It was just shy of 8:15am and I was pulling into the parking lot of my company.  A company where I, as a senior manager, was in charge of our all our daily operations.  I was actually a bit annoyed because I was arriving 15 minutes late that day and I strongly believed in showing up exactly on time.

Each day, on the way to work, I was in the habit of listening to the National Public Radio news broadcast on our local public radio station.  Those who know me, know just how important it is, to me,  to get to listen to that twice a day. 

Moments before I was about to get out of the car, the news broadcaster, Carl Kasell,  who read the news on NPR suddenly stopped speaking, struggled for a brief moment and then said he had news just put in front of him that a small aircraft had just hit the World Trade Center in New York City.  When Carl Kasell hesitates and stutters, you stop and listen.  He is a consummate professional in his job.

I’m somewhat sad to admit that my first reaction was “It finally happened.  All that air traffic in the NYC area and now a commuter aircraft has run into a building.”  In fact, I assumed it must have been foggy or a day of low clouds and someone had made a bad mistake.

I went inside to my office, said hello to everyone and then shut my door to make business phone calls and read email in privacy.  Oblivious to what was unfolding in New York City and Washington D.C.

About 45 minutes later, my head buyer burst into my office and asked if I was aware that the world was crashing down and on fire.  She used those words and since she was ordinarily my most stable employee, that got my attention and I asked my friend who stood accusingly in my doorway what was going on.

“Planes just hit the World Trade Center and now it’s falling down.  And the Pentagon is on fire.”

That struck me like a 5lbs hammer. 

I came out of my office and we all turned on radios and even a TV (the benefits of working for a company that did direct sales of consumer electronics) to get news.  It was hard to get, actually.  Our phones were silent but you couldn’t get a phone line to call out either. 

I had had a new T-1 data line put into our office just a month earlier and when I couldn’t get any news websites to come up on my computer, I assumed the connection was bad until I realized I was still getting email.  All the news websites were flooded with traffic.

It took us a good 2 hours to settle down.  Unlike some companies, I kept our staff at the office and kept us together.  We really didn’t get any work done.  I pretended to attempt to merchandise for our Christmas catalog but I was just listening to radio and searching websites for any news I could.  Our phones were quiet and no customers were emailing us to ask where their new telephone was.  I thought it was important for us to stay together.  It seemed like if I sent everyone home, we would be weaker and more susceptible to what was going on. 

We did finally leave around 4pm.  I went home, made dinner and watched the news.  After a couple of hours, I went outside on my patio to sit and reflect without the news in my ear.  After about 5 minutes, I realized that it was silent outside. There was no aircraft traffic, there was no car traffic.  Ordinarily, even a quiet evening in my neighborhood is filled with noise from cars and other activities.  That night it was just silent. 

My phone rang after about an hour.  It was a friend from Australia calling to see if I was OK.  I pointed out that what was happening was in New York and Washington, not Dallas.  They explained that they knew I traveled on the spur of the moment frequently and they were worried I was up there or even on one of the aircraft.  Strangely, I got several more phone calls from friends outside the country that evening asking the same questions.  Friends from Russia and the UK and Canada. 

By that evening, I had already told several friends that hijackings will never be treated the same again.  I said things like “The rules have changed” and “The gloves are off”.  I knew air travel would never be quite the same and it isn’t.  Today, an attempted hijacking would be met with resistance by any and everyone.  Back then, the standard operating procedure was to cooperate and get the plane on the ground.  But hours later, I knew that wouldn’t be the case ever again.

Those moments that cause us to know them by where we were when they happened seem to come only once in a generation at most.   That was my generation’s “Kennedy moment”, if you will.  It was for anybody in the United States that day.   Now you’ve heard my story.

One of the most compelling parts about the events of September 11, 2001 is that there are so many different and interesting stories to hear.  I would like to hear yours.  Please comment to this blog entry and tell me where you were on September 11, 2001 and what your impressions were.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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The Department of Transportation has decided to recommend against anti-trust immunity between Delta Airlines and Virgin Blue airlines Virgin Blue and V Australia.   This decision caught many by surprise and I’ll confess to being somewhat suirprised but pleased as well.

The DoT seems to say that they don’t think Delta has worked to establish itself in the trans-oceanic market and hasn’t done a very good job of showing the benefits to the consumer.  There is some truth to that.  Delta and V Australia are both new entrants to the US-Australia routes and neither has really done that well so far but neither has seemed to have invested in developing that business all that well either.  The efforts made seem more pro forma than with enthusiasm. 

I also think that both parties felt that with two very established carriers between the two countries, an alliance between two new entries would just be automatically supported.  An assumption that I would have said is likely just a day ago. 

I think everyone could stand to take a moment and breath on these alliances.  Yes, they grow the network and they offer greater potential for profit but is an oligopoly of 3 really better than an oligopoly of 2?   The public good isn’t just served by profitable airlines.  The public good includes what is generally good for the consumer such as competition that offers varying levels of service and price. 

If you want an alliance across the ocean, prove you can be a player on that same set of routes first.  Better yet:  be creative and open up some new business rather than just continuing to try to compete on the ubiquitous California – Australia routes. 

Alliances are fine but let’s not forget the purpose of business and competition and what it has to offer.  If you want to be in business on a particular route, the preferred pathway should be making a long term investment and working for the traffic.  We should desire to start seeing *more* competition between these alliances, not a continued effort to stake out their “just share” of business in a particular market.  Carving things up into 3 equal shares serves no one’s interests at all.

Good on the DoT for doing the unexpected as well as doing it for a good reason.  I would like to see a bit more of that attitude in other future decisions.

Filed under: Airline News, Airlines Alliances by ajax
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