News and notes from around the interweb:
- Oh, come on.
This was waiting for me in my seat on my last @AmericanAir flight. I guess they do not clean anymore. pic.twitter.com/KUZMzxDYGU
— David Schwartz (@SchwartzMaster) July 22, 2025
The inflight team did not handle it. We had to ask more than once for a garbage bag to clean it up ourselves.
— David Schwartz (@SchwartzMaster) July 23, 2025
- What’s really broken with air traffic control staffing? It surprisingly not what you think. Bob Poole summarizes,
[T]he full-time equivalent (FTE) air traffic controller workforce has declined by 13% from 2010 to 2024. … [S]ince 2019, 30% of FAA air traffic control facilities have at least 10% fewer controllers than they need, and another 30% have at least 10% more than they need. This is not the simplistic “controller shortage” often discussed in aviation (and other) media.
…Another revelation is that the numbers we read about the length of time it takes an academy graduate to achieve certification (CPC) status are misleading. This averages 0.5 to 1.6 years at low-level facilities (about what people expect), but 2 to 2.8 years at intermediate (levels 7-9) facilities, and 3.9 to 4.3 years at level 10-12 facilities.
…Overtime use has grown from an average of 2% in 2013 to 9% today. Perhaps related is that time on position has declined significantly between 2010 and 2024. Another way of stating this is that regular hours worked per FTE have decreased 4% over this period, while overtime per FTE has quadrupled. …Perhaps the most troubling finding is that the FAA should request enough funding in its annual budget request to acquire the number of additional controllers its model says are needed.
- ANA flight arrived 18 seconds prior to the end of Frankfurt airport’s noise curfew, and was forced to go around extending flight time, burning fuel, bad for the environment – but a literal read of German law… and a microcosm of the broader decline in German society; the perfect example of how a reputation for efficiency and competence has been turned on its head. (HT: One Mile at a Time)
- Beloved peacocks reported stolen from historic California hotel (HT: Jonathan W)
- Miami airport restaurant now offers bottomless mimosas for $27.50 because clearly that’s the one airport that needs more drunk passengers. At least it’s not in the Spirit Airlines terminal.
- Passengers remember less of the safety stuff from playful safety videos than from dull, boring ones (HT: Paul H)
- If TSA’s shoe removal policy really did collectively cost passengers 15 million minutes then it was an economic cost to passengers of at least $12 billion.
Wait a sec, Gary, you know I deeply respect the reporting you do on this blog, but your headline contains a quotation that doesn’t appear to be attributable to verbatim words from either the AA twitter account or their flight attendants.
“Clean. Your. Planes.” Also, hire, train, support, and pay your cleaning crews well, so that stuff like this doesn’t happen. Stop blaming workers and consumers; this is a failure of management and a lack of leadership.
@1990- at what point do we drop the polite fiction that unskilled workers can do no wrong?
How much training does one need to understand that a Pringles can left by a previous customer should be removed before the next customer?
Doesn’t AA or its contractor disclose the wage at the time of hire? Insofar as the worker is paid that wage, I submit that any desire to increase wage should motivate the unskilled worker to upskill. Remember our discussion yesterday about how grinding it out in Manhattan law firms gets you to 8 figure equity partnership?
@Erect — If you don’t have the cleaning crew at the right place at the right time, that’s an operations failure, not yet another tired ‘nobody wants to work anymore’ trope.
Serious operational question for those in the know: does AA even have cleaning crews that board the aircraft for domestic (non-transcon) flights? As fast as they turn those birds, I have been operating under the assumption of years that the cleanup is handled entirely by the cabin crew.
There are cleaning crews after every flight albeit turns are tight and if the inbound flight is late cleaners aren’t going to get everything. We can go back to 1.5 hour turns and there would be more time to clean planes and we all can pay higher fares. Remember coach flying is largely unprofitable for most airlines.
Flight attendants have the responsibility to pick up trash inflight so why should this be any different? That’s part of the job description and job responsibilities. Don’t like it? Seek other employment opportunities. AFAIK there’s no serfdom in the airline business.
@George Romey — There’s still plenty of profit to go around; it’s just not going to where it needs to be. How a CEO can justify their $15-30 million compensation, while cleaners and flight attendants make $25-50K.
No, no… you guys are right; blame the lazy, entitled workers and those greedy, piggish passengers. Don’t blame leadership. Never…
First class…… No. Get the flight attendant’s name, deplane, file FAA complaint as wellas with airline, just to be a proportionally equal asshole.
“There’s still plenty of profit to go around” As Gary noted about AA:
“I note that the airline continues to lose money looking solely at transporting passengers.
Their passenger revenue per available seat mile was 16.90 cents
Their operating cost per available seat mile was 17.08 cents (this excludes, for instance, interest expense on $38 billion total debt)”
And, yes, the CEO making 1,000 times a cleaner’s salary makes sense given their relative potential to affect the bottom line. I also think Michael Jordan making 1,000 times the salary of back office personnel at the Bulls made sense and was fair.
@mesays…..Are you freaking serious? The FAA? for a potato chip can? Have you been living under a rock.
And no, AA crews don’t clean planes. Period.
SHHHH! Everybody will want one!!!
@George Romney you are not correct in your statement that there are cleaning crews after every flight. At many smaller outstations the cleaning is done by the flight crew or the ground crews and the most they usually do is a cursory cleaning and a trash emptying.
The problem with the ANA flight wasn’t with the airport rules or the ATC, it was with the pilots of the airplane. I am sure that the time the airport is open for flights is well known. Trying to be first in line is common among people. With all of the negatives for a go-around, the controlling authorities should fine the airline for getting there too soon. The pilots should have tried to get there maybe two minutes after the airport opened.
@This comes to mind — This isn’t professional basketball, and Isom is no MJ. Why must folks like yourself perpetuate these inequalities; it must get tiring carrying water for oligarchs (the ownership class) and their overpaid mercenaries (like the CEOs). 100x would be plenty. 1000x is obscene. Are you telling me CEOs can’t live off $2.5-5 million? No, they *need* $25-50 million! Psh.
*inequity (I mean, unfairness). I do not mean literal ‘equality,’ though, that’d be WILD. A social experiment! Calling all MBAs!
@1990 – surely you’re aware that $2.5-5 million is a firmly middle class income in VHCOL including, and maybe especially, Manhattan?
There’s a thread on reddit (I think in the fatFIRE sub) where people did the math on how much a Manhattan household needs to make to comfortably afford sending two kids to private school which is dearly needed. Public schools are full of gang members who can’t read.
The math turned out to be $2 million.
Presuming, reasonably, that CEOs ought to make more money than the consultants and lawyers who service them – and partner level MBB and Vault top law firms earn close to $10 million – at market rates, a CEO unironically needs to make $25-50 million.
Crews never clean planes at AA. I have no idea of where that idea came from. In the winter time I fly TUS/PHX a number of times and every time at TUS cleaners go onboard. Granted there isn’t a whole lot to do (normally) with a 100 mile inbound flight. Ditto MIA/TPA, MIA/MCO and CLT/RDU.
Possibly if a plane is late coming from a very short hop like those mentioned above the cleaners might be dispensed with and the crews “might” instead do a quick run through down the aisles to look for obvious trash in order to speed up the turn.
@David Scwartz. In an effort to boost executive bonuses( no more profit sharing with labor) cabin cleaning is contracted out to the lowest bidders. You get what you pay for. And the big boss has openly stated his policy ” don’t spend a dollar more than you absolutely have to.”
“Why must folks like yourself perpetuate these inequalities; it must get tiring carrying water for oligarchs (the ownership class) and their overpaid mercenaries (like the CEOs). 100x would be plenty. 1000x is obscene. Are you telling me CEOs can’t live off $2.5-5 million? No, they *need* $25-50 million! Psh.”
I never tire of expressing the conclusions I’ve drawn from >50 years of my university studies, academic research (including experiments I’ve conducted), and, most importanly, extensive reading of the great economic minds. I don’t worry that Taylor Swift, Warren Buffet, or Bill Gates make “too much” money: ain’t my call (or anyone else’s). Do it legally; that’s what the free market determines. And, having the interests of the “paycheck-to-paycheck” folks close to my heart (that is the world I grew up in), I have no qualms that a CEO can make 1000× or more of the lowest paid workers. Because, I have no doubt (from ample theory and evidence) that attempts to limit upper-end returns will hurt those lower earners, not help them. So, for those of you unfamiliar with the theory and data, please don’t suggest I defend the high earners to defend the high earners: I do it to defend us all. Remember, 73% of U.S. taxpayers spent at least one year in the top 20% of earners over a 44-year period studied.
and the AA flight attendants want to be paid more. What losers… seriously, do your job and provide good customer service. Until then, you don’t deserve any pay increases. I would go as far to say you deserve to be paid less.
I make 96$ an hour as an FA work 10 days a month, I’m not cleaning planes. @ Courtney WE ALREADY ARE PAID MORE !
@Tim ja — Not bad!
@This comes to mind — Regardless of your response, I continue to advocate for better pay for the workers, and greater protections for consumers.
If those goals threaten the excessive earning potential for the very top, then that is the root of the problem. Their unquenchable greed is coming at a very real cost for everyone else.
So, while you think this is just ‘the free market,’ no, it is not; it is varying forms of corporate capture of our politics and the greater economy. It is not a ‘free’ system; it’s stacked in-favor of those at the top, against everyone else.
@Erect — No one ‘needs’ $2.5+ million annual income to live comfortably anywhere, including in Manhattan.
A quick overview: ‘To live comfortably in the US, a single adult generally needs to earn at least $85,000, but this amount can vary significantly by location and lifestyle. In larger cities, this figure can be much higher, potentially exceeding $138,000 in New York City. A family of four typically requires a significantly higher income, potentially reaching $318,000 or more in major cities like NYC.’ Thankfully, in NYC, compensation is higher to meet those increased costs.
And, our public schools in NYC meet and exceed expectations in many ways, though there is always room for improvement.
ATC at Frankfurt could have adjusted their path to account for the seconds.
Most European airports have curfew so people can sleep. If you give every errant flight a waiver, then there are no rules.
Way off on this Gary. As an aside, if a Shinkansen train arrives a minute late or leaves a minute late, the train engineer always apologizes. So don’t come down on the airport. Rules are rules
@This comes to mind
” I also think Michael Jordan making 1,000 times the salary of back office personnel at the Bulls made sense and was fair.”
Difference being Jordan made his team better and by way of that, successful. If airline CEOs were paid on their relative results and not the high fantasy of “impact potential” most airlines would have gone the way of the Hartford Whalers by now.
The delusion that someone should be paid more simply because their job “seems more important” — even when they do it poorly and so poorly that they are annually the benefactor of millions of dollars in government subsidies to stay afloat is hilarious. It really leans into the phrase, “A stupid person’s idea of a smart person”, though. Cheers!