This Week’s Featured Link
Delta, facing a union drive, says it will start paying flight attendants during boarding – CNBC
It’s a brilliant move by Delta here. With union fears ramping up, Delta could give a pay raise in a unique way that makes headlines and satisfies one of the rallying cries. Meanwhile, it puts pressure on the other airlines which already have union flight attendants so they can’t just flip a switch like Delta. It’s all just about total compensation in the end, but this way is particularly impactful. Nice work.
Image of the Week
Two for the Road
JSX selects Starlink for in-flight WiFi – PaxEx.Aero
Hawaiian Airlines to Offer Free, High-Speed Starlink Internet Connectivity on Transpacific Fleet – Hawaiian Air
This was the most stark thing missing from my first trip on JSX earlier this month. It’s about time they put wifi onboard, and now Hawaiian as well. It’s been a good week for Starlink.
The story behind this amazing image: Pan Am 727s at Berlin Tempelhof – Blue Concourse
I’ve always been fascinated by the Pan Am operation in Berlin. Here’s a great look at it.
5 comments on “3 Links I Love: Paying to Board, Starlink Lives, Pan Am Tempelhof”
So it appears that Delta’s F/A’s are getting the benefit of a union (i.e. pressure to improve working conditions) without having to pay Union dues. As someone who wants to see working conditions for airline employees improved, I say “Bravo”. I only wish that more industries (food processing plants, Amazon warehouse workers) were facing the same labor pressures so that their employees could get better working conditions as well.
My father (retired DAL pilot) flew the 727s in Germany shortly after DAL acquired Pan Am’s TATL operation. A lot of people don’t remember but during the cold war (and shortly after), Pan Am had essentially a domestic Europe network, operated by 727s out of FRA. My dad would dead head over, fly over in Europe for like 10 days, come home and be done for the month. He loved it.
Before German reunification, West German carriers (Lufthansa) could not fly to Berlin. But Pan Am could, and they basically served as the domestic carrier connecting West Berlin to the rest of West Germany.
That went away once Germany reunified.
Pan Am also flew a lot of connections to smaller European cities out of FRA as a Fifth Freedom carrier, with the same flight number as a flight from the US but downgauged the European segments to 727s.
PS where is Tim? Figured he would chime in and crow more about Delta here.
I read an airline book about Pan Am and the Berlin base. One pilot in particular made for a good story. When he was in the states, he was Mr. Normal, PTA meetings, church picnics, just the perfect, upstanding citizen. However…in Germany, unbeknownst to his wife and family, he had a swinging bachelor pad, his own frau-mistress, and lots of orgies. And, after a few weeks, back in the states, he was Mr. Chamber of Commerce. LOL
This is a nice improvement for Delta FAs but won’t slow the drive down. From this observer’s perch, the company is fighting a 2022 campaign through a 1998 lens. What’s worked before won’t necessarily work this time. And there’s no point using “the culture” as a counter to people that were never there to experience it.
This drive is being run primarily by younger workers. To be sure; economic issues matter, but simply throwing cash at the rank & file to pacify them doesn’t work the way it has historically.