The blog by ACI-NA President Greg Prinicpato is now at a new web address.
Please bookmark http://acinablog.wordpress.com/ to read Greg’s latest musings and check on old postings.
Filed under: Airports
March 12, 2009 • 10:00 am 0
Ducks, Cargo and NextGen
I’m here in Memphis for the ACI-NA Cargo Conference. The meeting is being held in the historic Peabody Hotel, which features its famous ducks that come down the elevator at 11 a.m.; swim around in the lobby fountain and then go back up to their suite. Today, the mascot of the Marshall University Thundering Herd basketball team served as the ducks’ escort; they are in town for the Conference USA Basketball Tournament.
Much of today’s discussion centered on the economic challenges we face. The mayor of Memphis began by reminding us that we have come out of every economic challenge we’ve faced thus far, and so we will again. But in the hours that followed, it was hard to avoid coming back to the impact a recession has on cargo.
I thought it was interesting, too, that a couple of other subjects kept coming up, namely the need to modernize air traffic control by moving forward with NextGen, the need to ensure adequate ground infrastructure, and the need to deal with environmental issues, especially those surrounding climate change. This came up in the panel I moderated on regulatory and legislative challenges (nearly the entire session was focused on the economy), as well as in the keynote speech by FedEx Chief Operating Officer Bill Logue.
In other words: We cannot allow the economic slump to divert our attention away from these important issues that will have a critical impact on our business for a long time to come. Truer words have never been spoken.
P.S. If you are concerned about congested skies and the future of air traffic control, then join the new National Alliance to Advance NextGen.
Filed under: Airports, Government policy, Travels
March 10, 2009 • 5:44 pm 0
Detouring through Charlotte onto Memphis
When I woke up this morning my plan was to fly to the ACI-NA Air Cargo Conference in Memphis. My ticket says I was to get there through Chicago.
When I saw the weather map in the morning paper, I figured the chances of that happening without incident were low.
Indeed, I got a robo call from United on the drive to Dulles saying my flight had been cancelled. I called the United Premier Executive line and they did a great job re-booking me to Memphis through Charlotte on US Airways. The woman on the phone couldn’t have been more helpful or pleasant.
I had the same experience at the US Airways counter at Dulles, at the Harry’s Tap Room restaurant there, at the gate and on the flight.
NASCAR on display at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport
Speaking of the flight, US Airways finally made the right decision and stopped charging for drinks so I had a tomato juice. The flight attendant admitted that it had been pretty boring when they were charging; almost no one bought a drink, but there were certainly a lot of stern stares.
So I am here at Charlotte, amid all the NASCAR memorabilia, eating a slice of Sbarro’s pizza. Soon I will be on the way to Memphis, where I plan to try some BBQ tonight – I’ve never been to Memphis but I LOVE BBQ.
All through this day, I have run into courteous, hard working people whether they work for the airport, airline, TSA, the restaurants or some other entity. The day has not turned out like I planned, but some times those days are best. Oh, and I became a Great Uncle today for the third time too!
March 2, 2009 • 6:12 pm 0
A Confused Forbes Got It Wrong
There are certain media outlets one thinks provide good information, well documented and presented. Forbes magazine is normally one of them.
Just recently, though, they produced an ill-informed piece, actually blaming airports for high air fares. As if airports set the fare. Ridiculous. It is just terrible, completely misses the mark. We wrote a response to it, which is posted on the Forbes site and on ours.
This wouldn’t be so bad in and of itself if Forbes wasn’t a publication that so many people rely upon for good information. Indeed, some newspapers around the country have taken the article and made it the basis of pieces on their own community’s airports, exacerbating the problem and spreading misinformation.
This reminds me of a similarly misinformed, misguided, effort by the Business Travel Coalition last year during the height of the fuel crisis. I wrote about that report on this blog at the time, and many newspapers picked up on BTC’s predictions of communities losing all their air service (most of which were about as accurate as my prediction of the Tampa Rays winning the World Series).
It is incumbent on those in whom the public places trust to get their facts right. We have reached out to the authors of the article to try to educate them, but in the meantime, a number of communities around the country have begun reacting to the article in predictable ways. Airport managers in those communities are working to set the record straight.
It is frustrating to see so much misinformation out there, but we at ACI-NA will continue to work to combat it.
February 27, 2009 • 3:57 pm 1
It Was Only a Matter of Time . . .
Just read a story that really caught my attention. It appears that Ryanair is considering charging passengers to use the restroom on its flights.
I sure hope this is one of those joke stories. But it is a fact that the unbundled fees that airlines now charge here in the U.S. in lieu of a fare increase (I recently wrote about the $7 fee for a blanket in a bag on one airline) really got their start as a result of a trend begun by Europe’s low fare carriers — especially Ryanair.
I was amused at the comments of Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary that no one in the history of Ryanair has ever gotten on board one of their planes with less than a British pound in their pocket. But I am amused at the thought of a planeload of well-lubricated British soccer “fans” returning from a match somewhere on the continent, lining up and fumbling in their pockets for a pound. Hmmm. Sounds like fun. Maybe they will need a credit card machine on the door. And will they charge by the use, or put a timer on it so someone who, ahem, takes a little longer can’t get out without putting a second pound into the slot.
This all sounds like a skit on Saturday Night Live or Mad TV, but remember what I said earlier. A lot of these airline fees charged in the U.S. got their start on Ryanair. There was a time when people laughed at the thought of a charge for a pillow or a blanket. No one is laughing now.
There is a silver lining though. The folks who write those Flomax commercials will have a lot more material to work with!
February 26, 2009 • 10:19 am 0
Others join the cause to fight congestion
I’m writing this on the Amtrak Acela Express, returning from New York. I was attending the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s NextGen Symposium.
NextGen refers to the project to (finally) modernize air traffic control and turn it into a satellite-based system. The Port Authority runs the New York area airports which are among the most consistently delayed in America. Modernizing air traffic control would go a long way to alleviating those delays.
The Partnership for New York City estimates that delays and congestion will rob the area of $80 billion in economic activity the next decade and a half. I think that number might be low. But even it if it right, if you look at the country as a whole the number would be more than a trillion — easy. Anyone think we have a trillion dollars of economic activity to throw away?
The Port Authority brought together a number of aviation interests, but more significantly, brought together leaders in the business, labor and civic communities. The National Alliance to Advance NextGen is composed of nearly 100 organizations representing millions of people. ACI-NA is a member of this coalition.
That is critical. Failure to do something about this issue has an enormous economic cost. But participation in this debate has been limited to aviation interests. By expanding the universe, the Port Authority has performed a valuable service by demonstrating the true economic cost of inaction.
Filed under: Airlines, Airports, Government policy, Regulators, Travels
