demanding trouble

Southwest Mishap Part 2

Southwest Airlines resumed flights on Tuesday after a nationwide ground stop caused by a reported "computer issue" that led to over 1,500 flight delays. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the ground stop at the carrier's request shortly after 10 a.m. The internal technical issue was caused by a vendor-supplied firewall failure that resulted in the unexpected loss of connection to some operational data. The outage lasted about 30 minutes before being fixed, and flights were resumed. Despite the quick resolution, Southwest has already delayed around 1,500 flights for Tuesday, representing about 30% of its total flights scheduled for the day. The airline is still recovering from a massive operational meltdown in December 2022, which resulted in the cancellation of over 16,700 flights during the holidays due to a winter storm that overwhelmed its crew rescheduling systems. Southwest issued an apology to its customers for the delays.

“Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues,” Southwest said in a statement on its website Tuesday morning. “We offer our heartfelt apologies to customers whose journey with us today might be delayed.”

Growing Pilot Nightmare

During a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Faye Malarkey Black, president, and CEO of the Regional Airline Association warned Congress that the US airline industry is facing a severe and ongoing pilot shortage. According to Black, the industry is about to be hit with a "tsunami of pilot retirements" that will further limit passenger flight availability and put upward pressure on fares.

More than half of the pilots currently working will hit the mandatory retirement age of 65 within the next 15 years, and younger pilots are not making up for those aging out. The shortage is nationwide, with 42 states having less airline service now than before the pandemic. Additionally, 136 airports have lost at least a quarter of their service, and airlines have entirely cut off flights to 11 airports in smaller cities that connect to more significant hubs.

Black’s group represents the regional carriers that provide feeder service for the larger airlines such as American, United (UAL), and Delta (DAL). Those major airlines are also facing shortages of pilots. Still, they’ve been hiring pilots away from the regional carriers, causing an even worse problem for passengers and cities which depend on them.

The union representing most US airline pilots urged Congress against changing pilot qualification and training standards in an attempt to address the pilot shortage, saying some ideas would compromise safety. Jason Ambrosi, President of the Air Line Pilots Association, warned that some proposals would weaken safety standards and claimed that airlines are understaffed due to inadequate pay and quality of life conditions, as well as management decisions made during the pandemic.

There is also a significant lack of diversity among pilots, who tend to be primarily male and mostly white. The hearing discussed potential ways to address this issue, which could help address any pilot shortages.

It is worth noting that there was a shortage of pilots even before the pandemic. Although the airlines received billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money during the pandemic, with a prohibition not to lay off staff, many airlines offered buyouts and early retirement packages to trim costs during the pandemic, interrupting the pipeline of new pilots.

United Airlines

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass sparked a heated debate on Twitter when he claimed that a United Airlines flight attendant forced his pregnant wife to clean up a mess left by their toddler daughter mid-flight. In a series of tweets, Bass complained that his wife, who is 22 weeks pregnant, was made to "get on her hands and knees to pick up the popcorn mess left by my youngest daughter." His sister-in-law, country singer Jessie James Decker, also said that her sister was humiliated and exhausted with her children while everyone watched.

However, Bass faced backlash on Twitter as many sided with the flight crew. The Association of Flight Attendants released a statement emphasizing that crew members and travelers share the same space and that strict safety rules must be followed. The union declined to specifically address Bass' complaint, stating that commenting on the incident without all the information likely won't help.

While it is unclear what exactly transpired on the flight, etiquette consultant Jacqueline Whitmore, a former flight attendant, called the flight attendant's alleged behavior "unprofessional." Whitmore urged travelers to be considerate and clean up after themselves but emphasized that it is not the passenger's responsibility to clean up a mess caused by their child.

Bass, who has played for several teams throughout his career, is currently on his second tour of duty with the Toronto Blue Jays. His wife did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. United Airlines representatives were also unavailable for comment at the time of reporting.

United Airlines Reports

United Airlines reported a loss of $194 million in the first quarter, while its revenue increased compared to the previous year. Despite economic uncertainty, the airline stated that customer demand is strong and predicted slightly better results than Wall Street anticipates for the April-through-June quarter. Like Delta Air Lines, United is experiencing higher labor and fuel costs than last year but is optimistic about sales for the critical summer travel season. CEO Scott Kirby commented on the company's macroeconomic risks, stating they are monitoring them closely. United plans to take advantage of the international solid demand by expanding services to Australia and New Zealand by 40% next winter. The airline will introduce new services or add flights on existing routes from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Christchurch and Auckland in New Zealand and Sydney and Brisbane in Australia. Private data from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase supports United's claim of international solid bookings and reports that domestic trips have been experiencing a slowdown in recent weeks.

AirFrance & Airbus Acquitted 

French court acquits Air France and Airbus over 2009 Rio-Paris crash, a decision that has dealt a devastating blow to the families of the victims who have spent the last 14 years seeking justice. The court ruled that the errors of the two companies could not be proven to be the cause of the disaster, and prosecutors had already recommended that the Paris court not seek a conviction.

Although the verdict was not unexpected, it left the victims' families in a state of shock and dismay. Daniele Lamy, the association's president representing the victims, expressed disgust at the verdict and called it an impartial judgment. She described the 14 years of waiting as "despair, dismay, and anger."

The trial lasted for eight weeks and focused on the role of defective Pitot tubes, which measure the aircraft's flight speed. The court heard how a malfunction with the tubes, which became blocked with ice crystals during a mid-Atlantic storm, caused alarms to sound in the cockpit of the Airbus A330 and the autopilot system to switch off. Technical experts pointed out that after the instrument failure, the pilots put the plane into a climb that caused the aircraft to lose upward lift from the air moving under its wings, thus losing altitude.

Air France and Airbus blamed pilot error as the leading cause of the crash. At the same time, lawyers for the families argued that both companies were aware of the Pitot tube problem before the crash and that the pilots were not trained to deal with such a high-altitude emergency.

The court acknowledged that Airbus committed "four acts of imprudence or negligence," including not replacing specific models of the Pitot tubes that seemed to freeze more often on its A330-A340 fleet and "withholding information" from flight operators. It also found that Air France had committed two "acts of imprudence" in the way it disseminated an informational note on the faulty tubes to its pilots. However, the court concluded that there was no strong enough causal link between these failings and the accident to show an offense had been committed.

The decision to acquit Air France and Airbus is a bitter pill for the victims' families, who have already waited years for justice. Prosecutors had initially dropped charges against the companies in 2019, a decision that angered the victims'

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