Airline Attitude Adjustment

Also available on the Calgary Herald Q

This Holiday Season, Air Canada received a record-number of complaints: 200 for the month of December alone. Usually, the Consumers Association of Canada only receives two or three. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that there was also a record-number of flights. Or, oh I don’t know: record snowfalls completely beyond the airline’s control.

I completely agree that the company has got to get its act together and work toward improved customer service, but doesn’t every company? The System is flawed. Show me a System that isn’t. Are we really going to get into a debate about the decline of standards in Western civilization? Are we really going to have the "I remember back in the day when customer service used to count for something" argument? Oh, and I used to have to walk to school, up a hill, through the snow, both ways. It leaves me wondering if consumers across the board have an over-inflated sense of entitlement. Maybe the consumers are the ones who need an attitude adjustment.

Personally I believe that most North Americans take air travel for granted. Rather than treating it as a privilege and a luxury, it is broached more as some sort of God-given right. Most of us have the means and the opportunity to go anywhere in this world with a little planning, foresight and ingenuity. It took Christopher Columbus six weeks to make it to the Dominican Republic: we can get there in six hours. We can FLY from Calgary to Vancouver for three hundred bucks, and it takes a little over an hour. I realize that it’s easy to lose sight of this ‘gift’ amidst the hassle of cancelled flights, long security lines, lost luggage and disgruntled customs officials, but if you prefer to drive, then by all means do so.

When it comes right down to it, Air Canada is a business. It is trying to keep up with a competitive market, skyrocketing prices in a failing economy, servicing clients who expect First Class Service on a Coach Budget. Now I know that expecting the bare minimum of service—that your flight leave on time and plant you safely at your destination with the luggage you showed up with—is not an unreasonable request.

Except that it maybe it is.

Each day in the United States, about 1.8 million people travel on thirty thousand flights from approximately 450 commercial airports. At any given minute during daylight hours, between six thousand and seven thousand aircrafts are in the skies over North America.* In 2006, the total number of passengers at Canadian airports exceeded the 100 million mark and Calgary International Airport itself services nearly 150,000 flights in and out of its tarmac annually. That’s more than 11 million passengers on domestic flights alone and in excess of 17 million including international and trans-border flights in and out of Calgary.

*Ref: "Smile When You're Lying" by Chuck Thompson.

It is inevitable that luggage is going to be lost in this gigantic beehive, flights delayed, weather inclement and customer service attendants cranky. Over the Holiday Season, the number of flights double. Add to that our snowiest Christmas in years and what you have, Ladies and Gentleman, is both a recipe for disaster and an invitation to stay on your couch.

Vowing to never again set foot on another Air Canada plane is obviously unrealistic. Most of us, whether we want to or not, will eventually have to bite the bullet. Does this mean that we need to lower our expectations? Not necessarily.

But maybe it’s time that our expectations become more in line with the modern-day reality of air travel. Maybe a little more respect is merited for the mechanics required to get this massive and largely invisible show on the road. It’s a pain in the ass. So deal with it. And when you get to Mumbai or Frankfurt or Sydney, be sure to send me a postcard about how much Air Canada sucks.