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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 1639.PDF
EDITORIAL UK Editorial Enquiries Editorial Fax Editor Allan Winn Editor's PA Lisa Jenkins Deputy Editor Forbes Mutch News Editor Andrew Chuter +44(181)652 3842 +44 (181) 652 3840 +44(181)652 3882 +44 (181) 652 3882 +44(181)652 3852 +44(181)652 3843 rjUMMBttf Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 (181) 652 3845 Business Editor Kevin O'Toole +44 (181) 652 3835 Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones+44 (181) 652 3825 Defence Aviation Editor Douglas Barrie Aviation Research Editor Jennifer Pite Technical Reporter Andrew Doyle Editorial Assistant Kate Sarsfield Production Editor Chris Thornton Art Editor Alexis Rendell Layout Sub-Editor Annabel Wells Senior Technical Artist Tim Hall Technical Artist Giuseppe Picarella Junior Technical Artist Gareth Burgess Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss Photographer (Europe) Mark Wagner Picture Librarian Kim Hearn EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor Julian Moxon +44(181)652 3834 +44 (181) 652 3847 +44 (181) 652 3838 +44(181)652 3842 +44(181)652 3850 +44 (181) 652 3828 +44(181)652 3848 +44 (181) 652 8047 +44(181)652 8054 +44 (181) 652 8047 +44(1237)471960 +44 (181) 944 5225 +44(181)652 3427 +33(1)40 54 08 62 (Fax+33 (1)47 64 44 28] Munich Correspondent Andrzej Jeziorski +49 (89) 6891041 [Fax+49 (89) 689 1045] Paris Correspondent Gilbert Sedbon Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi Moscow Correspondent Alexander Velovich +33(1)48 25 52 61 +972 (3) 967 1155 +7(095)393 4717 [Fax +7 (095) 393 4717] AMERICAS American Editor Graham Warwick +1(770)587 2927 [Fax+1(770) 5941534] Washington Correspondent Ramon Lopez +1 (703) 836 7443 [Fax+1(703) 836 8344] West Coast Correspondent Guy Norris +1 (714) 252 8971 [Fax+1(714) 252 8972] ASIA PACIFIC Asian Editor (Singapore) Paul Lewis Australian Correspondent Paul Phelan +65 338 3398 (Fax+65 338 6171] +61(70)532 791 [Fax +61 (70) 533 003] DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT SALES UK and EUROPE Display Advertising Enquiries +44 (181) 652 3315 Display Advertising Fax +44 (181) 652 8981 Group Advertisement Director Trevor Parker +44 (181) 652 3319 Secretary Lisa Devlin +44 (181) 652 3315 Advertisement Production Display/Classified Howard Mason +44 (181) 652 3267 UK, NORTHERN and EASTERN EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST and ISRAEL Senior Area Manager Robin Gordon +44 (181) 652 4998 UK, IRELAND, GREECE, IBERIA, BENELUX, AFRICA Area Manager Janice Lowe +44 (181) 652 3316 FRANCE Sales Director France Pierre Mussard ITALY Representative Romano Ferrario NORTH AMERICA Vice-president US Sales John Tidy Sales Director East Coast Robert Hancock Sales Director Mid-West & Canada GeneGlendinning Traffic Manager Debbie Kolb ASIA. AUSTRALIA +33 (1) 46 29 46 15 [Fax+33 (1)40 93 03 37] +39(2)6603 4435 [Fax +39 (2) 6603 4367] +1(714)7561057 [Fax+1(714) 756 2514] +1(703)836 7444 [Fax +1 (703) 836 7446] +1 (847) 304 5588 [Fax +1 (847) 304 9559] +1(212)545 5376 [Fax +1 (212) 679 9455] Singapore Account Manager Karen Kwan +65 338 3398 [Fax +65 338 3213] CLASSIFIED & RECRUITMENT Group Advertisement Manager Gareth Pask Sales Manager Sarah Harvey International Sales Executives Mo Buttivant Simon Lees Louise Meikle Lucy Mlddelboe Enquiries Classified USA Gail Tavelman Classified Asia/Pacific Una Rohmat +44(181)652 4814 +44(181)770 3010 +44(181)770 3032 +44(181)770 3011 +44(181)770 3027 +44 (181) 770 3030 +44(181)6616373 +1 (212) 545 5403 +65 338 3398 MEANS TO AN END IT WOULD BE EASY to assume from recent events on both sides of the Adantic that the ultimate power of airline regulation has passed from the hands of the professional, indepen dent, regulatory authorities to a rag-bag of cus tomers, self-interest groups, the media, local politicians and the airlines themselves. In some cases, the result of this apparent transfer of power may have been the right outcome anyway, but in this area the end definitely does not justify the means. The first murmur- ings arose after the American Eagle ATR 72 crash in December 1994. Pressure from politicians and media to ground ATRs forced the hand of the regula tor into passing new regulations covering all turboprop airliners. More recendy, after the Valujet McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crash, public disquiet fuelled by public discussion of die case led to such a collapse of confidence in the carrier that the US Federal Aviation Administration's grounding of the air line became just a formality. Now, there has been the collapse of a UK char ter operator following public near-hysteria after its single aircraft was involved in two safety "scares" in ten days. Again, there has to be the suspicion that Excalibur Airlines would have col lapsed anyway, but its liquidator leaves no doubt that a welter of bad publicity hastened the end. All three cases are linked by so-called "loss of public confidence", fuelled by intense media interest. In the Valujet case, questions of wider public interest have undoubtedly been raised, even though emerging evidence implies so far that the accident cause was not necessarily direcdy relat ed to Valujet's low cost-base. In the ATR case, there was (perhaps) an interest of common con cern to all manufacturers, operators and passen gers of turboprop airliners. In the Excalibur case, there was no significant wider issue at stake. The real issue was that a couple of relatively minor technical faults became news because of the dis proportionate effects which they had on the trav el plans of a vocal group of passengers. "The airline industry JC needs to bring public ,. v perceptions and ^u expectations in line with " reality." Instead, the Excalibur case has become firmly imprinted on the public mind as providing another link between "low-price", "old" and "unsafe". This creates an interesting dilemma for the air-transport industry: how is it to separate these concepts? Other industries do it: it is accepted that a cheap car meets the same standards as an expen sive one, albeit in a nicer way. The airlines (and the travel industry in gen eral) need to manage this mis-linking of cost and safety, and replace it with an acceptance that cost has a closer link with the standard .of service offered. The trouble is that the industry has survived for many years on sell ing a dream — of holi days in the sun; of swift, luxurious, business travel. It has never marketed the reality — of minimum seat-pitch; of cheap meals; of inconvenient times of travel. Neither has it explained the basics of charter-price advan tage: that seats are sold wholsesale to the tour operator, which takes the risk of unsold seats. Instead, the marketeers have drummed up unrealistic aspirations. The result is that people paying less than the economy return airfare from London to Glasgow or New %rk to Washington for a two-week all-in transadantic vacation now seem to expect the standards of service and punc tuality that they would get from a first-class scheduled service. The crunch comes when such people are con fronted with an Excalibur-type incident. The airline will refuse to fly the aircraft until it believes it to be safe; but in this case the delay caused by the necessary rectification and check ing underlined the publics perception that the aircraft was unsafe. If the airline industry is to ensure that it con tinues to be regulated by independent authorities and not, defacto, by mass hysteria, it needs to bring public perceptions and expectations in line with reality before an incident occurs. It is too late to try to explain airline safety and economics to a disgrunded passenger if the vox-pop television crew is already filming his anger. Q Details of future Flight International events, features, cutaways, newsletters, awards and subscription information can be found on our free Faxback service which can be reached 24h a day, seven days a week (on touch-tone telephones only) on +-44 (181) 652 4019. Users need to have to hand their full fax numbers (including country code, if dialling from outside the UK). Publisher Gavin Howe +44 (181) 652 3675 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 July 1996 3
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