WSJ: Runway-Bound: A Holiday Flight Becomes Ugly

The Wall Street Journal
January 6, 2007

THE MIDDLE SEAT
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Cabin Fever
Runway-Bound: A Holiday Flight Becomes Ugly
Fetid Toilets, Crying, And Diaper Shortages; The Cost of Cutting

January 6, 2007; Page A1

After hours of sitting on the runway, the toilets on the American
Airlines jet were overflowing. There was no water to be found and no
food except for a box of pretzel bags. A pregnant woman sat crying; an
unaccompanied teen sobbed. The captain walked up and down the aisle of
the MD-80, trying to calm angry passengers. At one point, families with
children lined up to be bused to the terminal, but a bus never came.

Flight 1348, a San Francisco-Dallas run, had been diverted to Austin,
Texas, because of thunderstorms. It was the Friday before New Year's
Day and the jet was parked on the tarmac beside other stray flights.
Planes came and went, but Flight 1348 was left waiting, American
confirms.

- The Situation: Storms and staff shortages left passengers stranded
for hours on a series of American Airlines flights in late December.

- The Background: Airline service has been deteriorating for several
years amid staff cutbacks, congested skies and security hassles.

- The Bottom Line: Better take a good book next time you fly.

After more than eight hours on the ground, and 12 hours after the plane
had left San Francisco, the captain told passengers he was going to an
empty gate, even though he didn't have permission.

"He said, 'Enough is enough. I should have done this a long time ago,'"
recalls passenger Cindy Welch, who was trying to get home to Missouri.
American won't identify the captain.

Flight 1348 was one of 85 flights American diverted from Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport that day. Some turned into true travel
nightmares, the likes of which haven't been seen since January 1999,
when passengers on a Northwest Airlines flight were trapped for seven
hours on a parked plane that had landed nearly a day late.

American's Flight 1682 from Oklahoma City to Dallas pushed back at 2:07
p.m. on Dec. 29, then waited eight hours and two minutes before
canceling and going back to the terminal, according to data compiled by
FlightStats Inc.

Flight 37 from Zurich, Switzerland, to Dallas was diverted to Tulsa,
Okla., where it sat for 10 hours. Pilots couldn't take off because they
reached federal limits on duty time, American says. Tulsa doesn't have
a Customs and Immigration facility so no one could get off. By the time
the plane reached Dallas, landing at 1:33 a.m., according to Federal
Aviation Administration data, passengers had been on board more 22
hours.

How does this happen? After years of cutting staff, carriers are less
capable of handling crises -- from not having enough telephone
reservationists to handle calls, or extra bodies to empty toilet tanks
or spare pilots and flight attendants to help out when delays stack up.
Congestion in the air and at airports exacerbates the messes caused
when storms hit.

Delays have increased steadily over the past five years, approaching
levels not seen since 1999 and 2000. The rate of mishandled bags is 68%
higher than in 2002 -- that year was a recent low -- and consumer
complaints have increased in each of the past four years.

AMR Corp.'s American, the world's biggest airline, says it was
reluctant to cancel flights on Dec. 29 because planes were packed with
holiday travelers. Instead, when storms were forecast at its Dallas
hub, it opted to delay flights. As it happens, Dallas got whacked with
by an unseasonably strong thunderstorm that didn't move out of the area
for hours. Landings slowed to a crawl and lightning forced ground
workers indoors several times. Planes on the ground waited, thinking
skies would clear, but they didn't.

The carrier says it is re-evaluating its flight-diversion strategy. It
is also is studying whether it should adopt a harder time limit on how
long planes can sit and wait.

In the case of Flight 1348, according to interviews with four
passengers plus officials at American, the problems were compounded by
a lack of staff, the result of cost-cutting and holiday vacations, and
some bad decisions.

American's Austin operations were overwhelmed when 14 planes landed
unexpectedly, American says. The airline delivered some snacks and
drinks to airplanes, but quickly ran out. A worker tried to service
toilets when he could get time, but was held back by lightning.
American tried to call in more staff with little success due to the
holiday weekend. "We got caught short-handed," says American spokesman
John Hotard.

American also made a pivotal decision: According to airline officials,
Austin managers decided to focus on handling regular flights to other
cities, such as Chicago and St. Louis, hoping they could stay on
schedule. They let the diverted Dallas planes sit.

And sit.

Flight 1348 was snake-bit from the start. The plane was an hour late
leaving San Francisco because of mechanical problems that forced a
switch of airplanes. The flight left the gate at 7:10 a.m., instead of
its 6:05 scheduled departure, and the delay proved critical. An on-time
arrival would have beaten the bad weather.

When Flight 1348 reached west Texas, storms were moving in. American
says the pilot was told to divert to Austin where he could refuel and
wait for a break in the weather for the short hop to Dallas.

After landing, American allowed about 20 local Austin and San Antonio
passengers to get off rather than wait to fly to Dallas only to hop on
a connection back to Austin. Their luggage, however, remained on board,
say passengers and American.

American expected the storms to hit between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and then
move out of the area. Instead, they started earlier and lingered into
the night. For hours, the crew thought they'd ultimately be able to fly
to Dallas, only to have hopes dashed. Worse, the storm had moved into
Austin, too.

Whether to keep waiting or give up is one of the most difficult
decisions for airlines, taxing both operations and finances. Often
travelers and airlines prefer to wait as long as possible for the
chance to reach their destinations. Moving a plane to a gate for a
bathroom break could cost a flight its place in line among the hundreds
trying to leave. It could also mean the crew might run into federal
time limits that regulate the work day. Unless new pilots and flight
attendants are available, continuing the trip would have to wait until
the next day.

"If we take you to the gate, and it's a holiday period, we may not get
you out of there for three days," says Mr. Hotard.

For Flight 1348, conditions in the 11-foot-wide MD-80 cabin quickly
deteriorated -- toilets overflowed, families ran out of baby diapers,
one man exclaimed he was down to his last piece of Nicorette gum,
passengers recall. "It was pathetic. The toilets had gone from gas
station to a Carlos Santana concert," said Andy Welch, husband of Cindy
Welch.

American says a worker did empty toilet tanks on Flight 1348, but not
until the plane had been on the ground for five hours or more. Even
then, the stench typically lingers on an aircraft that isn't moving,
one airline official says.

The captain told passengers he was calling everyone he could think of
to get permission to use a gate. He told them he talked to two American
chief pilots as well as the manager of the Austin operations. The
airline confirms the Austin manager was in contact with the pilots.

Many people at American were aware of Flight 1348. A mother whose son
was on the plane called a company spokesman, one passenger called a
Dallas television station, another called a friend who was a free-lance
writer, who wrote a story that day for the Dallas Morning News.

Instead of opening a gate for Flight 1348, American's four gates were
used to operate the airline's regular schedule, including a few flights
to Dallas that did depart. "The pilot kept telling us they would not
give us a gate," says Katie Dickson, who was trying to get to Belize
with her husband and five-year-old daughter. "At one point he said, 'I
am so embarrassed for American Airlines.' "

Several passengers got increasingly angry and yelled at the crew, but
the captain, Mrs. Dickson recalls, kept calm. "It was a little scary to
have that many people in such a closed space," she says.

Passengers rallied -- some mothers digging out granola bars for a young
man who was famished, some people translating for a couple who didn't
speak English. A few passengers were allowed down the staircase in the
plane's tail to the tarmac to walk dogs that had been in the cargo
hold. Mrs. Dickson says she found the ordeal "unbelievable, just
mind-boggling."

At 9 p.m., Flight 1348's passengers finally got inside the Austin
terminal, where they couldn't find anyone from American to help them
with flights or hotels. Passengers say the scene was chaotic. Only
about half the luggage made it off the flight. American says its
baggage system in Austin was overwhelmed by the volume.

The Dicksons rented a car and drove to Dallas, and were able to get a
flight to Belize the next day for their shortened vacation. The Welches
waited in a line at the ticket counter, which was staffed by just two
employees, they recall. They stood in line three hours. When they
reached the counter, Mrs. Welch asked for a hotel voucher. The agent
declined, Mrs. Welch says, saying the problem was caused by weather and
American wasn't responsible.

Mrs. Welch began crying. She argued that the flight wouldn't have been
in Austin if not for the original delay in San Francisco. The ticket
agent relented and gave her a voucher for a hotel stay and breakfast.

"The most maddening thing was no one from American Airlines ever
approached us and apologized," she says. Adds Mrs. Dickson: "I still
don't understand what happened. If I had an explanation from American,
I'd feel better."

American's Mr. Hotard says the airline is truly sorry for the mess. He
says one reason the airline may not have contacted customers to
apologize is that its Fort Worth headquarters, where customer-service
specialists work, was closed for four days over New Year's.


URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116804368966768690.html