Patrick Arnzen - Former Airline Pilot - CEO, ThrustFlight Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six twenty three. Now here in Houston's Morning News, right
we have we have a guest here, former airline pilot
and CEO Thrust Flight. His name is Patrick Arnsen. Thanks
welcome to the show. Patrick, Thanks for joining us today.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Want to get a couple of quick thoughts on the
what's going on with air traffic control right now and
the Transportation Department reducing flights by ten percent. Ten percent
probably doesn't sound like a lot to a lot of people,
but how many flights per day? Do you think that
that turns out to be ten percent?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, I don't think it's it's ten percent to every
single airport. I think what's happening is they're limiting the
flights to the busiest airports in the country. So, you know,
I think when we you know, when we think about
ten percent, we need to think about, you know, where
are we going. You know, the folks that are headed
to New York and LA and some of the more
densely populated areas are I think are going to really

(00:49):
suffer a lot more, whereas some of us, you know,
traveling to some of these smaller airports may not notice
quite as much with reduced schedules.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Were you ever when you're during your HILIK career, did
you ever work during a air traffic controllers strike or
a government shutdown? Never?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Never an air traffic controllers to strike. The as far
as the government shutdown. If I did, it wasn't meaningful
enough for me to remember it. But we're certainly noticing it,
you know, even even with you know, our relatively small operation,
you know, as compared to the airlines, we're even feeling
the effects of this right now.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, and likely to get a whole lot of boards.
Can you imagine what it would be like for Thanksgiving
and for Christmas if the government shutdown continues.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I mean, just the only thing I the words that
come to mind are just unmitigated mess. And I think that's,
you know, that's what it's going to look like. So
I really hope we can get the government opened up
by then.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
There's a couple of stories that we've seen about the possibility.
Seems like AI can be adapted for a whole variety
of different things. It's hard to imagine that AI could
be adapted for use in replacing air traffic controllers. Is
there a role for AI when it comes to figuring
out flights and and and paths and and ground and
all the other things that go into an airline and

(02:09):
in an airport as well.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
If anybody is seeing terminator that the term skynet comes
to comes to mind for me. So, look, there are
so many subtleties that go along into being an air
traffic controller. There's so many things that that these air
traffic controllers do to keep keep people safe, just down
to noticing the tone of a pilot or handing an
emergency situation like like in most scenarios. I think AI

(02:36):
certainly augment, you know, ultimately after you know a lot
of testing and things like that the air traffic controllers.
But I think, you know, the end of the day,
the decision needs to be made by human because there
is such a human component to what these folks do
every single day that that I would be very hesitant

(02:58):
to you know, to fly in a plane with you know,
AI guiding me.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
How much of a difference would it make just getting
air traffic control up to technological speed? They are what
twenty maybe thirty years behind the times when it comes
to the equipment they use.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
They are I mean, if you I was recently you know,
at the up in the control tower where one of
our operations is and you look at the you know,
the technology that these folks have and it reminds me
of what I had when I was in high school.
So I think that would make a huge difference, you know,
getting the the technology that these that these folks need.

(03:35):
You know, we've got a we have a fight school
up in North Texas, and that that airport doesn't have
a does not have a tower or not a tower,
but a radar rather, so they are literally relying on
looking out the window to try and keep keep air
traffic you know, separated, along with you know, pilots making
position reports. You know, there's technology, cheap technology right now

(03:58):
that exists, but because it's not certified, they can't use it.
So there's a lot of things, you know, in my opinion,
that are standing the way of making the system safer.
And I'm not saying that it's not safe, but it
could certainly be made more safe.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Well, I guess the good news is that it seems
that we finally have a transportation secretary and a government
that's willing to do something about a high time Patrick,
Thank you appreciate you joining us Today Patrick Arnsen, former
airline pilot and the CEO Thrust flight