It seems that every week there is a new story in the media that tells of how horrible the airline industry is and what a nightmare it is to fly anywhere on any airline. Being an airline pilot, these types of stories truly disturb me. Of course, there will always be times when things don't go as planned: crews are late, weather is bad, a plane breaks down, crews/flight attendants are not very friendly or accommodating, gate agents don't seem to care, etc. This is just part of human nature.Look at other industries (e.g., hotels, restaurants, retail stores, etc.) and you will find the same type of customer service complaints. How many times have things not gone so well at the drive through for you? There are times when we must take the bad in order to appreciate the good. What I would like to do in share my insight and experiences so that you can see things from a pilot's perspective in the air travel industry.
While I am not perfect, I do my best to make the travel experience as pleasant as possible for the passengers that I serve. One of the great challenges that I face is the equipment that I operate; a 30 passenger turboprop. I believe that the media and the general public tends to refer to it as a 'puddle jumper'. I have to admit, I'm a proud puddle jumper pilot. There are a good number of airports that can't be served by 757's and 747's so there tends to be a need for smaller planes. It is possible to have a good flight experience on a small plane. Yes, smaller planes to get bounced around by the wind more (simple physics) but that is just the joy of air travel.
Most people complain about how flights are ALWAYS late. I can tell you from experience that this is not true. Here's an interesting fact about how a flight's ontime departure and arrival times are measured. The Department of Transportation (DOT) measures D0 and A14 flight times. D0 is defined as Departure time Zero. This means that a flight must depart at it's scheduled departure time. A departure is not takeoff but rather the main cabin door being closed and the airplane ready to push back from the gate. If a flight's scheduled departure is 1230pm and it departs at 1228pm then it is 2 minutes early. If it departs at 1230pm it is on time and if it departs at 1231pm then it is 1 minute late. So technically, even if the flight leaves 1 minute late, it is viewed as a late departure.
Let's look at the most important measure of a flight, the ontime arrival. DOT measure arrival as D14 or arrival within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival time. Isn't it nice for the government to give the airlines a buffer for arriving on time. I find it possible to leave 5-10 minutes late and still get to the destination at the SCHEDULED arrival time. So here is the $10 question: Which is more important, leaving on time or arriving on time? While I always strive to leave on time, I make an even greater effort to arrive on time.
When I became a captain, I decided that I should track my performance as part of a process improvement. There are many aspects of each flight that I track, but I thought the most important to share would be my ontime success. At the end of each month I intend to share my ontime success for all of the flights that I commanded during that month. A simple way of being accountable to the public.
