CargoBoy-
After the 9/11 mass murders, FAA were not allowed onto our c0ckpit jumpseats. It would be quite helpful if (ATC) Controllers were still allowed to observe flight operations from our side of the "fence". If their background checks were questionable and they can not be permitted to sit behind us, then why are they finally allowed to work as full performance controllers in charge of thousands of lives streaking through the thin air? We just had a young pilot, who left Iraq in the 90s, sit on the jumpseat behind us. A paradox or a major contradiction? We also had a pilot on the seat about two years ago who is from Egypt. But a Controller born and raised in the US is not allowed on the jumpseat.
A newspaper article (either the "NY Times" or the "Wallstreet Journal") claimed months ago that the FAA "leadership"
planned to both DEcrease ATC Controllers' pay 10% and INcrease their workload 10%. This was in the same paragraph.
Whether a plane has 30 (Dornier jet), 50 (CRJ) or 125 (DC9-50 or some 737s) seats, the airplane is given the same departure, enroute and approach separation from other aircraft. Maybe the airlines should be penalized by the FAA for operating the smallest jets into the busier airports which are not hubs? Far fewer slots per hour/day etc, or a cost penalty?
Do some major airlines really demand an efficient operation? Guess again...a 'code share airline' which operates CRJs with one US major airline is paid a specific fee for the departure-in makes no difference whether the flight is on time or three hours late. This same 'regional airline' not only acquired a large number of jets-in order to exploit a loophole in a pilot contract scope clause- with too few seats (< 50) to make any profit, it also returned many of them to the leasing companies. It was not bright enough to realize that with the same lease costs but 12% fewer seats per jet, little if any profit would be realized. And the 44-seat costly jets required the same aircraft radar separation as the 150-seat jets.
Multiply these crude 'slop factors' by many hundreds as the problems inherent in the codeshare systems also allow a mostly out-of-date air traffic technology to operate in a system with partial regulation since 1978.