Information, information - just tell the pax what's happening
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Join Date: Feb 2004
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Information, information - just tell the pax what's happening
Gate staff have a terribly difficult job managing the SLF in the event of a last minute problem (a late incoming flight, or one that arrives on time but has developed a fault that needs to be rectified). A delayed passenger is, after all, by-and-large an irritated one.
Yet there's an easy way to ease the irritation - just tell people what's going on. And after years of "unspecified delay" announcements, I've had two examples recently, in quick succession, of how easy it could be to do it properly (both, perhaps surprisingly, from FlyBe).
Sitting at Norwich, waiting for my weekly Dash-8 flight to work, we had an announcement from the gate staff that "a fault had developed on the aircraft". I noticed a FlyBe captain sitting in the departure lounge, who immediately picked up his mobile phone; it was clear he was talking to the inbound captain, and when he'd finished his call he explained to those of us in earshot that the problem was with a dodgy radio. A few minutes later the inbound captain called our guy in the departure lounge to say that the techie had visited and had said it'd take maybe 2-3 hours to repair as they didn't have a spare unit to hand they could slot in. No worries - it meant that we could call our various offices and let them know about the delay, and that we could happily grab a coffee and a newspaper in the knowledge that we'd have time to drink/read them. Excellent unofficial information, but all the official announcements we got over the next 2-3 hours was a couple of "The delay will be at least another hour" announcements.
On a different day, again at NWI and bound for EDI, we pushed back and then waited ... and then went right back into the stand. Another fault, and they decided to send us back into to the terminal. This time, though, I had a connection; if the delay was more than a couple of hours, I'd miss the only flight from EDI to my place of work. So I said to the CC: "Any chance we can find out how long the delay is? If it's more than a couple of hours, I'm stuffed so I'll leave and hop on the train to Gatwick instead, and fly from there". The First Officer's reply: "We dunno yet - the engineer's on his way. Tell you what, let me have your mobile number and I'll give you a bell once he's had a look". This I did.
In the queue at the coffee shop a few minutes later, my phone rang: the F/O. "The engineer knows what the problem is. He's going to try something; if it works, we'll be going shortly, if not it'll be four hours". I passed on the news to the rest of the pax (pretty well all of us were getting coffee). Ten minutes later, and halfway down my coffee, the phone rang again. "He's fixed it; we'll be boarding in a few minutes". Yet as soon as I hung up, the announcement came over the PA system: "The engineer is looking into the problem; further information will be given in 45 minutes". Doh! As we boarded I thanked the F/O most profusely for his above-and-beyond service, and the mood among the pax (by this time most of us were chatting amicably to total strangers about how unusual the situation was) was extremely cordial.
The moral is: the information's available, so get it to the passengers and they'll think you're brilliant. A simple connection between flight, tech, ground and gate staff would inevitably reduce passenger irritation - and this huge customer perception boost could be achieved for virtually zero cost.
I spent six years commuting on the train from Norwich to London. I wish I had a pound for every time I heard people musing along the lines of "The delay's a bearable inconvenience, but for &$%^'s sake why can't someone tell us what's going on?". Well, the same applies in airports.
Yet there's an easy way to ease the irritation - just tell people what's going on. And after years of "unspecified delay" announcements, I've had two examples recently, in quick succession, of how easy it could be to do it properly (both, perhaps surprisingly, from FlyBe).
Sitting at Norwich, waiting for my weekly Dash-8 flight to work, we had an announcement from the gate staff that "a fault had developed on the aircraft". I noticed a FlyBe captain sitting in the departure lounge, who immediately picked up his mobile phone; it was clear he was talking to the inbound captain, and when he'd finished his call he explained to those of us in earshot that the problem was with a dodgy radio. A few minutes later the inbound captain called our guy in the departure lounge to say that the techie had visited and had said it'd take maybe 2-3 hours to repair as they didn't have a spare unit to hand they could slot in. No worries - it meant that we could call our various offices and let them know about the delay, and that we could happily grab a coffee and a newspaper in the knowledge that we'd have time to drink/read them. Excellent unofficial information, but all the official announcements we got over the next 2-3 hours was a couple of "The delay will be at least another hour" announcements.
On a different day, again at NWI and bound for EDI, we pushed back and then waited ... and then went right back into the stand. Another fault, and they decided to send us back into to the terminal. This time, though, I had a connection; if the delay was more than a couple of hours, I'd miss the only flight from EDI to my place of work. So I said to the CC: "Any chance we can find out how long the delay is? If it's more than a couple of hours, I'm stuffed so I'll leave and hop on the train to Gatwick instead, and fly from there". The First Officer's reply: "We dunno yet - the engineer's on his way. Tell you what, let me have your mobile number and I'll give you a bell once he's had a look". This I did.
In the queue at the coffee shop a few minutes later, my phone rang: the F/O. "The engineer knows what the problem is. He's going to try something; if it works, we'll be going shortly, if not it'll be four hours". I passed on the news to the rest of the pax (pretty well all of us were getting coffee). Ten minutes later, and halfway down my coffee, the phone rang again. "He's fixed it; we'll be boarding in a few minutes". Yet as soon as I hung up, the announcement came over the PA system: "The engineer is looking into the problem; further information will be given in 45 minutes". Doh! As we boarded I thanked the F/O most profusely for his above-and-beyond service, and the mood among the pax (by this time most of us were chatting amicably to total strangers about how unusual the situation was) was extremely cordial.
The moral is: the information's available, so get it to the passengers and they'll think you're brilliant. A simple connection between flight, tech, ground and gate staff would inevitably reduce passenger irritation - and this huge customer perception boost could be achieved for virtually zero cost.
I spent six years commuting on the train from Norwich to London. I wish I had a pound for every time I heard people musing along the lines of "The delay's a bearable inconvenience, but for &$%^'s sake why can't someone tell us what's going on?". Well, the same applies in airports.
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You're assuming someone has actually told the gate staff what's going on! Most of the time they are kept as much in the dark as the passengers...
Handling agent staff have to wait for instructions from the airline ops department and/or ground staff before they are able to make announcements about delay times and reasons, and as you have noticed, very often by the time they do get any information, it is already out of date!
On both these occasions you were fortunate enough to have access to information direct from the flight deck. Gate staff don't usually have this, and even if they did, might not be able to pass it on until authorised to by someone from the airline concerned. Unless someone actually comes and tells them what is happening, they have to get their updates from a flight information screen on a computer at the gate which only gives a "next information" or "estimated departure" time and a VERY basic reason for the delay.
I agree, passengers should be kept better informed during delays, but this is not always possible if the handling agent staff are not kept updated by the airline!
Handling agent staff have to wait for instructions from the airline ops department and/or ground staff before they are able to make announcements about delay times and reasons, and as you have noticed, very often by the time they do get any information, it is already out of date!
On both these occasions you were fortunate enough to have access to information direct from the flight deck. Gate staff don't usually have this, and even if they did, might not be able to pass it on until authorised to by someone from the airline concerned. Unless someone actually comes and tells them what is happening, they have to get their updates from a flight information screen on a computer at the gate which only gives a "next information" or "estimated departure" time and a VERY basic reason for the delay.
I agree, passengers should be kept better informed during delays, but this is not always possible if the handling agent staff are not kept updated by the airline!
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Agreed Dropline.
Also consider that sometimes no one has any idea about what the delay length is going to be. Also in some situations, due to their very nature, they snowball. Imagine:
- Plane X is due to fly MAN-LHR-MAN at (dep times 1200 & 1345 respectively) but goes tech.
- Plane Y, due in from another service is subbed onto the sector, but it will operate 30mins late. Both sets of pax informed 30min delay (after info has been telexed to LHR and relayed to pax service staff etc.)
- Plane Y is boarded and ready to operate the 30min late MAN-LHR service.
- No tug is available due to a/c being out of schedule - further 15min delay.
- Tug delay means missed ATC slot - further 30mins sat on tarmac before pushing and departing.
- A/c holds over LHR due heavy traffic - +10mins. (a/c now running 1hr 25mins late)
- Stand is not available due to a/c being out of sequence - +5mins
etc etc etc.
An airline operation is a very fluid thing. It doesn't take much to throw the whole thing out of kilter, and things change very quickly. I agree the situation described above is a crew's worst nightmare, but its not inconceivable (I've certainly seen it before). There is very little anyone on the ground can do to keep updating pax in the departure lounge in this situation. As mentioned above computer systems only give a basic delay reason to the pax service staff, which doesn't update until someone in ops has a chance to do so. Also giving pax the new ETD every time an update is received isn't always beneficial, it tends to drive people even more mad. Therefore we use our experience and give a best guess to the total delay, and only change screens/make announcements if there's a major change.
So although the 'delay will be approximately 1 hour 30mins' or 'further information in 30mins or sooner' announcements are infuriating to pax, they are sometimes the only sensible option.
Kudos to the BE FO who took your phone number, you wouldn't find many crew doing that. As ground staff I would not ring individual pax unless in exceptional circumstances - when delays hit we're extremely busy and would most likely forget anyway.
Pax service agents really aren't there to screw you over, we do our best under difficult circumstances. And as much as the lovely traveling public delight in shouting and ranting at us sometimes, we want to get you away ASAP, with the minimum of fuss.
Also consider that sometimes no one has any idea about what the delay length is going to be. Also in some situations, due to their very nature, they snowball. Imagine:
- Plane X is due to fly MAN-LHR-MAN at (dep times 1200 & 1345 respectively) but goes tech.
- Plane Y, due in from another service is subbed onto the sector, but it will operate 30mins late. Both sets of pax informed 30min delay (after info has been telexed to LHR and relayed to pax service staff etc.)
- Plane Y is boarded and ready to operate the 30min late MAN-LHR service.
- No tug is available due to a/c being out of schedule - further 15min delay.
- Tug delay means missed ATC slot - further 30mins sat on tarmac before pushing and departing.
- A/c holds over LHR due heavy traffic - +10mins. (a/c now running 1hr 25mins late)
- Stand is not available due to a/c being out of sequence - +5mins
etc etc etc.
An airline operation is a very fluid thing. It doesn't take much to throw the whole thing out of kilter, and things change very quickly. I agree the situation described above is a crew's worst nightmare, but its not inconceivable (I've certainly seen it before). There is very little anyone on the ground can do to keep updating pax in the departure lounge in this situation. As mentioned above computer systems only give a basic delay reason to the pax service staff, which doesn't update until someone in ops has a chance to do so. Also giving pax the new ETD every time an update is received isn't always beneficial, it tends to drive people even more mad. Therefore we use our experience and give a best guess to the total delay, and only change screens/make announcements if there's a major change.
So although the 'delay will be approximately 1 hour 30mins' or 'further information in 30mins or sooner' announcements are infuriating to pax, they are sometimes the only sensible option.
Kudos to the BE FO who took your phone number, you wouldn't find many crew doing that. As ground staff I would not ring individual pax unless in exceptional circumstances - when delays hit we're extremely busy and would most likely forget anyway.
Pax service agents really aren't there to screw you over, we do our best under difficult circumstances. And as much as the lovely traveling public delight in shouting and ranting at us sometimes, we want to get you away ASAP, with the minimum of fuss.
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The truth doesn't always work. Many many years ago I witnessed a poor member of ground staff address a frustrated group of passengers during a particularly bad winter storm to tell them that there would be a delay of around an hour because they had run out of de-icing fluid. With that a rather viscious individual got up and shouted 'why don't you f
k off down to Halfords and get some more then!
I laughed so much I cried
k off down to Halfords and get some more then! I laughed so much I cried
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Here here drop-line and Jerboy
I to work on the ground at a busy international airport and when I am sat on the check-in desks the pax very often come up to our desk and say 'oh the XXX flight has been delayed I see' to which we on the desks reply 'Oh, is it!?'
We always seem to be the last to know about any DLAs. We just get told over the radio byt the dispatcher that an engineer has been called and she will get back to us in so many minutes.
We promise all you passengers, we would give the information out to you, if only we had it
I to work on the ground at a busy international airport and when I am sat on the check-in desks the pax very often come up to our desk and say 'oh the XXX flight has been delayed I see' to which we on the desks reply 'Oh, is it!?'
We always seem to be the last to know about any DLAs. We just get told over the radio byt the dispatcher that an engineer has been called and she will get back to us in so many minutes.
We promise all you passengers, we would give the information out to you, if only we had it
Last edited by speedbird_481_papa; 13th Jan 2009 at 06:02.
