Mark Coffman has seen it all in his 16 years in the customer service trenches for United Airlines.
The 1991 gulf war that prompted thousands to abandon their airline travel plans; the job action by UAL pilots during the summer of 2000 that forced the cancellation of more than 27,000 flights; the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11; and the industry’s and United’s continuing recovery in the wake of the attacks.
“My first week in the job at O’Hare was the security breach in August 1999,” said Coffman, manager of customer service at O’Hare International Airport. He was referring to the forced evacuation of thousands of travelers from Terminal One after a man carrying a canvas bag darted past a security guard and disappeared into the throngs of travelers crowding the terminal.
It was a trial by fire: Thousands of passengers missed connecting flights or had to be rebooked onto flights that had been forced to sit at boarding gates waiting for an all-clear.
“O’Hare is a very difficult place to manage,” said Coffman, who is leaving for an executive position with AT&T Broadband. “It’s tough to get your arms around it when have 30 to 40 planes pull in late.”
But the past nine months have been the toughest, swinging from the lows after the attacks to the cancellations of thousands of flights and subsequent employee layoffs to the highs associated with an airline operating “on time.”
“The lines are almost non-existent for the customer service counters,” he said. “It is wonderful to have so few customers impacted by operational problems.
“United’s employees recognize this is what we need to do going forward. All parties are very vested right now. Everyone is very vested in the future of the company. Everyone knows the urgency,” Coffman said, acknowledging he’s going to miss the airline business.
Investment changes sought: Donald Carty, chairman and chief executive of American Airlines, this week said it is time for the government to cut the shrink-wrap binding the nation’s airline industry.
Saying that alliances with other international carriers don’t provide the benefits of ownership, Carty told a conference of the American Association of Airport Executives that it is time to drop “all investment restrictions.”
Under federal law, foreign companies are barred from owning more than a 25 percent interest in U.S. airlines. The 1950s-era law was written at a time when airlines were flag carriers.
“At a time of unprecedented financial losses, when the very survival of many carriers is in question, what sense does it make to cut our industry off from half the world’s capital supply?” he asked.
Carty’s proposal is likely to prompt opposition in some government circles, just as the abandoned acquisition of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway by the Canadian National Railroad aroused the concerns of U.S. military officials two years ago. Pentagon officials said they were concerned about a potential conflict with moving military equipment on a railroad owned by a Canadian company.
Still, Carty said he believes efforts to block airline expansion need to be lifted–provided U.S. carriers receive the right to invest in foreign airlines.
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“In other industries, globalization is fueling mergers and acquisitions and other sorts of business combinations. And since there are no flag chemical companies or flag shoe companies, these combinations are able to progress,” he said.
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