...And Here, Darn it, Are The Heartbreakers
It is both the most "fun," and most difficult task, facing the
ANN staff at the end of every year -- determining who, or what, did
the most to promote the cause of aviation in the past 365 days...
while also chastising those people or entities that did all they
could to undermine the many successes the aerospace community has
managed to accomplish.
Alas, 2007 saw more than its fair share of downers,
aviation-wise. Sure, "stuff" happens... but a few folks, issues, or
entities seemed to go out of their way to create problems for the
world of aviation.
So... it is ANN's annual obligation to recognize a solid dozen
of our Aero-Heartbreakers for 2007... in something of an informal
order, starting from 12th to the 1st. Let us know what you think of
our selections... whom YOU would have liked be included, or
omitted, from such a list. In the meantime, we hope those who had
something to do with this year's selections think a little more
positively about the welfare of this industry, so that future
lists become harder and harder to catalog. Be it ignorance,
arrogance or just plain incompetence, these were the folks or
topics that made our lot a whole lot more difficult and
immeasurably injured the aviation world in the past year.
Shame on those issues, folks or topics that made our lot so much
tougher in 2007...
From the Heartbreaker's List #2: Airline Industry
Implosion
Even worse than the way the airline industry behaved over the
course of 2007 is the way that it performed... ALL over the nation,
the confidence in airline travel has ebbed to a point where people
have more faith in the inherent honesty of Congress than they do in
whether or not their airline flights are going to occur without
problems.
The daily news is filled with daily tales of airline
malfeasance, passenger revolts, flight delays and more excuses that
a 2 year old caught with their hand in the cookie jar. It's
particularly embarrassing to a nation that brought aviation and air
commerce to the world and now seems content to let foreign carriers
show them up in terms of performance, customer service and overall
business performance. And finally, what the airlines can't do to
lower the bar in terms of the customer experience, the TSA seems
only too happy to assist with in terms of making air travel as
thoroughly unpleasant as possible.
The good-news airline story has become the exception to the
rule... which is that all airline news is bad-news. The only bright
spot in this tragedy is that a number of business aviation models
are starting to really hit their stride and have had the chance to
prove themselves under conditions that have enhanced their ability
to succeed.
The golden age of air travel is quite assuredly over... but the
current dilemma leaves us with a mode of travel that has become
truly a hassle... if not outright painful. For this industry to
survive intact, serious changes need to come... and for the moment,
they appear to be nowhere in sight.