Does Frontier have a safety issue?
 

A question that all airlines should probably be asking themselves on an ongoing basis and certainly the safety record of US air carriers has been quite good in recent years. That being said, I think there are a number of things at Frontier that set the framework and stage for a safety concern.

* Behind schedule, therefore hurrying. Frontier has been right near the bottom for on-time performance. This creates delays, frustration, and a sense that we need to hurry to get out and catch up so that the next plane can get into the gate, or a crew can get to the overnight.

* Up for more than 12 hours, creating a fatiguing schedule. Schedules have been created in such a way to reduce the layovers, lots of backside of the clock flying, and airport appreciation time due to delays or to keep the credit value of trips up, making for very long days. There’s no secret that the company behind the scenes tries to discourage fatigue calls by bullying (44 ) and pushing crew members to the duty time limits.

* Contentious / inexperienced / adversarial management. From the ACP office to the COO. Illustrated by the fact that there are over 1000 grievances that have not been addressed to the 44++ section 19‘/15’s . Director of training that has little or no regard for our CBA and continues to take training to a lower level. CP’s Who are hired for their willingness to be the instrument of upper management and completely lack any understanding or experience flying the line.

* Passive interest in safety concerns. It exists in all areas of the operation, ground crews that don’t follow SOP followed by inaction from the company when brought to their attention. Crew members who have to dial 911, because the company operations people downplay the importance of issues at the gate. Non-interest on the companies part for the safety of crew members on overnights. crew members who won’t file ASAP reports because “nothing gets done anyway“.

* Less experienced flight crew members who are pressed into difficult and unfamiliar situations. With the hiring craze we have pilots who have never flown a jet, never flown an aircraft faster than 250 kn, never flown above 10,000 feet, etc. Then we have these junior bases, Flying flights into areas that typically have route qualified crews., and we offer them scarcely more than a page to read in the Jepson manual.

* Low cost high profit business model. You don’t have to look outside of our industry to see where this business model has created a lack of concern for safety. Boeing with their 737 max and their consuming interest in profits, I think makes a great example of how this model can be a detriment to safety.

Each time we have an event of significant concern in our industry we go back and see all of the writing on the wall. I dearly hope this is not the case for Frontier.
The company each year puts forward the Swiss cheese model telling us how important it is that we do our part to maintain a safe operation, I for one can’t help but ask if the company is doing their part.

I don’t rush when I am running late. I rarely fly with anyone who rushes if we are running late. 99 percent of the time we are late due to the company’s lack of desire to run on time. The attitude I’ve seen more likely than not is one of “ l am not going to do the everybody else’s job. We’ll leave when we are ready and at a normal pace”. I think in that department we do a pretty good job as crews.

I think the most telling point of this thread is that we feel we have to post stuff on this forum to elevate it. I have raised issues with the director of safety and the airbus program manager that they completely agreed with and then did nothing about. Trying to make change around here is impossible. Nobody listens. It's going to take an accident to really motivate management to take our concerns seriously, I've resigned myself to that. Having our most junior crews doing legs in the middle of the night that - as mentioned above - require a route qualification at airlines who actually take safety seriously instead of paying it lip service like Frontier management does consistently is one of my biggest concerns and I was given the "yeah yeah, we know" treatment when I brought it up after I flew some of those trips. Nothing changed. I have written ASAPs, I have made phone calls, I have talked face to face with management types of all stripes. Nothing. I even talked with one of our FAA inspectors that I ran into - "We're looking into some things" is what I got. My experience with the base chiefs has been pretty positive except for the DEN bas chief, who is completely off her rocker. The fact that she is still in her position after all the crazy dung she has pulled is beyond me, and further erodes the faith the entire pilot group has in SC, BL, and anyone else in the Emerald Palace. She was the architect of the hat and jacket stupidity. I'll bet her name comes up quite often in the exit interviews they say are conducted when people leave this place, I know they sure do in mine when I fly with those who are leaving or working on it. The Purdue kids laugh at her when she goes on idiotic rants about how only senior pilots can wear striped ties and a whole host of other nonsense she elevates in her "Welcome to Frontier" rants to new hires. Have you ever noticed how many of them wear striped ties? It's an intentional middle finger to her and the rest of those who put her there, they're all just too disconnected to get the joke. If management is concerned about safety or pilot retention they need to take a long look in the mirror.

I'm still having nightmares from her speech during my indoc back in June. I could tell there was a lot of "im above all of you mindset."

Feeling hurried? Some words of wisdom from an old, wise captain: “Speed kills and time is money”.

Someone from my August class asked her something along the lines of “We can buy ACA shirts, why can’t we use the tie they make?” And her response was a very aggressively sarcastic response with more of a “because I said so” tone than anything logical.

I totally believe it.

The most amusing part of this is that the ACA stripped tie is now specifically mentioned as an approved uniform piece in the employee handbook. Yet, she still can’t let it go it seems.

My theory is that she’s bitter about it because she was the brains behind the “new” stripped tie that was developed years back and was supposed to be introduced, but was shot down by the union because the company wanted pilots to pay for it if they wanted it. Now, ACA produces a version of the “old” stripped tie and pilots are bending over backwards to pay for it and wear them. I think she may be taking it personally…

Good.

But what strange thing to get upset over.

Every time someone hears about a buddy getting f’ed over by scheduling, reassignment, or some other garbage more people are updating their apps. At some point the pool will dry up and the company will come begging for our help to staff this airline. The planes are coming and with spirit out of the picture the market is there. I can’t imagine too many pilots are dreaming about coming to America’s most defunct airline at this point.