IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff talks about the week in aviation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Traffic between Norwi Lateral and the Ranking Highway. I'm Heather
Pasco on fifty five KRC, the talk station.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
A twenty eight on a Friday eve Woo. Always enjoy
this time because a good friend iHeart media. A aviation
expert Jay Rali joins the program. Talk about a whole
slew of things. Man, we got a lot to talk
about this morning. Jay, welcome back to the program, and
I hope you are in a festive holiday spirit this
time of year.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
I'm in kind of a feisty mood, so yeah, I'm
more than I am more than ready for our time.
My challenge with you, my friend, is just to bring
my a game to keep up with you, because you know,
I do fifteen hundred of these a year, and a
lot of times the people I'm talking to around the country,
it's they asked the question, they wait for their response.

(00:50):
They and it's so engaging when you and I talk,
and it's hard to it's it's hard and challenging sometimes
to keep up with you. And I love it because
rarely do I get that.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
So well, You're great at it. Man, I wouldn't be
so enthusied about the segment if you were some monotone
sort of guy reading the news kind of stuff. That's
why I enjoy our discussions. You don't have to worry
about boundaries or image and go anywhere you hell hell
you want, you know, and you.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Have a sense of humor, which is good.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
I love working with Jim Scott for ten years. And
one year he asked me on the air, Jay Man,
how do you know all this? And I said, Jim, what,
I don't know? I make up And there's this pause
of like five seconds and I said, Jim, I'm kidding,
so you know, you and I can laugh, and good lord.
I missed Jim so much. But it's just, you know,
I love our time together Brian, and I hope it shows.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
It does and I love it. I love it as much.
I hope it shows to you too. So let us
discuss actually a new addition to the already lengthy list
of things today. I'm not sure if we'll get it
all in. But the airlines were in front of the
Senate yesterday.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Oh yeah, that was a good one. We had the
Senate grilling five airline executives over their practices and their
airline feet and their seat fees and when all this
was set up. I'm thinking, Okay, come on, guys, this
is posturing. All you're doing is these are photo ops.
Because if anybody talks about how glorious it is to fly,

(02:15):
how wonderful it is to fly, they're obviously lying because
you and I've talked about you don't enjoy travel, you
endure it. And the Senate panel was up there talking
to these airline executives, and of course they were grilling
them over the seat fees and things that were their
costs of business and how their business operations were. And
I really think the government has z row zero zero

(02:37):
role in that. But what I did find interesting was
when they were talking about like Frontier and Spirit. Ohdah,
I love this exchange where they said, why are you
incentivizing your gate agents to find bags that are too
big so they have to be charged a carry on fee?
Because Spirit and Frontier have paid out in incentives. Now,

(02:58):
remember these are people that don't make a lot of
money working for the airlines, right, twenty six million dollars
in like two years. Wow, Because they give me like
ten bucks a bag. If you find something that's too big,
we'll give you ten bucks of the thirty forty fifty
whatever that ends up being charged. They are actually out there,
they're looking for bags they are too big.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Do you find you do you have any problem with
them doing that? Do you?

Speaker 3 (03:22):
As far as incentives, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Not right, because they're forcing the rules that are on
the books anyway, you're not supposed to have a book
a bag that's beyond X number of size. The employees
are helping the company meet its objectives. They're helping them
earn the money that they're entitled to because of the
rules that you agree to when you agree to fly
in that airline. So bully for them.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, you know the thing that I just it amaze
me watching the United CEO the frontier that not a
single one of them and all that I reviewed, and
I didn't see every single second, but none of them said, Look,
our number one objective is to push that airplane back
on time period. That's where our money is made. And
if we have a bag that's too big, if we

(04:02):
miss something, we jeopardize that flight leaving on time. So
therefore we're going to incentivize our agents to get out
there and look for things that could potentially delay our flight.
That's where the focus should have been, but they were
trying to play along, skip along, whatever. And I'm just thinking, guys,
you just go that they'd gone straight to the matter,

(04:23):
because I would have told every one of the senators, Look,
you want your flight to be on time, right, so
if we do everything within our power to do so,
you're going to be happy, right. And I would have
shoved it right back in their face and say, this
is how we accomplish that because passengers bring bags that
are too big. We've got to do this passengers. All
of the things that could have been addressed, But the
bottom line is the Trump administration, if it's anything like

(04:46):
round one, they're going to back off. They're going to
let the airlines do whatever they want to do. So
I think a lot of this stuff that's been being
pushed right now is that is not going to continue.
And that's sad because I've told you I the Bide administration.
It can't the end of it cannot get here too
soon for they. But I do appreciate the fact that

(05:07):
they were hard on the airlines. They held them accountable,
they made sure that they did everything they could to
help push them towards better customer service. And I will
forever be thankful for that. And it's just I don't know.
I see so much of this as just the typical
political you know, the games they play, so they've got
soundbites for their commercials and all the other crap that

(05:29):
goes on. And it's sad to me thinking that the
airlines are going to return to a time when you know.
But look, you and I both agree. Bright. I think
I can speak for you that airlines they can do
business any way they want, and if people don't like it,
guess what They're going to fly another carrier. The free
market will determine what takes place. And please get out
of our face.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Amen. And I guess I'm under the I think safe presumption. Again,
you're the expert on this, and if you don't know
the answer, just make it up.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I'm under the impression that most people follow the rules.
So it's the guys who refuse to follow the rules
that show up with an oversized bag. Obviously, it's not
going to fit in the overhead bin, it's not going
to fit underneath under this seat in front of you.
So they're going to stop, they're gonna have to tag it,
They're going to put you know, everybody in standing in
line trying to get to the damplane. This is the

(06:15):
delay you're talking about. Those people are fewer than the
people who find the rules. So this is like trying
to create a villain in the airlines for providing this
incentive where there is They're not a villain, there is
no The only group of constituents out there that would
benefit from this attack and maybe getting rid of this
incentive are people who want to carry on oversize bags,

(06:37):
and we can call.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Those in the minority, right, so we could call it
like the EPA checks we used to have here in
the in the city of a while where you had
to prove and like only three percent of the cars
failed or whatever, like hey, wait a minute, why are
we continuing to do this? And that's exactly the point.
But you know a lot of people push back on
airlines and I've told you I'm not ever encouraging people
to do this. But when you show up at the

(06:58):
gate instead of paying to check your bag at the counter,
a lot of people drag that bag to the gate.
And when the airline says we're super full today, if
anybody would be kind up to let us check their bag,
we'll do it for free. Okay, take my four bags
and then boom, you didn't have to pay a penny
in the check bag fees. Now, I'm not telling people
to do that now, Brian. They do that all the time,
and you know, if it saves them money, I guess
they figure it's it's an okay thing to do.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Fair Enough, we got more topics talk about with iHeart
Media aviation next for Jay Ratless, So please don't go away,
We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Fifty five KRC, Would and Living Attorneys Head seventy one,
seventy five Sound found slows from the Lachland Split to
Town Street. I'm Heather Pasco on fifty five KRC the
talk station.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
You ever been in the cockpit before? Jay RYTLFAZ. It's
a thirty nine on a Friday Eve. I heard media
aviation next for Jay Rattler. All right, so we were
talking in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday how busy it
was going to be and uh so, how did it
turn out in terms of airline travel and travel generally speaking?
Was it as bad as they already talking about?

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well, I always look at the number of people flying
and that is indicative many times of the challenges or
the success we had. Typically, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is
the busiest travel day of the year, and we get
every day from the TSA the number of screen passengers
that they had. And actually on the Sunday after Thanksgiving,

(08:23):
we did see a record number of travelers. It was
over three million people that we had traveling. It was
a record for the year. That was the most that
we had. But the second busiest day is typically and
always the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So when you go back
and look at the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Brant that number
was lower than what we expected. In fact, it was

(08:45):
probably number fifteen or sixteen ranking wise in the quarter
alone had nowhere near a record number of any kind,
and a lot of that had to do with the
weather and the number of delayed and canceled flights. So
the week ressed we were fighting weather delays that caused
a lot of problems, delayed a lot of people, had

(09:05):
people traveling on different days, canceling their reservations, all kinds
of things. So even though we ended the Thanksgiving holiday
week on a record as expected, the Sunday after Thanksgiving,
as we tend to do every year, the other days
that we had of the week were a little bit subdued,
and that's because we were fighting some weather issues. And
fortunately it improved is that weekend got here because we

(09:26):
needed that. But some people it was Monday or Tuesday
before they could get home because some of the flights
had been canceled, so it was a challenge. Now airlines
made money. They made quite a bit of it because
this is their super Bowl week, the busiest travel week
of the year, and they can charge higher fares, and
it ticks us off when they do, but there's nothing
we can do about it other than after the first
of the year, a lot of people are looking at

(09:48):
making next year's reservations. Buy them. If you know you're
going to be flying, grab the trip cancelation assurance, lock
in those super low fares, and then you're guarded against
any future rating creation. And that's what the savvy travelers
do that every year that they fly, they say, look,
I know what I'm flying. I'm gonna buy them as
part in advance as I can. Yes, I'll get nine
million flight schedule changes once they make my reservation, but

(10:12):
two cares, I've locked in a lower fare. And if
it's the two entities. I want to pay the less two.
I've told you, Brian, it's airlines in the irs. So
if I can pay early to pay the airlines less,
you better believe it. I'm going to do that every
single chance.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
I get, every chance you get. All right, Well, you
always emphasize how safe airline travel is. I mean, notwithstanding
the fact that Boeing has doors blowing off the aircraft
and crazy stuff happens, but overall it is a very
safe means of travel. You know, compared to automobiles and
pretty much any other form, you're probably less likely to
get killed in an airline crash. So apparently somebody added

(10:49):
up all the passenger miles flown since the last crash.
What is the total on that one, Jay.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, this goes back. Got a fifty seven hundred and
some days. The last airline crash who we had was
the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo killed fifty people February twelve,
two thousand and nine. So someone who obviously and clearly
had way too much time on their hands, did add
up all the number of passengers who've flown since then
and the miles they've flown going back to that crash

(11:16):
comes out to thirteen point three trillion miles. In other words,
two light years, if you know what that means. And
of course I don't know what the light year is,
but here's what I do understand. It's the same number
of miles that would be accumulated if you and I again,
this is the number of miles flown safely since the

(11:37):
last aviation crash here in the United States. You and
I could go to the moon and back twenty eight
million times. That's how big of a number it is.
So when when I say you're in a lot more
danger getting to the airport then you're going to be
getting on a plane, it's because, as I've said so
many times before, and we've talked about this for years,

(11:58):
we're enjoying, thank god, the safest air ever of commercial
jet travel. And that's because we have better technology, we
have better training. The pilots have more at their disposal
than ever in history. We've got mechanics, air traffic controllers,
everybody's doing their job on the ground in the skies.
And you know, the only danger is if we start

(12:19):
to become a little complacent. And that's where the Boeing
conversation begins, and I have not had enough coffee for
that one. But amazing when you look at just how
safe aviation is. And Brian, I remember when I got
started in the eighties, we had we had them every
year and the question was how many are we going
to have this year? We knew we were gonna have accidents,

(12:41):
we knew they were going to be fatalities, and this
is back in eighty one eighty two, and it was
a matter of how many are we gonna have this year?
It was it was never a even though we wanted it,
a foregone conclusion, you know, could we have fewer or
maybe none this year? But every when you look back
at the history of aviation, sadly it's a reality that
seemed to always creep up. A lot of it had

(13:03):
to do with pilot there. And thank god for the NTSB,
the National Transportation Safety Board are the all stars because
every single accident or near accident, they would try to
glean from that the mistake or mistakes that were made,
enhancements that could be made, and they would pass those
on as recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration, saying here's
our suggestions, twenty three ways where you can make aviation safer. Now,

(13:27):
my arivation is the FA might take one or two
of those only implement them into new changes. But Brian,
from every single accident or near accident, we've made aviation safer.
When we had the horrific crash of Air Canada back
here in the eighties at CBG, the NTSB came up,
I think with twenty six different recommendations on how to

(13:48):
make aviation safer. Many of those were implemented after that
crash and the lives that were lost, and you're always
wanting to learn from the crash so that any lives lost,
we can on the memory of those that we did
lose by making aviation safer. And that's what they've done,
year after year after year. And thirteen point three trillion

(14:10):
mile that's a lot, a lot my little brain and
I deal with numbers all the time. I numbers that big.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
I know, I know, I know, But like every time
I mentioned, you know, a trillion dollars in debt or
a billion dollars spent, I always try to express it
in terms of thousands of millions, so you know you
got a billion, it's a thousand stacks of a million.
A trillion is a thousand stacks of a billion. It
tends to put things in perspective. So I appreciate your
going to the moon and back parallel on that figure.

(14:37):
Let's pause.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
It helps us. Well, it's like the national debt right now, Yes,
exactly is thirty six trillion. And it's such a big number.
People don't understand it. But if you sat there and
went one, two, three, four, and every second had a number,
it would take you a million years to get to
thirty six trillion. Yes, so that's how big that number is.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh, I'm gonna get your blood pressure.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yes, this guy's just well, yeah, pushing all my button and.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
You're gonna you're gonna stay fighting on behalf of the
Spirit Airline employees. I think I understand why they are
as you described, furious. We'll bring Jay back for a
couple more topics. Hang on, it's eight forty six. I'd
be right back fifty five the talk station wrapping up
the full half hour with that jay rattle. If I
forced them to stay on for the whole time. It

(15:24):
just these topics are great. Spirit Airlines. I think their
employees are legitimately and the word you chose furious, explain
to my listeners what just justifies their anger.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Well, you talk about how Spirit Airlines, which has gone
into Chapter eleven bankruptcy. But before they they made that
leap Brian, they started laying off the other pilots, some
ground personnel. They were selling off their airplanes. They were
obviously in a lot of trouble. They tried they were
going to merge with Frontier, backed off of that, tried
to merge with Jet Blue, was denied. They went back

(15:58):
to Frontier. Frontier said no, we're not going to merge
with you. So they're trying to make it on their own.
So they're selling off all of this, laying off employees.
And then it's found out after the paperwork comes out
on the Chapter eleven bankruptcy filings, because it's all right
there that just before the airline filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy,
they paid up five point three million dollars in retention

(16:20):
awards to five of their upper executives of the airline. Now,
imagine being laid off, trying to figure out what you
gonn do with your family for Christmas and finding out
that one of the people used to work for was
part of a five point three million dollar bonus that
was awarded before the airline filed Chapter eleven bankruptcy. Now, Brian,

(16:40):
all the years I was in the industry, especially at
Northwest Airlines, I was in management, used to butt heads
daily with my union friends, and I was never considered
a union kind of guy ever. But I tell you,
when I see this kind of stuff, where executives get
this kind of money, when they are the ones responsible
for the airline being driven into Chapter eleven bankruptcy, it

(17:03):
makes me want to lose my mind because I'm thinking,
but that's corporate America, and that's one of the reasons
I couldn't wait to get away from it all those
years ago, and it still bugs me.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
To this day, I imagine so well, anyhow, as still
sorry for them, not the airline executive. Naturally, front Tier
taking an upgrade move. Here they're going to provide premium
first class seats.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Now, yep, I love Frontier. Remember they're the carrier that
came here first, bringing their one flight a day from
Dayton to Denver down to Cincinnati. When people said you're crazy.
That's where low cost carriers go to die. You'll never
make it. Frontier flourished. Here comes Allegiant Southwest moves our
operation from Dayton. I love Frontier and what they've said is, look,
some of our customers are saying they'd like premium seats.

(17:49):
So what they're going to do is they're on their
low cost carrier Airbus Aircraft. The first two roads are
going to be first class. And what they're saying is
we're hearing what our passengers want, but we're also following
the lead up. Remember Southwest Airlines is going to go
to assigned seats and have some premium or coach plus seats.
You've got other low cost carriers looking at this. Now.

(18:11):
Frontier says, look, our numbers say, if we give our
travelers first class, we're going to have additional revenue in
twenty twenty six to two hundred and fifty million dollars.
They think in twenty twenty eight that additional revenue because
of those premium seats that are going to be a
little bit more expensive than the typical Frontier seat, is
going to be five hundred million dollars in revenue in

(18:32):
twenty twenty eight. So they're going to be giving passengers
what they're asking for. They're going to make more money
as a result, and to fly a low cost carrier
with a first class option. I love that because what
you're doing is you're giving the passenger more options. You
don't have to sit there. But like every other carrier,
they're saying, we can really make some good money here

(18:52):
by making this option available for passengers. And I tell
you it's a move that from the low cost carrier side,
airlines are shifting in that direction. Spirit Airlines was also
a carrier that's decided to do that, which is a
long overdue that's going to help them in type of
move I wish they had done a years before.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, it takes it takes a little bit of that
budget stereotype off of the airline by having that option,
and you know, if you want to, you want to
stretch your legs out and still get a discount fly
it sounds like a great idea to me.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
A you're gonna be on the premium, if you's gonna
be up front. You know a lot of people take
take the bulkhead rows like we do on those carriers. Sure,
so you've got that extra leg room, but to have
a slightly bigger seat, oh my gosh, yeah, sign me up.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, no doubt about it, especially given the spillover effects
some flyers have into your seat. Leave it at that,
And as next.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
To my wife, Sherry, I'm always in good shape.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
I know you are see that you married out of
your element, you got kicked your coverage taking good.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
I'm so far I'm married so far above my I
know you're exactly right.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
I know you and I both acknowledge that in a
regular basis as well we should. And it's smart advice
to men out there who are considering a spouse, marry
out of your league, oh big time. The more the
better hub delays. What's going on out there in the
world of travel today, Jay, A.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Lot of wind and weather towards the northeast, Washington, d C.
New York, especially Boston's getting pounded right now. We're seeing
quite a few delays up there that sadly, are going
to last throughout the rest of the day. Anything south,
anything West, very good shape. I don't think you're gonna
see much as far as any other than minor morning
de icing delays, but those aren't too much. But the
real headaches, obviously, Brian, today are going to be the Northeast.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
As always, wonderful having you on the fifty five Carssy
Morning Show Jay Ratliffe and looking forward to next Thursday,
another enjoyable conversation. Best of health and love you and
your better half have a wonderful weekend, my.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Friend, You too, my friend. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
A fifty five ifty five KR City talk station wonderful
conversation with tennant governor