and joining us. Now.
David Slotnick, senior aviation business reporter at the points guy.
Thanks so much for joining us. Tell us how significant this move is on United's part.
And also is this just what the industry actually needs at a time like this.
Good morning. Thank you for having me.
Yeah, it's a pretty significant move.
You know,
it's not necessarily unique for us airlines to have some kind of a training program.
The difference here is that a lot of the other airlines outsource them?
It's it's not really a wholly owned controlled thing.
So in the United States here, it's actually owning the school,
It's running the school itself.
And it's pretty much guaranteeing a job pipeline for graduates.
Um you know,
one of the biggest issues that they're having is that the regional airlines,
the smaller airlines that subcontract for the bigger ones.
Um and this is basically guaranteeing two years
of pilot staffing for these regional airlines.
Um
You know,
and it's guaranteeing two years of regional
experience for the students who complete it,
at which point they can graduate up to the main airline.
It's so it's a pretty big deal. Yeah.
Yeah. And do you think this is a trend that we're going to see with more airlines?
I think we saw a similar move made with american airlines.
Yeah. So americans is definitely a good program.
The difference is that it's not owned by the airline and
there's also no real guarantee of job placement for the graduates.
So people who are in the program are still Fronting a lot of
money with no necessarily without necessarily having a guarantee of a job.
Um You know, I spoke to my colleague Ethan Klapper who was live at the
at the launch for the Aviate academy and he spoke with a bunch of
students there who are really just excited
about the future prospects that they have.
Um You know, especially at a time like this,
having that job security when you're fronting a lot of
money for pilot training is a really big benefit.
So
you know, it's possible that other airlines end up
copying this example. It really depends I think on how well it works.
Yeah. And we know that airlines could really use this.
Of course it is an investment but an investment into the
future because the labor shortage has really hit the industry hard.
Um, but switching gears here,
we know airlines being forced to cancel more than 5000 U.
S. Flights over the weekend.
How bad do you think this looks for the airline industry?
Especially as we look to the next few months for
recovery and kind of a rebound as whether warms up.
And also a lot of the projections from these
airlines or that travel will ramp up as well.
You know,
I don't think it's as bad as some of the
other incidents we've had over the last few months.
I think the difference here is that this was
a snowstorm that everyone really knew was coming.
I spoke with a handful of people who were supposed to fly this weekend.
And so their flights get canceled and pretty much all of them
said that they got the cancelation notices on thursday on friday.
Um, and they were already rebooked on new flights by the time they got that notice,
you know, the fact that the airlines can sort of handle these
predicted known issues in advance.
Um, really, I think earns them a lot of good will.
It's a lot of help and it makes it easier for the passengers who are disrupted than,
you know, what we would have seen in a similar blizzard even 23 years ago.
Um,
You know, going forward,
I think the airlines obviously are working on
making sure that their operations are really cemented.
Uh, staffing is still an issue, not just pilots, but across the board,
at airports on airplanes.
Um, and all the airlines are very aggressively trying to hire right now. Um,
You know, it's something that we're going to see.
B I think an issue for the rest of the year as travel ramps up as you say.
Um, but the good news is that it looks like travel demand is coming back.
We're already seeing uh,
demands start to search post omicron as the outbreak isn't expected to receive.
Well, that would definitely be good news.
Um,
also the Wall Street Journal out with its annual airline
ranking the once popular JetBlue in last place here.
What do you think the signals about the industry
and what would jet Blue need to do as an
airline to kind of climb its way back up to some part of the top of this ranking.
So I mean it's two fold.
You know, on the one hand,
it's a little bit hard to judge airlines by the
standards that we have before during a pandemic year.
Things were just so unusual last year, but on the other hand,
this is sort of the new normal were working under a new scenario.
Um,
and JetBlue clearly wasn't able to handle that as well as some of the competitors.
The Wall Street Journal focuses a lot on punctuality,
on flight completion and you know, when it comes down to it.
Experience matters on a flight.
Um, schedule matters, cost matters,
but really punctuality and just completing the flight is the most important metric
um, to get back to the top of the ranking,
I think generally was really going to have to work on just
hiring and retaining staff and just keeping its operation running smoothly.
And David, last question before we let you go,
you mentioned kind of the rebound that we're expecting
already seeing some of that travel demand pickup,
which is certainly a good look for the industry.
Um,
we also know a lot of companies looking to get
those return to office date sometime in the spring.
How do you think business travel is going to play into the rebound for aviation.
Yeah, the business travel is the most important thing.
It yields higher than leisure travel by far,
even if it's a smaller overall volume of their travel demand.
Um,
there has been business travel and it's been
going on really through 2021 at least um,
since the vaccine started rolling out, but it's never really been at full scale.
I think that when offices reopen and people are making office
visits and going to different sites and things like that,
going for meetings that they haven't been able to do in person for two years.
I think that's really going to be the boost the airlines
are waiting for their just very eager for that to happen.
Alright, David Slotnick, senior aviation business reporter at the points Guy,
Thanks so much for joining us here on cheddar news.