The Fort Worth Star Telegram has run a story about how airlines will be required to report ground delays more accurately and robustly for the public.  As you can imagine, many airlines welcome this development much like they welcome $200 / barrel oil. 

The truth is, if I were an airline CEO, I would welcome this development even if I knew I was about to look pretty bad.  It’s this kind of feedback and scrutiny that can drive a company to do some soul searching and really seek solutions to their problems.  It is unpleasant and solving those problems can be difficult but they are a key ingredient for success. 

I would even be tempted to use it in labor negotiations.  I would ask for performance pegged to improving those statistics and maintaining them as well.  In return, I would peg compensation (including substantial incentive pay) for labor to those same statistics. 

And, hey, by the way, here is a novel idea:  Let’s measure your management team by those very same statistics.  They may be imperfect statistics but they are relatively honest.  More important, why shouldn’t a management team be measured against the very same stats as the labor team?  That would seem to align their interests far more than anything else attempted. 

The statistics we see on airlines are imperfect and no airline is thrilled about making them available because they can also reveal competitive data to, well, the competitors.   However, a successful business worries more about improving itself and a lot less about what their competitors are doing.   First and foremost, the airline industry is a service industry and success in that industry does seem to be closely tied to service performance.  Doing what you say you are going to do seems to be the basic metric by which most customers judge you.

Those who deliver what they promise in a consistent and fair manner tend to be the most profitable airlines.  They also tend to be the airlines who have improved their morale, empowered their employees and, yes, compensated those same employees fairly. 

I hope the airlines embrace the sunshine and enjoy the disinfectant. 

Filed under: Airline News, Airline Service by ajax