3 Links I Love: How Yesterday’s Trump Meeting Went, Island Air the Accordion, Eastern Crash Remains a Mystery

Feb 10, 2017

More Reading on This Topic: Accidents/Incidents, Eastern, Government Regulation, Island Air, Links I Love

This week’s featured link:
Subject: Pool report #1 airline meeting – Public Pool
Wondering what happened in the Trump/Airline CEO meeting yesterday? Well, the White House press pool was there for the beginnin and this is the report. Probably best not to read it. Not only does Trump think the airports give the airlines bad equipment, he thinks air traffic control is “out of whack,” and he thinks a pilot should run the FAA. (He knows a guy who is an expert, apparently.) Apparently things got better after this, but it all sounds like lip service to me.

Two for the Road:
Island Air Announces Flight Expansion Plans – IslandAir.com
Island Air is doing the best impression of a yo-yo I’ve ever seen from an airline. The airline flew small Dash 8s for years, but then it tried to grow with Q400s. That didn’t work, and it was bought by Larry Ellison, also owner of Lana’i. The airline re-fleeted with ATRs and focused around Lana’i. Then that didn’t work so it started going back to other interisland routes. Now, it’s bringing back the Q400s and trying to grow in big interisland markets again. It seems like there should be some opportunity here with only one real competitor, yet somehow, Island Air has never been able to figure it out.

Eastern Airlines Mystery Continues: ‘We Were Close’ – ABC News
Son of a motherless goat. Remember that story I posted awhile back about someone finding the black box on the mysterious Eastern crash in Bolivia 30 years ago? They finally were able to get through the red tape and have someone read it. Well, it wasn’t the black box. The magnetic tape they found was a copy of the old show I Spy. Time to head back to the mountain….

Brett

17 responses to “3 Links I Love: How Yesterday’s Trump Meeting Went, Island Air the Accordion, Eastern Crash Remains a Mystery”

Catherine Burnett

Feb 10, 2017 at 5:14 am

In reference to Trump/Airline CEO meeting yesterday and the Pool recap, as my twenty-something year old daughter would write, #YCMTSU.

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stan

Feb 10, 2017 at 5:21 am

even after just reading your one-paragraph summery of the meeting with trump i feel dumber

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1. Oliver
  
  Feb 10, 2017 at 8:43 am
  
  Stay away from the actual pool report then.
  
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A

Feb 10, 2017 at 5:47 am

I’m willing to give the president a pass on some of the comments which sound odd to those of us here since I’m sure he’s not an aviation nerd. All politicians misspeak as they can’t be experts in every field and a quick download from a staffer can’t make up for years of knowledge like those of us here have.

Yes, it was probably lip service but at least the airline exec’s got to give their 2 cents. I’ve been following this blog for quite some time and I don’t recall a post about Obama meeting all the airline exec’s. Maybe it did happen and it wasn’t reported or I missed it, but I for one am pleased to see the President is meeting these people and letting them get some words in. There is no negative side to this.

As for the FAA I’m not sure what would be bad about having a pilot run the show. An industry insider should know what works and what doesn’t within the FAA. (Full disclosure, I know nothing about who runs the FAA.) I’d be interested if “trumps guy” is the captain of his private 757. I’d rather it be a veteran who captains a 757 on several dailies between Chicago and LA or something like that but whatever…

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1. Oliver
  
  Feb 10, 2017 at 8:07 am
  
  Experience with energy wasn’t a criteria in selecting the new secretary of energy.
  
  I do agree that aviation experience would seem desirable. I don’t know that it needs to be a pilot specifically.
  
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2. Marks
  
  Feb 15, 2017 at 7:58 pm
  
  He probably didn’t have time to translate his Russian briefing notes Comrade.
  
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Lorenzo

Feb 10, 2017 at 6:42 am

The conversation (as reported) was embarrassingly inane. Mr. Trump shows zero knowledge of the issues. The wrong equipment? Really? What does that mean?

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SEAN

Feb 10, 2017 at 8:11 am

Good grief! that meeting transcript with president Trump made me roll my eyes & I almost never do that. I cant believe that this guy occupies the WH at all.

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1. Oliver
  
  Feb 10, 2017 at 8:42 am
  
  It reads like a script for tomorrow’s SNL. Those skits write themselves these days. Just read the POTUS words with Baldwin’s voice in mind.
  
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2. Eric Morris
  
  Feb 10, 2017 at 8:42 am
  
  You can’t believe it. He is the culmination of all that is America: in debt, brash, divorced, oafish, inconsistent, rich, divisive, ultra-competitive, entertaining, and maddening.
  
  Reply
Bick Rowen

Feb 10, 2017 at 10:30 am

“…and he thinks a pilot should run the FAA. (He knows a guy who is an expert, apparently.)”

Who is this pilot? What are his qualifications? All class warfare aside, I want to point out that Cranky does not care to collectively judge people as being better or worse than any other group of people based on their profession (just as he also does not collectively judge people on their race).

Cranky’s lack of collectively judging people stand as the one quality that most delineates him from Hegeman.

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David M

Feb 10, 2017 at 2:01 pm

Island Air’s original Q400 entered service in March 2006, just ahead of Go!’s starting service in June 2006. It was pulled from service by September as Go’s low fares flooded the market between the four big airports made it a terrible time for Island Air to attempt to grow into more direct competitor to Hawaiian and Aloha (Aloha sold off Island Air in 2003).

By the time the ATR-72s arrived in 2013, the situation had changed. Aloha was gone, Go had yet to live up to it’s early promises to swap the CRJ-200s for larger airplanes and was a year away from pulling out entirely. More importantly, the Dash 8s were reaching their cycle limits and had to be replaced. For whatever reason, they decided on used ATR-72s that American Eagle/Executive Airlines was done with.

Reliability of both the old Dash 8’s and old-but-new-to-WP ATRs was bad so Island Air had trouble attracting passengers at first when they came on. They do seem to be better now, or at least Island has been able to create a market for those wanting to pay a little less than Hawaiian.

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Oliver

Feb 10, 2017 at 2:26 pm

Here is five minutes of footage from the White House meeting.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MPs4vSzWQwU

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1. USBT
  
  Feb 10, 2017 at 3:09 pm
  
  Here’s a twenty minute clip (the first 20 mins of the meeting)
  
  https://www.c-span.org/video/?423786-1/president-trump-meets-airline-industry-executives
  
  Reply
JayB

Feb 10, 2017 at 5:07 pm

The beloved Airlines for America press release said: “…encouraged by his in-depth understanding of our industry and need to reform our air traffic control system.” Say what?

Wish the meeting had been with Bob Crandall, Herb Kelleher, and Fred Smith. Probably would have started out: “Mr. President, would you please shut up and listen for a few minutes, and turn off that GD twitter machine, or whatever that is! OK, now….!”

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1. Oliver
  
  Feb 10, 2017 at 5:29 pm
  
  Well, he once ran an airline, right? I think it was a great airline. The best airline. A tremendous success.
  
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Shuttle
  
  Reply
iahphx

Feb 10, 2017 at 9:15 pm

Trump almost never seems to “know what he’s talking about,” but it seems to work out for him most of the time. On the other hand, there are plenty of business experts who seem knowledgeable, but are usually wrong. I think it’s best not to underestimate the man.

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