Comments on: Plan to cut cabin crew ratios sneaks under the radar http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/11/plan-to-cut-cabin-crew-ratios-sneaks-under-the-radar/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:16:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: meski http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/11/plan-to-cut-cabin-crew-ratios-sneaks-under-the-radar/#comment-34288 meski Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:56:01 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/11/plan-to-cut-cabin-crew-ratios-sneaks-under-the-radar/#comment-34288 Ben, I'm shocked that you could think that the airlines are cost-cutting. Obviously, they are seeking to unclutter the aisles, offering the passengers a better chance of escape. We no doubt should pay them a 'thoughtfulness levy' for thinking of us in this way. Ben, I’m shocked that you could think that the airlines are cost-cutting. Obviously, they are seeking to unclutter the aisles, offering the passengers a better chance of escape. We no doubt should pay them a ‘thoughtfulness levy’ for thinking of us in this way.

]]> By: Ben Sandilands http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/11/plan-to-cut-cabin-crew-ratios-sneaks-under-the-radar/#comment-34007 Ben Sandilands Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:09:24 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/11/plan-to-cut-cabin-crew-ratios-sneaks-under-the-radar/#comment-34007 Gavin, A study was done some years ago, I think about the time Australia deregulated domestic aviation, that argued that over a ten year period deregulation could cost up to 500 lives in trunk route air crashes but save many, many thousands of lives on the interstate roads, mainly Sydney-Gold Coast and south to Melbourne. In fact but no doubt in part due to other improvements in vehicle safety and roads, the period since 2000 has seen road fatalities diminish sharply on those routes, and fortunately, no one has died in an airliner crash. I think it is true that discretionary travel between the major cities has migrated overwhelmingly to air and grown many fold, and that the particular study was fundamentally correct in identifying a public safety benefit. (If anyone has a copy of that report, I believe by a Sydney academic, I'd be most grateful for an opportunity to archive it.) But in answer to your observations, private road transport on intercity routes has already declined sharply. And no public money is ever going to be spent on making air transport 'even safer'. The deregulated Australian industry is self funding, and even the safety regulator and air traffic control systems are funded respectively in part and in full from fees and charges. The airlines will continue to hack into the safety and standards spend under such metaphors as 'increased efficiency' or 'reliability' at the risk of doing massive self harm to themselves and their customers. They don't like intangible metrics, and spending on these areas comes with no measurable contribution to the P & L until there is a crash. This is why I think pressure on the airlines and authorities is so critical to maintaining public confidence in the aviation alternative to long distance driving. Gavin,

A study was done some years ago, I think about the time Australia deregulated domestic aviation, that argued that over a ten year period deregulation could cost up to 500 lives in trunk route air crashes but save many, many thousands of lives on the interstate roads, mainly Sydney-Gold Coast and south to Melbourne.

In fact but no doubt in part due to other improvements in vehicle safety and roads, the period since 2000 has seen road fatalities diminish sharply on those routes, and fortunately, no one has died in an airliner crash. I think it is true that discretionary travel between the major cities has migrated overwhelmingly to air and grown many fold, and that the particular study was fundamentally correct in identifying a public safety benefit. (If anyone has a copy of that report, I believe by a Sydney academic, I’d be most grateful for an opportunity to archive it.)

But in answer to your observations, private road transport on intercity routes has already declined sharply. And no public money is ever going to be spent on making air transport ‘even safer’. The deregulated Australian industry is self funding, and even the safety regulator and air traffic control systems are funded respectively in part and in full from fees and charges. The airlines will continue to hack into the safety and standards spend under such metaphors as ‘increased efficiency’ or ‘reliability’ at the risk of doing massive self harm to themselves and their customers. They don’t like intangible metrics, and spending on these areas comes with no measurable contribution to the P & L until there is a crash.

This is why I think pressure on the airlines and authorities is so critical to maintaining public confidence in the aviation alternative to long distance driving.

]]> By: Gavin Moodie http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/11/plan-to-cut-cabin-crew-ratios-sneaks-under-the-radar/#comment-33982 Gavin Moodie Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:26:46 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/08/11/plan-to-cut-cabin-crew-ratios-sneaks-under-the-radar/#comment-33982 I am persuaded that the airlines are mainly, perhaps only trying to cut their costs. But the reduced cost for every flight seems to me worth the increased risk of passengers dying in an air accident, which still seems very low to me. If society had extra money to invest in transport safety I wouldn't spend it on making air transport even safer, I would spend it on getting people off very dangerous and environmentally costly private road transport and into safer and much more efficient public land transport. I am persuaded that the airlines are mainly, perhaps only trying to cut their costs. But the reduced cost for every flight seems to me worth the increased risk of passengers dying in an air accident, which still seems very low to me.

If society had extra money to invest in transport safety I wouldn’t spend it on making air transport even safer, I would spend it on getting people off very dangerous and environmentally costly private road transport and into safer and much more efficient public land transport.

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