1,200 feet. And some planes can only land under Category I conditions when the RVR is down to 1,800-2,400 feet.
More Costs for Carriers
Jets equipped to land under Category II and III situations require more electronic equipment, maintenance and crew training. All this translates into increased costs for the carriers, which accounts for the differences in how the planes are equipped (a carrier’s route system may be another factor).
Most of the jets manufactured in the last five to eight years are in Category III, and some older planes can be retrofitted with the latest electronic gadgetry to qualify for a higher category. There are still crew training and maintenance costs to consider.
As for basic safety, Capt. Dewey Gerrard, manager-flight for Western Airlines in Salt Lake City, maintained: “A Category III landing is much safer than a Category I landing, despite the lesser RVR, because the jet’s precise electronic equipment removes most of the human decision-making factor. With Category III the pilot becomes a monitor of the computerized and automatic landing equipment aboard the jet.”
Airlines have jet fleets with different capabilities. Western Airlines, for example, has all of its DC-10s and 737-300s qualified for Category III landings. Its 727s and 737-200s are equipped for Category II landings.
All of United’s Boeing 767’s can land under Category III conditions, with most of the rest of the fleet (281 planes) capable of landing when a Category II situation prevails. Twenty-five of the carrier’s Boeing 727-100 planes land under Category I conditions.
Most airports fall under Category I, and very few are Category III, Capt. Gerrard said. Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco are Category III, he added.
Ontario is Category II and Burbank is Category I, according to Harold Gauer, acting branch manager-flight procedures for FAA’s Western Pacific Region. However, Category III and II airports may have runways that also serve for Category I landings. “LAX has runways for all three categories,” Gauer said. Category I airports would not have runways permitting Category II and III landings, he added.
Some Category III
Some airports may be rated as Category III for some airlines, Capt. Gerrard said. “This is the situation with Western at our major hub at Salt Lake City, which is basically a Category II airport. But because of our Category III jets we, and several other carriers with similarly equipped jets, have FAA permission to land on Category II runways.”
Overall, Capt. Gerrard said, there are 26 airports across the country where the FAA may allow Category III jets to land on Category II runways.
Some factors involved in how the airports are categorized are approach light systems, intensity of runway lights, in-runway lights, quality and integrity of the electronic approach and landing guidance systems, runway marking, procedures for reporting runway visibility and airport surface traffic control.
What this all boils down to are more questions travelers can ask when making airline reservations, especially when weather may be an issue. You may have no choice about the destination, but which carrier you fly on and on what type of jet are other matters.
