It’s never easy for a company to
watch its image crumble overnight, but that’s what Jet Blue
recently faced after well publicized incidents of passengers being
trapped on planes for hours. To its credit, the airline acted
immediately to apologize for its mistakes, but there’s no telling
what the long-term damage will be.
In light of these incidents, calls began anew in Congress for a
Passengers’ Bill of Rights. While the measure may be popular with
consumers and lawmakers, the airlines are fighting the regulations,
and now ASTA has chosen to side with them against mandated
changes.
“ASTA believes it is clear beyond debate that, absent an
unforeseen but clear present threat to safety, passengers should
not be forced to remain on aircraft without adequate food, water
and toilet facilities&,” ASTA said in a statement. “That said,
any solutions that are developed must be measured and appropriate
to the circumstances at hand and should not create new problems
worse than those sought to be cured.”
ASTA’s opposition to the Bill of Rights has been characterized
by agents I spoke with as a sign that ASTA’s leadership doesn’t
want to “piss off the airlines.” While ASTA’s motives are probably
not that clear-cut, this perception is not a good thing for an
organization in the middle of restructuring and rebranding. And,
even more important is the airline industry’s failure to follow
through with needed improvements in customer service a fact
highlighted in a recent Department of Transportation study.
“These findings are disturbing and suggest a larger problem may
well exist&,” said Cheryl Hudak, ASTA’s president. “At the same
time ... ASTA believes everyone interested in these issues must be
sensitive to the problem of unintended consequences that can arise
from regulatory strictures imposed on a very complex and highly
networked system.”
While all companies have bad days, the problems in the airline
industry are not aberrations and will continue. If the airlines
can’t keep their promises, then perhaps some tough love is
necessary. This sort of action would mandate changes across the
industry, which would also prevent one company from gaining a
competitive advantage over another. Also, presumably Congress would
make every effort to work with the airlines in order to craft a
Bill of Rights that makes sense for everyone.
Finally, as the case of Jet Blue shows, money spent on these
improvements today might just save millions fixing a tarnished
image later. K.S.