VIEWPOINTS : How Can Flight Service and Safety Be Improved? : Industry Observers Explain What They Think Should Be Done to Make Skies Friendlier

John J. Nance, lawyer, airline pilot and author of “Blind Trust: How Deregulation Has Jeopardized Airline Safety.”

“After deregulation, basically what we said is, ‘We don’t really care whether you contribute to the (air transportation) system or not, you’ve got to promise that you’re going to try to make a profit.’ And consequently, the bottom line became the god and the idea that there was some sort of an obligation to the public to create a good, stable air transportation system went out the window. It became simply a cash cow and a way to make money.

“Well, fine. It’s a way to make money, but it also is a public service and a public utility. And once we recognize that and get back on the track, which is going to take legislative change in Washington, then I think we will be able to have the airlines rise to their natural propensity, which is not only to have the greatest level of service possible, but also the greatest level of safety possible.”

Alfred E. Kahn, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1977-78, now a professor of political economy at Cornell University.

“We are pricing those scarce spaces at congested airports at times of (peak use) insanely. . . . The landing fee at Washington National Airport, which is among the most precious pieces of ground in the universe, is 57 cents a thousand pounds. That comes to between $2.75 and $6 for landing the small craft that my charter operator lands. And a maximum of $700 or $800 for a 727. That’s crazy. No wonder you have a shortage. No wonder planes are lined up and queuing the way they do at a meat shop in Poland.

“They should be charging thousands of dollars for their landing. That would translate into maybe $25 or $50 a ticket. That means that the people to whom it’s important to land at that very precious time and space will be able to do so without delays, weather permitting. And if you then use the (money) that you get in that way to subsidize landings off peak or in uncongested airports, that would translate into lower fares and there would be bargains for people who don’t find it necessary to use the very scarce times and places.”

Charles E. Yeager, retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general, author, test pilot and the first person to break the sound barrier.

“My own personal opinion--since I fly military planes back and forth across the country, intermingle with commercial traffic and I also fly private airplanes--I think the FAA is doing a very good job in regulating traffic around the United States. Obviously, they can’t stay on top of everything, (but) when a problem surfaces, then they fix it. And that’s the way it should be.

“As far as airline service is concerned . . . it’s ridiculous. The point is, I think that, due to deregulation, the airlines have grown at a rate where they just don’t have good supervision over their people. And consequently, their people couldn’t care less about giving good service. And that’s about what it amounts to. Eventually they’ll get enough supervisors to where they can assure good service, but right now, the passenger is a captive audience. And he really can’t do a hell of a lot about it, except write letters and (complain) and just like that, you feel like crawling across the counter and clobbering some guy because of the attitude. . . .

“The airline pilots are all very well-trained and they’re very proficient until complacency takes over--as it did, in my opinion, in the Northwest accident back East. See, complacency is where you think you know so much that you

don’t use a check list and you get lazy, and the airplanes are so easy to fly today, that, you know, there’s a tendency to drift toward complacency in the cockpit. . . . You have to keep pounding (airline safety) into the pilots.”

Jane King, deputy director of the National Consumers League in Washington.

“Through the federal courts, some kind of consumer redress (for service problems) should be made possible because right now you might try your local consumer protection office, you might try your (Better Business Bureau), but of course they do not have jurisdiction over these interstate problems. . . . We can take care of

other issues through legislation, but the individual consumer needs to have some access to help.

“One additional concern we have dealt with over a period of the last two or three years is the problem with inspection and maintenance, and there are many signs that that is deteriorating. There are older planes in the air. There are many deferred maintenance practices, which cause grave concern. This could be one area of safety that deserves a much harder look.”

Arthur Hailey, author of “Airport,” published in 1968, and nine other books.

“Part of my attitude is seasoned by the fact that I’m a former pilot in the British air force. I was in the British air force for eight years and my age is now 67 and one becomes philosophic. I remember something we said during the war was that every flight you walk away from was a good flight. So when I fly, I’m always pleased under any circumstances if the flight ends. On the other hand, I always travel first class. There are days when I wonder why. First-class travel does not have the style that it used to have. The seat is a bit wider, but I have a feeling that every time I get aboard, they’ve snuck those seats a quarter of an inch closer together.

“I think one has to accept nowadays that you’re riding a mass production operation. And I’m speaking from the point of view of service. Even the food you get in first class is pretty inferior on just about all airlines. The European airlines tend to be the exception--Lufthansa, Swiss Air, SAS, British Airways.

“Now, so far as maintenance is concerned, the average passenger really has no idea of what is going on out there. You have to take a lot on faith and quite clearly by recent reports, that faith has been misplaced. There simply aren’t any simple answers. I’m a capitalist, free enterpriser and yet at the same time, I must say that the deregulation of the airlines has (not) . . . worked out to the public advantage. I think that I want to travel on an airline that is making money. . . . And I don’t want to travel on one that is constantly cutting its fares because I’ve a feeling that along with the cutting of the fares, they’re cutting corners on other things.”

Dick Rutan, one of two pilots of Voyager, a two-engine plane that made the first nonstop flight around the world without refueling.

“We can’t control airplanes verbally anymore. We have to have a better method and (computers) are the types of things that are going to make it more efficient. Right now, (with) the requirements for verbal communication for airplanes, we waste Gargantuan (volumes) of air space trying to separate airplanes. And you have airplanes lined up 10 or 15 deep on the end of runways because of this antiquated manual system where they require large blocks of air space to separate airplanes. When it’s automated, computerized, we can get four and five times more airplanes in the same airspace, totally safe because computers don’t run airplanes into each other. People do. And that’s what we ought to be striving for.

“My mother taught me something at a very young age. It’s helped me a lot and that is, ‘Don’t agonize or don’t worry about things you can’t do anything about.’ When I’m sitting in the back of the airplane, I know that they’re being run by professional air crews and they’re flying some excellent equipment. . . . I have a lot of confidence in the system. I wouldn’t hesitate to fly anytime.”

Henry Duffy, president of the Air Line Pilots Assn. in Washington.

“We have made a couple of specific (short-term) recommendations. The part-time use of retired controllers to fill in for peak periods in the (air traffic control) centers, in the approach controls, is very much overlooked and the reason it’s overlooked is that it requires some legislation that would allow double-dipping by the retirees. But that’s a quick fix that will increase capacity. Another quick fix that will increase capacity is the closing of the in-trail limits--how far airplanes have to fly behind other airplanes when they’re using the air traffic control system. Those are little things that can be done quickly to improve capacity and make the system better.

John Galipault, president of the Aviation Safety Institute in Worthington, Ohio.

“Communication is probably 80% of good, safe flying. And in some cases, that good communication is absent. We don’t get the right kind of information, in the right place, at the right time, in the right form and these are attributes of information utility.

“We have some airlines that are doing a magnificent job of maintaining their airplanes, training their crews, assuring that their people are basically happy on the job. You know, they may not be happy all the time, but basically their airline is not suffering from internal turmoil. Yet, we have some air carriers--Continental, Eastern to be very specific, and even Northwest--that are suffering great internal turmoil and I think this has a profound long-term effect on the safety of each of the airlines. Eastern, in particular, where they have such a huge debt . . . the pilots and mechanics are being subtly and sometimes not so subtly coerced to keep the airplanes on time and flying in the face of mechanical problems.

Daniel Smith, director of consumer affairs for the International Airline Passengers Assn. in Dallas.

“What was occurring in the past, essentially, was airlines over-scheduling as a result of their desire to meet passenger demand at certain times of the day. Now, there’s nothing nefarious about that. . . . They were doing what they were supposed to do. The trouble was that they were disregarding the operational aspects of it . . . they couldn’t possibly have as many departures or arrivals at these peak periods of the day as they were scheduling.

“Just the fact that the (Department of Transportation) does have the performance disclosure--meaning basically, the on-time report cards and baggage handling report cards--should go a long way to keeping this a high-priority item in the airlines’ view. Those carriers which do well in the on-time reporting devices will continue to use that as a marketing device.

“We do need to expand airport capacity, increase the number of airports and certainly enhance the efficiency of the airports and airway system as a whole. We’re looking at about a minimum of about 11 years. That’s the number I pick because, from the time that you turn the first tablespoon of dirt until the time an airport is finished has been estimated at between 8 and 11 years.”

FO