Make it invisible!
24.Jul.2010 11:16 Saved in Category:Aviation
Make it invisible!
From Helmut Lehr
There is a tendency in now-a-days Business Aviation which makes me shake and freeze.
A very competitive market situation puts more and more pressure on Business Aviation companies. Charter prices are dropping and some black sheep's try to lower the prices even more, though it is not clear to me how they are able to survive: Their prices are sometimes even lower than the fixed costs of the airplane.
Not to blame the customers, they simply don't know it, not even think about it and just go for the lowest price.
But this in the end leads to a situation where serious companies are struggling to compete.
Where can money be saved in order to be compatible?
Not easy. Crewing of an airplane is reduced to a minimum, proceeding costs are kept low by using economy class tickets and low cost carriers, lower standard hotels and so on.
From my experience this leads to a situation where safety is really endangered!
Crewing an airplane with an anticipated maximum usage will need a certain number of crews to assure proper Flight Duty and Rest Time management.
With the fast changing schedule we are living with it is clear that proper pre-planning with just minimum crew is almost impossible.
Crew members will have to adopt and will need to be very flexible.
But telling a crew member right after check-in for a proceeding flight from home base: Well, we have a change in schedule and you need to go home now and check-in again after 6 hours is neither fair nor legal if the charter flight is than at almost maximum flight duty time anyway!
If the crew member excepts that order, we have the situation where it is not visible to the auditing authority. And this is what the black sheep's do; make it invisible.
Imagine a crew member is traveling one hour to get to it's homebase, check-in, get told to go back home (another hour), wait for four hours, travel one hour to the homebase, check-in again than start a flight duty at night of another eight hours. This crew member most probably is on duty for almost 16 hours. Now we assume an emergency situation at landing. The well rested crew member will handle the situation with professionalism and thus assure maximum assistance to the customer.
It is absolutely necessary to assign the required Off days well in advance.
If you think about the psychologic effect on a crew member having assigned Off days and than being called for duty with a certain pressure. It will for sure not make the crew feel very confident about it's employer.
Crew members do like nice five star hotels with all the little advantages which make them feel comfortable after a long flight duty and being away from home without their loved one's.
Business Aviation is not able to achieve reasonable contracts with hotel chain like airlines do. They have no fixed schedule and mostly fly to destination where hotels are very, very expensive. Let's book a less expensive three or four star hotel, this will save some money and add up over the year.
The crew member will rest very well in this old bed and noisy room and be fresh for the next flight duty after minimum rest.
Be sure the poor operations guy who had to book the hotel room received a lot of praise.
Tell me who you are and I'll tell you what you can expect
Flight Attendant, Cabin Representative, Entertainer, Servant …
What is the difference? Well, that's easy.
A Flight Attendant is well trained according to the rules and regulations, knows the procedures by heart, especially emergency procedure and is able to act independently from the pilots in case of an emergency.
A Cabin Representative, Entertainer or Servant can serve coffee, milk or tea… Is not allowed to give instructions or operate the aircraft doors, is a passenger itself.
Easy, isn't it. Every customer knows the difference and knows what to expect in case of an emergency.
Well, the customer pays some money for the flight. So he need to know.
Anyway on airplanes with less than 20 passengers no trained Flight Attendants are required. So let's save some money here.
These are just some examples how companies try to save money and be more competitive.
Do you really think this is true? No, all this is a joke. Things like that never happen in real life.
Does your company treat their crew members like that? No, no company would do that, because otherwise they would have no employees.
Would you take responsibility for an operation like this? No, because you are an honorable person.
Why can't we just take responsibility and sometimes say: No?
Are we all afraid of loosing our jobs, do we have no backbone, are we just yeasayers? May be, May be bot. But agreed, resisting every days pressure is not easy.
Don't give up! Fight for what you believe, for what is right and for what makes you love your job!
Make yourself confident about your knowledge and your responsibility.
Working hard is one thing. Being legal and have a convenient working environment with a good team spirit is another one.
This is what your customers will recognize very soon: This is a good company, make them feel it!
Henry Ford once mentioned:
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
Unfortunately times have changed?
From Helmut Lehr
There is a tendency in now-a-days Business Aviation which makes me shake and freeze.
A very competitive market situation puts more and more pressure on Business Aviation companies. Charter prices are dropping and some black sheep's try to lower the prices even more, though it is not clear to me how they are able to survive: Their prices are sometimes even lower than the fixed costs of the airplane.
Not to blame the customers, they simply don't know it, not even think about it and just go for the lowest price.
But this in the end leads to a situation where serious companies are struggling to compete.
Where can money be saved in order to be compatible?
Not easy. Crewing of an airplane is reduced to a minimum, proceeding costs are kept low by using economy class tickets and low cost carriers, lower standard hotels and so on.
From my experience this leads to a situation where safety is really endangered!
Crewing an airplane with an anticipated maximum usage will need a certain number of crews to assure proper Flight Duty and Rest Time management.
With the fast changing schedule we are living with it is clear that proper pre-planning with just minimum crew is almost impossible.
Crew members will have to adopt and will need to be very flexible.
But telling a crew member right after check-in for a proceeding flight from home base: Well, we have a change in schedule and you need to go home now and check-in again after 6 hours is neither fair nor legal if the charter flight is than at almost maximum flight duty time anyway!
If the crew member excepts that order, we have the situation where it is not visible to the auditing authority. And this is what the black sheep's do; make it invisible.
Imagine a crew member is traveling one hour to get to it's homebase, check-in, get told to go back home (another hour), wait for four hours, travel one hour to the homebase, check-in again than start a flight duty at night of another eight hours. This crew member most probably is on duty for almost 16 hours. Now we assume an emergency situation at landing. The well rested crew member will handle the situation with professionalism and thus assure maximum assistance to the customer.
It is absolutely necessary to assign the required Off days well in advance.
If you think about the psychologic effect on a crew member having assigned Off days and than being called for duty with a certain pressure. It will for sure not make the crew feel very confident about it's employer.
Crew members do like nice five star hotels with all the little advantages which make them feel comfortable after a long flight duty and being away from home without their loved one's.
Business Aviation is not able to achieve reasonable contracts with hotel chain like airlines do. They have no fixed schedule and mostly fly to destination where hotels are very, very expensive. Let's book a less expensive three or four star hotel, this will save some money and add up over the year.
The crew member will rest very well in this old bed and noisy room and be fresh for the next flight duty after minimum rest.
Be sure the poor operations guy who had to book the hotel room received a lot of praise.
Tell me who you are and I'll tell you what you can expect
Flight Attendant, Cabin Representative, Entertainer, Servant …
What is the difference? Well, that's easy.
A Flight Attendant is well trained according to the rules and regulations, knows the procedures by heart, especially emergency procedure and is able to act independently from the pilots in case of an emergency.
A Cabin Representative, Entertainer or Servant can serve coffee, milk or tea… Is not allowed to give instructions or operate the aircraft doors, is a passenger itself.
Easy, isn't it. Every customer knows the difference and knows what to expect in case of an emergency.
Well, the customer pays some money for the flight. So he need to know.
Anyway on airplanes with less than 20 passengers no trained Flight Attendants are required. So let's save some money here.
These are just some examples how companies try to save money and be more competitive.
Do you really think this is true? No, all this is a joke. Things like that never happen in real life.
Does your company treat their crew members like that? No, no company would do that, because otherwise they would have no employees.
Would you take responsibility for an operation like this? No, because you are an honorable person.
Why can't we just take responsibility and sometimes say: No?
Are we all afraid of loosing our jobs, do we have no backbone, are we just yeasayers? May be, May be bot. But agreed, resisting every days pressure is not easy.
Don't give up! Fight for what you believe, for what is right and for what makes you love your job!
Make yourself confident about your knowledge and your responsibility.
Working hard is one thing. Being legal and have a convenient working environment with a good team spirit is another one.
This is what your customers will recognize very soon: This is a good company, make them feel it!
Henry Ford once mentioned:
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
Unfortunately times have changed?