Survey: US Airways skimping on safety

From the Charlotte Observer

Many of the 1,560 pilots surveyed “feel pressed to push in areas where it would be better to slow down,” according to a survey summary obtained by the Observer.

US Airways officials say many of the concerns are unwarranted and that the survey is being used by pilots to gain leverage in contract negotiations.

Although I do like to rip on US Airways for various things, overall they do have very senior pilots.  Their pilots have very nice take-offs and landings.  I”m surprised by the statement there are 4,100 pilots though because they all seem to have the same voice.  I guess that 1 guy flies around with the other 4,099.

Sure US Airways fronted by Doug Parker is more vocal about penny pinching as far as on board service so it’s not a far stretch to many that they are probably pinching pennies other places as well.  This story wasn’t very detailed about safety issues about maintenance so I can’t really link it to the previous story about outsourcing.  US Airways has been doing very well in on-time performance, although a lot of the issues I’ve seen that would contribute to an on time push back are issues like checking bags at the last minute due to full overheads (a non-issue before baggage fees) or other issues that seem more in the realm of gate agents instead of the pilots.  Maybe that is the real issue though…pilots think something is not right and instead of fixing the logs or calling maintenance they just let it go.

The billboard about the lack of a contract is back up on Billy Graham Pkwy and the pilots recently held a mini strike at CLT so I do agree with the observer that this probably has more to do with that than actual safety issues.