I was gripped by Pico Iyer’s essay on the enigma of why service on US airlines is so bad compared with that in other US industries. As he pointedly asks:

Why is it, I often wonder, that US carriers have far and away the worst — most surly, inattentive and often snooty — service in the world?

It is a bit of a puzzle but I do not believe his theory that US airlines place the oldest and least enthusiastic attendants on the long-haul flights that he frequents. If that were so, then travelling on domestic US flights would be preferable. It is not.

Nor do I put it down to the idea that US airlines are unionised, while many other service industries are not, and so their employees do not care about customers. If that were true, then the unionised employees of British Airways, for example, would be just as off-hand. They are not.

Instead, I think that two other factors lie behind this sad state of affairs:

The first is that the US industry remains trapped by over-capacity and the refusal of airlines to lie down and die even when customers have voted with their feet. Instead, airlines keep on going into, and coming out of, Chapter 11 bankruptcy when they ought by rights to disappear.

The financial troubles of the US industry means that many aircraft are badly equipped and uncomfortable compared with foreign carriers. The seat-back television screen is only just coming to many US airlines when it is commonplace elsewhere. I imagine that working in shabby and worn-down aircraft does not improve the mood of the crew.

The second is that the US industry is too insulated from foreign competition. It is not alone in this. Many countries protect their industries, and particularly national carriers, from foreign competition. But the fact that non-US airlines are prevented from holding more than 25 per cent of US carriers, or from exercising management control, lets the US carriers get away with bad behaviour.

Perhaps the lack of foreign influence is breaking down a bit. Jet Blue, the New York-based low cost carrier, already has some of the best-equipped aircraft and politest cabin crew in the US, but it will be interesting to observe the effect of Lufthansa’s purchase last week of a 19 per cent stake.

Similarly, Virgin America has, after a long struggle to get approval to fly because of suspicions that Sir Richard Branson would secretly be pulling the strings, finally got going. I can only hope that its newer aircraft and upstart attitude raise the service bar a bit.

December 17th, 2007 in Aerospace | Permalink