IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff talks about the week in aviation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Uh time for the Channel nine first one and Wether forecast.
Nice day to day, Enjoy at sunny skies with the
highest seventy five got rain shown up overnight dropping a
fifty seven. It remains tomorrow that rain along with a
few a possibility of if you have heavy storms. Excuse me,
mars high seventy overnight lill of fifty eight with more
rain and a partly sunny Saturday with the highest seventy
five sixty one degrees. Right now, let's hear about traffic conditions.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Chuck from you see how traffic Center you see healthy,
o fine, comprehensive care that's so personal it makes your
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more at you see how dot Com West spend two
seventy five crews continue to work with an accident at
Mastella Shoulder. Southbound seventy five continues slow through Lackland south

(00:48):
two seventy five break lights between Lawrence purg and the bridge.
Trouble with the traffic lights on Colombia Depth Chuck Ingram
on fifty five KR see the talk.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Station Hey thirty one on a Thursday. It's that time
of week. I always look forward to. iHeartMedia. Aviation expert
Jay Ratlift joins the program talk about things aviation. Jay Ratliff,
my friend, welcome back to the Morning Show. Always a
pleasure having you on the program.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Hey, good morning.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
All right, curveball number one here comes?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Why not?

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Ali?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Why not?

Speaker 1 (01:20):
And you could see this coming a mile away with
you know, we have drones out there in the world,
and you know we've seen prototype, you know, individual you know,
human being operated drone, you know, quad copters out there
in the world. But I see that is it Jobe
or Jobby Aviation? Apparently Toyota just promised to invest five
hundred million dollars. This is for electric air taxis. And

(01:44):
immediately thought of, you know, the Jetsons with all these
you know, craft flying around, and doesn't that create all
kinds of sort of challenges in terms of running into
each other and where are they gonna land? Where are
they gonna fly? This is going to retire require some
sort of massive regulatory scheme to be created, isn't it.
I mean it sounds, I mean like the FAA.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Is already working in that direction, because obviously it would
be a lot easier for an unmanned uber drone to
land in my driveway, I jump in, and it takes
me to wherever I'm going, where it's on a fully
automated flightpath, Versus Joe with his cup of coffee going
out and flying his own drone from one place or another.

(02:26):
So if I've got to have my Druthers, that's what
I want.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Now.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Obviously, there's so many things we have to we have
to encounter and we have to look at. But it
is certainly something that commercial aviation, the people that run
the major airlines are looking at this as a as a.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Viable, it can happen, and it can.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Happen soon type of situation, and they're investing tens of
millions of dollars in a lot of these companies trying
to develop this technology that would in essence, shuttle individuals
from airports within a closer proximity of some of the
major hubs into that hub so that they could jump
on a flight and away they go. So it's as

(03:07):
it is with everything else, like supersonic or hypersonic travel.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
It's great, it's possible, but is it feasible?

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Can we produce it at such a rate that it's
going to be attractive to the non ultra rich. You know,
it's great to go into space for you know, if
you've got you know, zillions of dollars, but it's not
something that is considered affordable for most of us because
the fact that it's just it's just too costly. And
it's the same sort of situation here when the Concord

(03:35):
was running, Concord had supersonic travel, but Brian, it was
so expensive to operate the aircraft. The only way they
could keep it flying with subsidies from various countries. So
it's the same sort of situation here.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Will they be able to do it?

Speaker 4 (03:47):
It's the same discussion you and I've had on sustainable
aviation fuel, where this fuel is made from oils and plants,
which is a good substitute for the typical you know,
great a jet fuel if you will, but the problem
is we can't produce it cheaply enough, and airlines are saying,
until we get to that point, even though we want
to use a lot of this, we simply can't because

(04:09):
it's just too expensive.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well I understand that, but in the context of these
flying taxies, you know, immediately thought of that collision between
the aircraft and the helicopter or in DC, I mean.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
And those were man, I mean, I know train pilots.
So you know, it's we knew that when once we
got into these fully automated cars that you know, the
technology is there. All we have to do is apply
it to aviation, and we certainly can't and they would
be restricted to certain altitudes.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
You you would have the.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
Vectors or you know, highways in the sky if you will,
so to speak. But you know, the the idea when
it's implemented versus when are we going to be comfortable
enough to like go out and jump in one is
going to be interesting to see. And of course, anytime
if this thing happens and there's an accident, that it's
all we're going to hear about. So there's a lot

(05:02):
of things that have to move in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
But you know, when I look.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
At this, I'm like, wait minute, We've got the FAA,
who's going to try to oversee this. It's still using
technology that we've talked about.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
How old it is floppy disks.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
Am I going to be looking for this happening in
the next five years?

Speaker 3 (05:19):
I don't think so.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
So I'm not overly you know, excited or concerned at
this point because I know the reality of the situation
is that you know, it's going to be a while
before from a technology standpoint, we're going to really be able.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
To facilitate this.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah, so maybe the rules and the laws in anticipation
of that day when it is widely available, will be
already on the books, and so people will have a
clear vision of how it's going to operate before we
take to this.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
We hope we are dealing with the government much. I know,
I know I'm talking about that.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, thank you for qualifying my comment there, Jay, right,
I know you're going. We'll talk about Southwest Airline finally
getting on board what other airlines realize was a huge
money maker. That and other topics with Jay rattlif will
be right back fifty five KRC dot com. Did you
know even the smallest de talk station of course talking

(06:10):
to I heard me the aviation next work Jay Rattlift.
We interrupt this aviation report to announce that Alexander aka
pg sitting Feld y'all know him, Formerson Saint Council number,
sent sixteen months for bribery and attempted extortion, has been
pardoned by Donald Trump. You gotta pardon. It's amazing, isn't it. Anyhow?

(06:31):
Not sure who pg current favors within the Trump administration,
but he's on a list along with a handful of
others who just received pardons. Anyway, back to Jake all right,
Joe Jack RATTLFT so Southwest woke up and realized it
was missing out on a fat bank money making opportunities
charging for bags.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
Now, let's see your your competitors are making like seven
hundred million anymore.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
In check bag fees.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
You're making fifty million because yeah, the bags fly free,
but only the first two and anything after that there.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Was a bag fee four.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
But you had investors that were not entirely pleased as
the decades rolled on that. Look, we're making less and
less money, and these other airlines, simply in the case
of doing business, are absolutely smoking us on these ancillary fairs.
And of course, for Southwest it was a you know,

(07:32):
it was a marketing theme and it was a great one.
You know, bags fly free. Anyone that flew Southwest knew
that that was the case. But one of the things
that you look at with all of this is, you know,
how are they going to roll it? Out, how much
was it going to be, et cetera. And what ended
up taking place was that Southwest came out as of
yesterday thirty five dollars for the first bag, forty for

(07:54):
the second and if you have a one of the
Premium Choice.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Tickets you get to two bags free. If you have their.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
Rapid the credit card, they're tied in the Frequent Flyer program,
you get one.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Bag for free.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
So it's certainly a change at Southwest, but Brian, it
was in need of change, and I know that the
customers were quite upset about it. At least some of them,
and others understood, Look, it's just the matter of business
and they have to do it. But when you look
at it, they've.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Had issues with these wheelchairs.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
We talk about people boarding because it's all open seating,
and you have thirty forty wheelchairs of people boarding just
to get on early because it's open seating, to get
the better seats. When they go to assigned seats later
this year or early next year, all of that's gonna
go away. It's going to make the boarding process of
Southwest much better. Then are going to have assigned seats.
They're going to give you the opportunity to pay more

(08:48):
for premium seats, which I love, Thank you for that,
where you might have extra leg room and this and that,
and yeah, you're gonna have to pay for the bag fees.
So it's going to be an issue, but you know,
all it's gonna do is add to the mess. Though
at the gate, from the standpoint of people saying, I
know I can get this steamer trunk in my overhead

(09:09):
storage compartment, so I'm gonna try to carry this bad
boy on because you.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Know, we're only being charge for check.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
Bags at this point in time, so you know, it's
not gonna be something that's gonna completely make things better.
But Southwest, from a business standpoint, Brian, they're doing what
they have to do to compete.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
I was a little surprised.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
I thought they might say, look, we've never charged this way,
we're gonna come out with a smaller bag fee, exactly
work your way, just kind of let's ease into that
cold water. They ripped that band aid off big time
and said we're gonna do what everybody else is doing,
and that's that's what they've done. So you know, if
I'm Southwest, I would have came out and said, look,

(09:50):
we could charge for carry on bags. We're not gonna
do that, but we're forced to do this. It's a
lot like years ago when fuel prices were going through
the roof. Airlines came out and said, gosh, we we're
so sorry, we have to have a fuel surcharge. And
of course we were all paying incredibly high gas prices,
so we understood. But of course when gas prices dropped,
did those surcharges? No? Wait no, not a bit like

(10:13):
a temporary tax in DC. Stupid if we ever believed
that word. So it's the same sort of situation here
in Southwest is making the right kinds of calls.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, I too was surprised by the size of the fee.
You know, they could have just made a lot of money.
The fee could have been lower, and they could have
distinguished themselves from the other carriers by saying, hey, yes
we have to charge for bags, but we're not going
to charge as much as the other guys. So there's
an advantage to flying Southwest. So now they just have
to rely on the price that the ticket price advantage.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
And probably one of the things real quick that's forcing
a lot of this is the fact that we have
a lot of low cost carriers. Now, after the Deregulation
Act of nineteen seventy eight, we started to have a
lot of these you know, air Floorida and all these
other national areas we live at a lot of these
low cost carriers at the time, but they would be
here today, gone tomorrow type of thing, and that competition
really kept the airfares lower. But now we've got this

(11:07):
influx of a lot of really strong low cost carriers
like Allegiant, in Front Tier and many many others, and
it's really causing Southwest to compete in ways that they've
never had to do before. So that's why we're seeing
them drop certain routes where if they're not making enough profit,
they're simply going to say we're gonna drop this and

(11:27):
go somewhere else. Even if that plane is full, they
might take that aircraft and crew to another market where
seventy five percent of the aircraft being full they make
money on and that anything beyond that's even better. So
Southwest is starting to pivot a lot more like other
airlines have been doing of late. They're certainly late to
the party, but if there's any company that can can

(11:48):
figure this out and turn things around in the right way.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
It's gonna be Southwest.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
It's gonna be interesting to see as this progresses, just
how well Southwest can respond.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
All right, well, coming up, I guess Airbus joining the
Boeing problems or at least having problems, and Delta had
a bit of a unique situation having to divert a
flight that with Jay Rye Love one more segments, Hey,
forty five fifty five KCIT detalk station, be right back
fifty five KRC the talk station. Have you taken your fit?
One more time for the Channel nine weather, sunny day

(12:18):
to day highest seventy five, got rain shown up over
nine down to fifty seven. Sticking around that rain is tomorrow,
maybe a few heavy storms seventy for the high over
night little fifty eight with more rain partly sunny Saturday
high seventy five, sixty two degrees. Right now, Time for final.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Traffic from the UCL Traffic Center. You see healthy O fine,
comprehensive care. That's so personal and make sure best tomorrow possible.
That's boundless care for better outcomes. Expect more at you
see health dot com. Northbound seventy five continues to run
a bit slow between Dixie and Cos. But they clear
the accident that was on the right shoulder South Pound
seventy five break lights out of lock on and passed

(12:54):
are broken down in the cut. That's a broken down
pickup truck. Pull any camp Chuck ingram On fifty five
kars The talk station, Hey.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Forty eight five kars The talk station Happy Thursday, Tech
Friday with Dave Hatter every Friday at six thirty. Love
that segment. Also love the segments I had with Jay Rattle.
If I heard me avdation expert and pivoting over to
Delva Delta. Why did they have to divert a flight?
It's described here on my rundown as a rather unique situation.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
Jay, Well, I don't want to I don't want to
tell you everything, so but you can enjoy this story,
mister kerr Ball. But yeah, this is a Delta flight
from Detroit to Los Angeles this week had to divert
to Minneapolis. They had a medical emergency on board. The
aircraft wasn't a passenger to a dog. A dog. A

(13:44):
dog A dog was traveling with a pastor became sick.
They had a vetering area on board the flight that
they were able to locate, came to the dog and said, hey,
we've got a serious situation here. Delta diverted the flight
to Minneapolis, landed, They had a ground crew waiting medical
personnel for the dog, and took the dog in its

(14:04):
owner off the aircraft when it landed. Now, for those
that are not animal lovers, and I certainly am one,
they would look at this and say Delta did what.
But I'm sorry. If Delta does something stupid, I'm going
to be all over them. I am very, very pleased
with this. I thought it was a great thing to do,
and yeah, Delta did that tend.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
At great expense, I might add.

Speaker 4 (14:29):
Yeah, certainly inconvenience of the passengers on board of the airplane.
But Brian, I don't know. I've been doing this thirty
three years. I don't think I've ever had a dog
diversion story, and in this day and age where airlines
could care less, I'm shocked is probably the better word
for it. But I'm incredibly proud of Delta Airlines for
doing this.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
How about that? I wonder what the reaction from the
passengers was. Knowing that they were going to be diverted.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
You would know immediately who was a pet lover and
who was And you've got a feel for the business
traveler met a man or woman that's on their way
to the biggest deal of their life. They're getting psyched up,
they're going over their notes, they've got everything going for
their presentation.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
And we're diverting for a dog. Yeah. I could see
it both ways, but I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
The side of the fence I'm on is uh, you know,
because for a lot of these individuals that travel with pets,
it's from anxiety, and for some it's to replace a
loss in their life where they may have had a
spouse that they lost or a child and they had
this animal to kind of help fill a little bit

(15:32):
of that that huge hole. And if something were to
happen to that animal, yeah, it could have a, you know,
just a profound impact on that particular individual. So the
fact that Delta was this responsive, even though they've left
me at the gate before and left early and really
takes me off.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
I think I'm over that yet, Brian.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
No, I'm not.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
I am not.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
This took a little bit of the sting out of
that prior.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
And that's again I looked at.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Delta tick the shearing oilef when they bumped us out
of first class. We had tickets confirmed and they booted
us out, saying I'm sorry, we overbooked the flight, and
I'm like, excuse me, I know better you don't overbook
first class.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Oh no, we we.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
Had to do it because you bought your ticket on
a third party site. No again, bought it at Delta
dot com. But I was so ticked those number of
years ago. That's when I got on the big crusade up. Hey,
you've got to complaint dot dot gov. And I went
nuts for years because look, you know it just it
just frustrates me when I see airlines doing antics, when

(16:36):
they're lying to passengers and really not really being held accountable.
And that's why I had no problem at all making
sure that anybody on any carrier has an issue.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Currenter pass do ot dot gov.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Fair enough and real quick. Here do we know if
the dog's okay? Did it make it?

Speaker 4 (16:52):
I've not gotten the post report yet from Delta, but
we have asked. We'll have to wait and see next week,
because I know we have a dog update next week.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yes, sir, the dog lovers out there, including myself, of course, you.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Have got some pretty dogs.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Huge fan of dogs anyway. Air Bus joining the joining
Boeing with problems with delivery, although of a different sort.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, they've got a supply chain issue. They also have
a parts and labor issue. But the supply chain issues
just kind of been a thorn in their side. You
wouldn't know it, Brian. Last year Airbus delivered eight hundred
and twenty airplanes. Now that's when they get paid when
they turn the keys, if you will over to the airline.
Eight hundred and twenty. Last year Boeing three hundred and fifty.
So air Bus is kind of kicking Boeing's butt right

(17:37):
now and will continue to do so, and they want
to do more of it, but they have the supply
chain issues, the parts issues, and some of the labor
issues that's slowing them down to where they came out
yesterday saying, look some of these issues, we could see
a three year delay on some of our deliveries. So
it gives Boeing kind of that chance to try to

(17:57):
make up some of the ground. But looks lasting you
and I will is Boeing getting in a hurry doing anything,
because that's when they tend to cut corners and make
some really stupid decisions.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
So yeah, I understand that, but I still just am
reeling over the reality that Boeing hasn't been able to
deliver on a presidential airline for what an order that
was placed fifteen some odd years ago. That just seems
so hard to.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Fath I mean by two presidents.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Who presidents ago. Yeah, yep, yeah, it doesn't give you
a lot of faith in bone.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
Remember what President Trump did. He said, I'll give you
a bargain, well, buy two at a negotiated rate. Boeing
locked it in and Boeing is losing so much money
on that. President Trump saved taxpayers a ton of money
with that call, because he knows what he's doing when
it comes to making a deal.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Maybe that's why they're dragging their feet. Anyhow, let's move on.
We always close out with hub delays. How's it looking
out there for air travel today, Jay Ratliffe.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
All week long, the Northeast has been an absolute mess.
But in honor of our conversation and all your curve balls,
today's going to be a really good day in the Northeast. However,
issues in Atlanta and Charlotte are going to make up
for it. Big time DeLay's going through Atlantis. If you're
connecting through either of those two hubs, show up early
at the airport because we're gonna have some issues there,
but other than that, rest of the country is gonna
be in very good shape today.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Always a pleasure you're talking with the Jay Ratliffe. I
appreciate you take you the time you spend my listening
to me, always in interesting topics and a fun conversation.
We'll do it again next Thursday, and of course between
now and then, best of health you and your better half,
you too, my friend, Thank you, Thanks brother. Coming up
at eight fifty five you can get a chance to
listen Psmith Van and Christopher Smithvan mate. He was on
fire today usually is, but he had an extra spark

(19:32):
about him this morning. So check out the psmither vent
at fifty five cars dot com on the podcast page.
Of course, my conversation with Jay Ratliffe and I hope
you can tune in tomorrow. Of course Tech Friday with
Day Have Hatter every Friday at six thirty. Really important
segment and just a reminder, PG sitting Feld pardoned by
Donald Trump. That's an amazing thing to behold. Have a

(19:53):
wonderful day, folks. Thanks Joe Strekker for all that you
do producing the program and for alerting me to that
headline last minute this morning. Have a great day, folks,
and o'k go away because Glenn Beck's coming right up.
Stay on top of the day's biggest stories at the
top of.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
The hour, and that's so important.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Another update coming up on fifty five KRC, the talk
station