IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff talks about the week in aviation

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Many things to be thankful for. To be otherwise, brother,
you know that is I know it's been a very
good day.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
That's why I love the post you put up on
Facebook because always have this inspirational positive message. You know,
there's always something positive you can focus on, and that's
why I like you so much. You're good man. Jay
Rat left and what happened to Southwest? Real quick? Your
curve all time? Last time you were on you were talking.
I think it was Spirit Airlines who was getting rid
of reclining seats or you had to pay extra for them.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, actually that's West Jets West and yeah, west Jet
in Canada. They're kind of the Southwest Airlines, if you will,
of Canada to a smaller version. They're premium seats, are
seats that we can pay extra for if we want,
if you want to really like the premium service of reclining. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
But Southwest just has redesigned their interiors of all some
of their airplanes anyway, and they're now switching to brand
new Riccaro R two seats featuring multi adjustable headrest, kitchen,
integrated tablet and phone holder in the rear and in
seat power with integrate USBA and Sports. Sounds like they're
going the opposite direction. Didn't they pay attention to making

(01:05):
us more miserable in order to make more money?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Jay, Well, you know, but part of this is also
so they can put in their premium seats, which are
things that they are just now doing, because they've got
the assigned seats that are coming up, and they've got
the premium seats where you can pay to sit in
a seat that's got a little bit more leg room
because Southwest really learned a couple of years ago that
they really needed to start paying attention to the fact

(01:29):
that there's a segment of the traveling pump population that's
willing to pay above and beyond what they would normally
pay for an airfare for a more comfortable seat with
more legram. And I love the fact they're going to
assigned seating that means no more of these wheelchairs out
the door type of thing where people are just trying
to get on early. But the idea that you're going

(01:50):
to have the ability to have a premium seat, which
is a little bit larger seat, a little bit more legram, well,
I don't think the seat's larger, but you've got more legroom.
More pitched between rows is going to be a great thing.
Because Delta and United reported earnings recently and they were
incredibly strong, and they credited this the premium seats that
they've been selling and how popular they have been, and

(02:14):
how they continue to make that one of their their
primary you know, marketing points. And you know other airlines
are doing the same thing. They're recognizing that. Look, yeah,
cramming as many seats onto an aircraft as you can
is one thing. It's like that double decker aircraft, the
airbus A three eighty. If it's all coach configuration, no
business class, no first class, no premium seats, you can

(02:36):
put eight hundred people on that airplane.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Oh lord, I.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Think that's tempting fate. But that's another story. But that's
the first came from you got that right. So, but
you know, when when airlines start putting in the first
class seats, the business class, and then these premium seats,
which are the you know, the extra comfortable coach seats. Uh,
some airlines found out that the coat the premium coach

(03:01):
seats were more popular than some of their first class
seats and some of their business class. So we've actually
seen airlines over the last couple of years removing some
of the business class first class seats so they can
make more room to put more of these premium seats
in because even though they obviously sell them at a
reduced price versus what they took out, they can put

(03:22):
in more of those, and they sell those out much
more frequently than they do the seats that many times
they are just an upgrade for people with their frequent
flyer miles, where really, you know, they're not getting a huge,
you know, benefit from a revenue standpoint. So yeah, it's
fascinating to see this shift to premium seats. It doesn't
surprise me because as tough as it is to endure

(03:45):
travel these days, to pay a couple extra dollars to
sit in those premium seats, it's certainly the way.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
To do it well, and almost a requirement considering society's
collective girth is increasing even as we speak. Got to
have room to put the person, and I would be
willing to pay extra for some space if I had
a girth issue. Pause from it will bring Jay Ratlif
back plenty to talk about with his massive A new
wreckon river near del High, kingram On fifty five K

(04:13):
the talk station. We've ever been in a cockpit before? Hey,
thirty eight fifty one air CD talk station returning with
iHeartMedia Aviation expert Jay Rattlift. You were one other thing right,
and again not on your list?

Speaker 1 (04:27):
But how why reference what I send you? That's mine?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
No, we'll get to all that. I just like to
build a.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Fit all the time your show, brother, you lead.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
I don't want to have to go back and leave
myself to my own devices. I have you as a
vehicle to keep the conversation going. Jay, you know that's fine.
Pete Heggsa's flight had to divert. They a windshield got cracked.
How does a windshield get cracked? Or is this a
fairly common phenomenon. I'd never read about that before.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, you know, when when you're talking about a cockpit windshield,
you're talking about several different layers of protection. When you
look at it, because it's multi layered, it's obviously very
high strength, and there's a lot of times that this
this acrylic glass, if you will, can shatter. It's not

(05:19):
like it blows out, but it cracks. And when you're
in the cockpit, when that happens, it sounds like a
gun went off, but because of the fact it's multi layered,
a lot of times you've just got one layer of
those I think three that you have there that has
been impacted. So what happens is the plane normally will
make an unscheduled landing. It's not necessarily considered an emergency landing.

(05:42):
But the land because obviously the you're worried about the
rest of the windshield components, which even though they're in separately,
contains separately. It happens frequently. The biggest issue is if
they're landing, it could impair the pilot's ability to see
the sure an extent. But no, I mean it's they happen.

(06:04):
And when you look at the number of flights that
we have in the course of a day, a week,
a month, a year, I'm surprised we don't have more
occurrences of that taking place. But the pictures when you
do a Google image of the cockpit windshields when they
do this, yeah, it's something to look at for sure.
Fair Enough, in aviation terms, it's almost a non event,

(06:26):
other than the fact that if you're drinking coffee when
it starts, you might spill your coffee, because you get
it's quite a start because you've got that cockpit the
flight deck that's contained, so anything in there it echoes,
but at a much louder sound. And believe me, the
flight crew was made aware of it immediately when it.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Happened, I imagine, So so in addition to cleaning up
the coffee, you probably had to hit the restroom and
do a shorts change, at least I would anyway. But oh,
to Boeing, it looks like they're on the move in
terms of deliveries. They're increasing the deliveries behind air busts though,
but are they delivering planes that are set jay We hope.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
So that is the plan, and normally Boeing an Airbus
it's fifty to fifty, but obviously with the production delays
that we've been talking about with Boeing, that's not been
the case for the last several years. But Boeing is
starting to close the gap. I was looking at the
numbers for Airbus. Airbus has delivered five hundred and sixty
eight aircraft to date and Boeing four hundred and forty.

(07:24):
Now that's a little bit closer than what it's been
of late, but what's really interesting, Brian, and we've talked
about this from time to time, is the backlog of airplanes. Now,
keep in mind, Airbus is hoping to deliver about nine
hundred airplanes this year. They have a backlog at Airbus
of eight thousand, seven hundred and sixteen jets that they
still have to build. Airbus has got the eighty seven hundred.

(07:47):
Boeing's backlog is sixty five hundred and thirty one jets
between them, that's fifteen thousand planes that have been ordered
that they have yet to be built and delivered. And
that's if you order a jet today, yeah, it's going
to be delivered sometime during the next presidential administration, because
it's going to take a long time. When you're cranking

(08:08):
out a thousand airplanes a year and you've got a
backlog of eighty seven hundred, Yeah, it's going to take
some time. And that's why a lot of times we
talked about why do one airline buy another airline because
the fact that if you want to increase the size
of your fleet, yeah, you can get in line with
everybody else, or you can go buy a Spirit or

(08:29):
somebody else and immediately increase your fleet. By a couple
hundred aircraft of the type that that you want to use.
So that's one of the reasons a lot of times
you'll see those acquisitions. It's not so much market based,
you like where they fly, the schedule type of thing.
It's the fact that you want the equipment that that
air airline saw or flies. But yeah, Boeing's making up

(08:50):
some distance there and yeah, we'll see if they can
continue to close that gap.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
All right, Well, considering the data, the data of you know,
signing the contract to purchase and the data delivery decade,
what of all the technological advances that might occur of
that period of time, wouldn't you want the most state
of the art, safest, quietest, most efficient fuel wise aircraft?
And I got to imagine that type of research and
development is going on all the time. We've got a
lot quieter planes out in the world than we used to. So, yeah,

(09:16):
are you getting today? Like if I order in twenty
twenty five, is that the kind of technology I'm getting
in twenty thirty five when the thing shows up? Or
do you get the benefit of an improvements?

Speaker 1 (09:26):
You do? Because what happens the avionics package is normally
one of the last things that they're going to be
putting in. So it's going to be the state of
the art of what you have a lot like the
power plane or the engines that you put on an
aircraft or are you know, towards the end of the
aircraft be being produced and installed. So that's one of
the things that you look at there. So, yeah, you
would be getting the benefit of that. That would be

(09:46):
almost insult to injury if you had to worry, if
you had to worry about getting an airplane, Yeah that
had a package of you know, ten years old on
some of its components. Yeah, that's not what we're after,
and fortunately that's not the case. But you know, these airplanes,
they continue to get more quiet, they continue to get
more fuel efficient, and they allowed the airlines to be

(10:08):
more profitable. And you know, one of the things that
blows my mind to this day is continuing to see
airlines like Delta in United that report quarterly profits of
more than a billion dollars. Delta just last week announced
their third quarter profit was one point four billion dollars
in the third quarter. United United was a much less

(10:31):
impressive nine hundred million, I think or so in the
third quarter. But Brian, what what just blows my mind
is I remember all the decades when airlines were losing
money like crazy. You couldn't get Warren Buffett to buy
an airline stock if you dared him. But what happened
was airlines have gotten to the point now where they're
using the credit cards and the other things to help

(10:52):
them make this money. From a revenue standpoint, last year,
the big four airlines made eight billion dollars in profit collectively,
those four. But when you look at the boring numbers
what we talk about the available seat miles per carrier
and the revenue generated per available seat mile, they're actually
losing money on the transportation side of the equation. Think

(11:14):
about that. If all they did was transportation and that
was the sole vein of their revenue stream, they would
be losing money in a lot of it. But because
they've got the ancillary fairs and those credit cards, you're
now seeing this revenue being generated at just an unbelievable pace.
And that's why you know, everybody's got a credit card

(11:35):
that's tied to miles and things of this nature. Whether
or not we use them or not another thing. But
that's where they're making this money from other resources in
additional revenue streams, and it's really become a multifaceted business
where you've got these multiple revenue streams that are contributing
to these un I mean, the idea that an airline
could make a billion dollars in profit in a year

(11:57):
was unthinkable a number of years ago. Now you've got
United doing it almost every quarter, as is Delta, and
it's mind boggling mind modeling.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Most notably that it isn't based upon the core function
of their business, which is air travel.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Why do that? You know, any business has multiple revenue streams,
they need to. But when you look at the fact that, hey,
we're in business to transport people, and just because of
the competition, thank God for the low cost carriers. That's
why anytime we get a low cost carrier in Cincinnati,
and we've had some recent news with Frontier and Allegiance
which has really been exciting at Cincinnati. I love it

(12:31):
because the stronger these low cost carriers are, the more
in check they keep these larger legacy carriers. And regardless
of which city I'm talking to across the country, when
they say, hey, Jay, we just landed a Breeze or
a Legion or Frontier. I'm thinking, great, make sure you
support them because they're the reason that we have these
low fares. If these airlines, like a Spirit and others

(12:53):
start to disappear from the landscape, we're toached because these
large legacy carriers will start to raise their their fare.
As we've seen before.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
The old CDG. Yeah, the old CDG.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
And that's what Well, we had no competition at the time,
no low cost carriers. So Frontier kind of broke that
model a number of years ago. Thank God for that,
bringing that one flight from Dayton that they had for
seven years down to Cincinnati to Denver and the next
thing you know, they're going crazy. Here comes Allegiant, here
comes everybody else. Right, So it's because of that, So
please continue to support those low cost carriers. And at

(13:24):
that the website at the Cincinnati Airport CBG Airport, you
can see where some of these new low cost carriers
are bringing him back some of their seasonal service, introducing
new service, and it's really some exciting things to see
and I'm thrilled that the community is supporting them as
we are.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Jay Ralip pause, We're ringing back for a real quick hit.
We'll end on a comical note and even though it
involves a sad and pathetic passenger and to get a
hub delay, don't go way right back s THEEP talk
station eight if you want, if you five care City
Talk Station closing another Thursday with one more second with
iHeartMedia aviation expert Jay Ratliffe from the Don't Be That

(14:03):
Guy file. We got another passenger attacking crew members. What's
this one all about, Jay, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
This is a don't be that woman story because this
was a sixty sixty one year old passenger that was
aboarded a Last Airlines flight. It was scheduled to fly
from Portland to Dallas. But during the course of the flight,
this woman started acting irrationally and flight attendants were trying
to come to her aid. Well that's when she struck them,
and that's all it took that she was immediately restrained.

(14:29):
Flight was diverted and you know it's bad when you
have to divert to Boise, Idaho, but that's where they
landed to get her off, and obviously the airline quickly
came out saying, you know, charges could be filed obviously,
you know, assaulting a flight attendant, and also that she'll
never be flying a Last Airlines ever again, which is good.
But then back to my overused comment that she can

(14:52):
still fly any other airline in the country she wants
to after assaulting a crew member, which should not be allowed,
but continues to be so. So one of these, Brian,
it's going to take something serious and that's when the
airlines are going to decide that that's when they need
to do it, at which point we'll be screaming why
did it take this long for us to make that
kind of a decision.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
It's like our lithium battery discussions from time to time. Yeah,
wait till that happens on an eight hundred passenger airplane.
Jay Ratliff, let's hope, not hop, lee all right, as
we typically do or always do, if we can fit
in hub delays. How's it looking out there today for
air travel, one of.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
The days of the week we've had to fly. I
think Salt Lake City is about the only hub that
I've been able to find from a weather standpoint that
could see some delays. Chicago may be late in the day,
but I think that's going to be minimal. I think
it's gonna be Salt Lake, and I don't think the
delays are going to be any more than thirty to
forty minutes there. So if you picked today, you picked
a great one, knowed from the good weather standpoint, but

(15:49):
probably a reduction in turbulence, which is also nice. But
that doesn't mean not to keep seat, bet On, please
do so. Is you flying fair enough?

Speaker 2 (15:55):
But what I'm hearing is the government shut down, even
though it may impact air travel, controller salaries or something,
is not impacting air travel itself at least yet.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
No. Last Friday we had thirty nine hundred flights that
were delayed, and a lot of that's being touted because
of the shutdown. Blah blah blah blah blah. But again,
to introduce facts to the story, the average number of
delays we've had this year has been forty one hundred
a day. We actually had fewer delays on the snapshot
I took on Friday than what we normally have, So

(16:28):
that would lend me to say, yes, we are having
pockets of problems. I won't discount that, But Brian, don't
tell me we're having a coast to coast problem. If
we have fewer delays now per day than what we
have normally.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Fair enough, Jay Rayliffe, thank you so much for joining
the program every week. I thoroughly enjoy our exchange and
the information we talk about, and I'll look forward to
next Thursday and another discussion between now and then. Best
of health and love to you and of course your
better half.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Same to you, my friend.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Thank you, Thanks brother. It's a fifty four right now
if you get a chance to listen in