Northwest Airlines World Traveler Magazine- June issue- User fees

[Cap'n Jack]

Dear Colleagues-

I found the enclosed article in the magazine during my flights last night:

Smart Skies
If you're like most travelers, you don't think much about the remarkable system that makes a flight possible. At its heart is an air traffic control (ATC) network that safely and efficiently directs aircraft from take-off to touchdown.
Unfortunately, we're reaching the limits of what our ATC system can handle. Built in the 1950s, the system was never intended for the amount of traffic it now carries. This doesn't affect safety, but it does create delays. Left unaddressed, those delays are going to get worse.
The situation is illustrated with a few simple numbers: In 1970, when the system was last overhauled, there were about 2,500 commercial airliners and 1,800 corporate aircraft. Today, the number of commercial aircraft has more than tripled to 8,000, but the number of corporate aircraft has increased a stunning amount, to nearly 18,000.
Our ATC system can't keep up with numbers like these, nor with forecasts. The FAA predicts that in the next 10 years, 10,000 more corporate aircraft will be built, and they estimate that US. air traffic will triple by 2025. If the system is not modernized, flight delays may increase by as much as 62 percent in just the next seven years.
That's terrible news for travelers, but there are proposals to address the problem. To fix the system, however, we also need to fix the way it's funded. Like the system it supports, the funding needs to be restructured so that everyone who uses the nation's aviation system pays their fair share.
Currently, the FAA receives about 94 percent of its funding from commercial airlines-primarily through the taxes you pay on your tickets-and just 6 percent from general aviation.That might make sense in a world where airlines used that much of the system, but not in the real world where airlines use only about 68 percent of ATC services. Every ticket you buy helps to subsidize corporate aviation.
The debate, though, is about much more than who pays and how much. As important as that subject is, it's just as important that we use this opportunity to modernize the ATC system.
Northwest and other airlines are asking Congress to support a satellite-based system that uses precise global positioning to let controllers make better use of available airspace.This would increase capacity, decrease congestion, allow airlines to reduce fuel use and benefit the environment. Under the current ATC system, airplanes often have to fly indirect routes; optimizing routes can cut fuel consumption by as much as 12 percent per ffight and, with it, emissions. To learn more about our proposal and the background on this important issue, please visit smartskies.org.
Thank you for choosing Northwest Airlines for your travel needs.We're grateful for the opportunity to serve you, and we will work hard on the ground, in the air and in Washington, D.C. to make sure your flight is as safe, convenient and delay free as possible.
Welcome aboard.

(Signed) Andrea Fischer Newman,
Senior Vice President,
Government Affairs

I penned in rebuttals for her points in the magazine for the second leg.

 

[jason]

This is really starting to tick me off...

Every time I read their lies I wonder how many people just got mad at GA.

 

[Chas]

The airlines are going to make a lot of enemies in general aviation with bull**** like this. As if satellite-based navigation needs a new FAA financing system. As if commecial airlines weren't by far the biggest driver of the whole costly FAA system that is now in place.

Man, the airlines are really in bed with FAA these days, the mutual back-slapping is deafening. If you missed the FAA-Airline love-in shown on CSPAN a while ago trust me, it was pretty nauseating to behold.

 

[wsuffa]

The airlines have a captive audience, and the ability to say "see, I told you so".

Their real agenda is to get high-fare passengers back into their crappy planes.

 

[SkyHog]

Ron Levy said it best (I'm paraphrasing): If it weren't for the airliners, we wouldn't need an air traffic control system.

That makes it their burden (that's gotta be misspelled...).

Did anyone read the load of BS that Marion Blakely wrote in EAA's magazine last month? There was a two page article that gave her a forum to explain her position with a counterpoint article written by the EAA president. It was interesting to hear directly from her.

 

[NC Pilot]

Their real agenda is to get high-fare passengers back into their crappy planes.

And if they didn't give such crappy service with schedules that don't work the business jet business would not be what it is today.

I had the pleasure of talking to the guy who runs the flight department for Heinz. He said that all he has to do when the execs start talking about cutting back on the expense of the private jets is to send them on one commercial flight. Sometimes that results in the expansion of the flight department - at worse they leave it alone.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

And if they didn't give such crappy service with schedules that don't work the business jet business would not be what it is today. <SNIP>

That was one of the points I wrote in the magazine margin for the next passenger to read.

I have 4-6 more flights on NWA over the next few weeks. That gives me 4-6 more magazines to "correct".

I respectfully suggest others that fly NWA during June also mark up their magazines, but keep it polite and clean.

 

[NC Pilot]

I respectfully suggest others that fly NWA during June also mark up their magazines, but keep it polite and clean.

I sent an Email to NWA refuting their claims, requesting they make corrections and refusng to fly their airline until they do.

Doubt they will do anything but continue along the path the have choosen, but I can still try.

 

[KennyFlys]

Gee, it's not like they have a captive audience of dumb masses who don't have a clue what's really going on. Yep, I'd expect those companies to twist the facts on the issue.

Oh, when you do such markings in these magazines, be sure to put the URL for either EAA or the Alliance for Aviation Across America (URL: www.aviationacrossamerica.org ) so readers can look at another source... for the truth, obviously!

 

[Ghery]

Phooey. And I've got flights scheduled on Northworst this month and next. One more reason (aside from their being the largest unscheduled airline in the world) to hate them.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I found out today that United Airlines has a similar article for their June inflight magazine. I marked up the copies for both legs. I'll do the same for the return.

 

[Matthew]

I should call or write them myself.

I was sitting on an NWA flight in Detroit Friday night and read that article in their magazine. I read that article while I sat in a plane and waited over an hour for the cockpit crew to show up. After that, we had to wait for the lav truck to empy the tanks. Yeah, user fees would have helped that situation.

I thought I would miss that flight, since my connecting NWA flight was also an hour late.

 

[Ghery]

I found out today that United Airlines has a similar article for their June inflight magazine. I marked up the copies for both legs. I'll do the same for the return.

I'll bleed on the ones on my flights to NRT and BKK later this month. Turkeys.

 

[Steve]

www.aviationacrossamerica.com