An article for our new dear friend, galactica...best quote:
At this point I don’t care how well-groomed the flight attendants are, how expansive the menu, how chilled the champagne or how big the flat bed, the reason I’ve paid to fly on this particular carrier is safety and a polished service record. If I can’t understand what the hell the crew are trying to say, then all that money invested in advertising and marketing, slick paint jobs and a bulging order book for new aircraft means precious little.
Food for thought for certain "Gulf-hugging" airlines that tend to treat their pilots like a disposable commodity rather than a valuable asset:
Clearly, a world dominated by British, Australian and Canadian airline pilots is not an option but, as some of the bigger global carriers try to save money by hiring pilots from lower-wage markets, they need to think hard what this says about their brand image and how it plays to their most frequent and high-revenue passengers – most of whom are looking for safety, consistency and value over air miles and cheap fares.
Eat it, TC...
An Air of Confidence
By Tyler Brûlé
Published: July 25 2009 01:36 | Last updated: July 25 2009 01:36
What’s the sweetest sound to welcome you when you board a long-haul flight? Is it a flight attendant welcoming you by name? Is it a soothing soundtrack drifting out of the speakers? Perhaps it’s a silence that suggests there may not be a gaggle of screaming toddlers within earshot? Or what about the sucking thud of the door being closed on time?
My autumn work cycle??... kicked off on Sunday evening with a gentle jolt as I made the trek out to Heathrow to board a flight to Hong Kong. A typhoon passing through HK, along with generally stormy forecasts, had me on edge but then the most wonderful melody boomed through the aircraft: “Good evening ladies and gentleman. This is your captain speaking, and welcome to this Cathay Pacific flight bound for Hong Kong.”
While there was nothing particularly reassuring in this standard script, it was the plummy confidence of a captain who sounded as if he used to fly Phantoms for the RAF that allowed me to settle back. There was further relief as he named the first officer who’d be doing the flying. I think the name might have been Bruce or perhaps Wayne or maybe even Darryl – whatever it was, it was a name only Canadian or Aussie parents would choose. Confirmation came minutes later when some distinctly Canadian vowels exited the speaker telling the crew, “Seats for take-off.”
I’m not sure about you, dear reader, but the cockpit combo matters greatly to me. No question that big Boeings and Airbuses do many things on their own but it’s capable men and women who keep these generally gentle beasts not just stable in the skies but stop them from venturing down the wrong taxi-ways, steer them away from ghastly cloud formations and also inspire confidence in crew members and passengers alike.
At the risk of deluging the FT’s letters editor, give me a British captain at the controls, followed by a Canadian, Aussie, American, German or a Swede any day. My reasoning? English is the official language of the skies and if you’ve ever spent any time in a commercial cockpit – remember the good old days when you could sit in the jump-seat on oversold flights? – you’ll know how hairy it can get in the busy airspace approaching London, LA or New York, as controllers fire out routings, level changes and traffic alerts.
For my safety, sanity and money, I’d rather not have someone on the joystick who needs to ask twice or who gets a digit or two wrong while changing radio frequencies. And, dare I say it, there are simple cultural issues at play as well. Is it a coincidence that I once had an Italian pilot fly his MD-80 like a Tornado on approach to Pisa airport?
If you ever happen to find yourself at a hotel frequented by airline crews, then you might want to entertain and inform yourself by buying a round of drinks for some pilots one evening. You’ll find there’s a reason why there are wider approach margins in many countries and, no, it has nothing to do with technology. You’ll also find that countries with appalling highway safety records also have pilots with similar reputations at 35,000ft – and no, it’s not just RAF or RAAF pilots who’ll tell you this. The Swiss, Dutch, Kiwis and South Africans will all happily confirm that many Med-hugging nations have a “special” way of flying and that, for some airlines, a small prayer is part of their standard operating procedure.
As carriers great, small and just launching fight their way through balance sheets and try to figure out how to scrape a margin in an increasingly challenging civil aviation market, it does concern me how much board members and investors think about what their brand sounds like over the intercom.
On a recent flight back from Singapore, I had to struggle to pick up what the captain and the first officer were trying to convey. As the aircraft was fresh off the assembly line, I can assure you that there was no problem with the public address system, but the speakers’ accents left more than a few passengers confused as we were tossed about over the Bay of Bengal.
At this point I don’t care how well-groomed the flight attendants are, how expansive the menu, how chilled the champagne or how big the flat bed, the reason I’ve paid to fly on this particular carrier is safety and a polished service record. If I can’t understand what the hell the crew are trying to say, then all that money invested in advertising and marketing, slick paint jobs and a bulging order book for new aircraft means precious little.
Clearly, a world dominated by British, Australian and Canadian airline pilots is not an option but, as some of the bigger global carriers try to save money by hiring pilots from lower-wage markets, they need to think hard what this says about their brand image and how it plays to their most frequent and high-revenue passengers – most of whom are looking for safety, consistency and value over air miles and cheap fares.
Tyler Brûlé is editor-in-chief of Monocle