Keeping Airline Passengers Happy

[afang]

The airline industry today has less leadership than the Taliban," scoffed Michael Boyd, the aviation industry consultant.
Mr. Boyd, the president of the Boyd Group in Colorado, is among the critics in the airline industry who regard the current state of airline security as a sad joke. His weekly analyses and commentaries on the industry — available on his firm's Web site at www.aviationplanning .com — always provide provocative reading.

But for more of an industry insider viewpoint on the subject, I spoke last week with Robert Crandall, the retired chief executive of American Airlines, a man who is regarded as one of the architects of the modern commercial aviation system.

So far, most of the public talk about baggage matching and other innovations in airport security has ignored the elephant in the room: the general agreement among industry executives and security experts about the necessity for some form of passenger profiling.

Mr. Boyd says that is because the industry lacks leadership. Mr. Crandall, who has been through his share of political storms, puts it another way.

"Let me tell you a story," he said, recalling an incident from his time running American Airlines. "Many years ago, I went to Washington and testified in favor of a bill that Senator Kennedy was promoting to require employers to provide health care insurance. Now, this is something I believe in. If I was the King of Spain, every employer, large and small, would have to provide health care coverage. But after I testified, I must have gotten 25,000 letters from small-business people all over the country, basically saying, `I'm never going to ride on American Airlines again because you're a radical and a socialist communist rat.' "

The moral? "Stay out of politics" when you're running an airline, Mr. Crandall said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/23/business/23TRAV.html

[afang]

The airline industry today has less leadership than the Taliban," scoffed Michael Boyd, the aviation industry consultant.
Mr. Boyd, the president of the Boyd Group in Colorado, is among the critics in the airline industry who regard the current state of airline security as a sad joke. His weekly analyses and commentaries on the industry — available on his firm's Web site at www.aviationplanning .com — always provide provocative reading.

But for more of an industry insider viewpoint on the subject, I spoke last week with Robert Crandall, the retired chief executive of American Airlines, a man who is regarded as one of the architects of the modern commercial aviation system.

So far, most of the public talk about baggage matching and other innovations in airport security has ignored the elephant in the room: the general agreement among industry executives and security experts about the necessity for some form of passenger profiling.

Mr. Boyd says that is because the industry lacks leadership. Mr. Crandall, who has been through his share of political storms, puts it another way.

"Let me tell you a story," he said, recalling an incident from his time running American Airlines. "Many years ago, I went to Washington and testified in favor of a bill that Senator Kennedy was promoting to require employers to provide health care insurance. Now, this is something I believe in. If I was the King of Spain, every employer, large and small, would have to provide health care coverage. But after I testified, I must have gotten 25,000 letters from small-business people all over the country, basically saying, `I'm never going to ride on American Airlines again because you're a radical and a socialist communist rat.' "

The moral? "Stay out of politics" when you're running an airline, Mr. Crandall said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/23/business/23TRAV.html