Skift Take
FAA is one big PR disaster away from clamping down on the cost-cutting-leading-to-lower-safety ways, but it may need that one push for that action.
Source: Buffalo News
Author: Jerry Zremski
After the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 in Clarence three years ago, Colgan Air, the low-cost regional airline that operated that flight on behalf of Continental, came under heavy criticism for the inexperience of its pilots and the low salaries they earned.
But now Colgan's parent company, Pinnacle Airlines, is losing business as its main remaining partner, Delta Airlines, opts to work with regional airlines that employ pilots with less experience and lower pay grades.
What's more, a regional airline that's grabbing Delta's flights away from Pinnacle, GoJet, and its sister company Trans States Airlines agreed in March to pay a $1.35 million fine for maintenance violations. The Federal Aviation Administration's initial complaint against GoJet and Trans States, filed two years ago, said those maintenance lapses "endangered the lives" of passengers and air crews.
Add it all up, and the Families of Continental Flight 3407 and other aviation safety experts agree: The airline industry's cost-cutting "race to the bottom" continues, despite the passage of a broad-ranging aviation safety law in wake of the Clarence crash.
"The race to the bottom will exact its toll not just in labor costs, but in safety," said Susan Bourque, one of the leading members of the Flight 3407 families group. "How can anyone who flies not be concerned that the airline who could operate the most ch
