stratoduck

but you need to account for inflation. that connie costs the same as a 70 seat regional jet in 2010 dollars. fuel has indeed doubled, but the maintenance costs are no doubt a fraction of the connie's cost. crew costs have dropped dramatically too. my father was paid close to $175,000 as an FO at TWA 30 years ago, adjusted for inflation. and that was only one of three cockpit crew members. not to mention the FIVE flight attendants for 99 people on the convair.

i really wonder how many recent entries into the 121 cockpits would want to return to the "glory days". the money and the ego boost were fantastic, sure, but you had to live within driving distance of base (and when the airline picked up and moved, you did too), you had to arrange non-rev passes with the travel department, you studied for weeks prior to recurrent training, you might have been required to learn morse code or celestial navigation, you flew across the country on the heading bug via NDB airways and making position reports (non radar), there was basically nothing you could do about a tyrant captain, there was a major wreck every year, the old wings and engines required much more talent and were unforgiving, monochrome radars, no tcas, no gpws, women and people of color effectively barred from the cockpit, no hope of getting hired by an airline if you were over 30 (unless retired from the military).........

pilots and passengers both have these fantasies about the glory days of flying, but ask $25 for a bag or MEL the GPS, and the whining is loud enough to make people run for the shelters.

FrankCobretti

Of course it's relevant.

It's the same theme as the "Everything's Wonderful & Nobody's Happy" YouTube clip that's making the rounds.

Today's passenger gets a better product at a cheaper price than ever before. Reminiscences about how great things used to be are bollocks.

Beagle Pilot

Never forget that the first priority of newspapers, magazines and broadcast shows is to make money. He's not the first author or editor to toss in flash or a gee-whiz factor to make the news article sexier in order to increase chances of sales. Go to any terminal magazine store and see what they are selling. How many more People magazines are sold than "The Economist"?

Dised101

This article only references the different technology. The hypothesis of the article is; Is there a difference in expectation vs service between the two eras.

This goes back to the Wal Mart vs Neiman Marcus arguement. Should you expect to recieve the same amount of customer service between the two? Do you regularly wait in a line 6-7 deep waiting to check out? Does a sales associate offer you personalized service for the duration of your visit at both places?

I think that there are very different expectations from the two.

Then we can look at data from any other industry. Let's look at the auto industry. in the 80's and 90's, tha American Companies failed to deliver competitive, quality cars. The foriegn competition, through improvements in manufacturing and management efficiencies, were able to produce a quality vehicle at a lower price.

This happened in many industries, Electronics, computer,and construction.

This even happened in the Airline Indusrty. Companies were formed that could do it cheaper and more efficiently that the competitors. This forces the majors to improve their efficiency. If they couldn't they went out of business.

But this is where expectation vs reality comes in. A manufacturing process has many areas that can be improved; purchasing cheaper material, new method for production (worked for Henry Ford), better engineering, better logistics, lean management, etc.

Airlines can only improve so much. You still have to move a piece of metal, with all its contents, through the sky, from Point A to Point B.

Technological advances in aerodynamics, fuel burn, and lighter material are the only things I can think of to increase the efficiency of an airplane. Most of those changes have been made....but at a cost. Airplanes cost have increased 200% - 400%, on average, over the last 50 years.

Fuel prices have increased much greater.

Yet, the average cost of a seat has decreased 50%-60%.

To compensate, airlines have needed to change from a quality model, to a quantity model to offset the price of operations.

This is where the expectation comes in. Based on other industries, even our own, customers expect the Nieman Marcus service at the Walmart Price.

50 years ago, we were PAYING for the high end service. Today we are not. Logic would dictate that we would not EXPECT high end service. But the customer DOES expect that same service. The author of this article makes a distinct point: Airlines did not have great service back then either. So where do the current expectations come from?

What the so called "unbundling" of service on airlines accomplishes is the change in expectation. No longer are the days of Nieman Marcus service at Wal Mart Prices. If you want service, you must pay for that service.

There will be pain. Customers will be angry. Front Line airline personnel (Pilots included) will get the brunt of that anger. But only when the customer expectation is finally changed, then the airlines industry in general can begin to stabalize for the first time in 50 years.