JetBlue

Harold Meyerson tries to take JetBlue and the airline industry to task in today's column:

Amid the horrific images that flashed across our TV screens during the past month, there was one last week that stood out because it was so unexpectedly reassuring: that of a supremely competent pilot steering a JetBlue airliner with jammed front wheels to a safe landing at Los Angeles International Airport.

Since last week's landing, though, we've learned a couple of other things that aren't quite so comforting -- for instance, that this was at least the seventh time that the front wheels on an Airbus A-320 have gotten locked in the wrong position.

More surprising still was the news about JetBlue's long-term maintenance of its aircraft. When the planes are inspected for damage and then reassembled, the work takes place either in Canada or El Salvador.

El Salvador?

When JetBlue first took to the air in 2000, rather than hire its own long-term maintenance department, the company subcontracted that work to Air Canada and the Central America-based TACA. It's certainly cheaper: According to a Wall Street Journal story last January, the Salvadoran mechanics make $300 to $1,000 a month -- far less than their U.S.-based counterparts. Roughly one-third of the Salvadoran mechanics have passed the exam that qualifies them for the Federal Aviation Administration's license, while in the United States, such licenses are required for all mechanics employed directly by the airlines.

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But such licensed, in-house mechanics are increasingly the exception at U.S. airlines. About half of the long-term maintenance on the planes of U.S. carriers is outsourced, and much of that work takes place overseas, where FAA inspections are a sometime thing. Indeed, the point of this story isn't that JetBlue's decisions are in any way exceptional. To the contrary, by going abroad for work that would previously have been performed at home (and except for maintenance, JetBlue doesn't fly outside the United States), and by prioritizing costs over more closely inspected maintenance, the airline is an exemplar of 21st-century capitalism.

No, the point of this story is that 21st-century capitalism has plunged us into a world of great and avoidable risk.

OK, so JetBlue and others have some of their maintenance work performed overseas, including El Salvador and Canada (horrors!). But so what? Well, allegedly this makes us more unsafe. But does it? I went and looked up info on JetBlue's safety record. Here's what Time magazine had to say:

Five-year-old JetBlue has built its reputation on low fares, sassy advertising and Live TV on board—a feature that scared some passengers who watched their unfolding drama on news channels—and is one of the few airlines that has remained profitable since 9/11. But more important than the bottom line to JetBlue has always been safety: the airline lists 'safety' as one of its first five core principles, has a sterling safety record and a rigorous training regimen for crew members. Chief Operating officer Dave Barger, the son of a United Airlines pilot, constantly reinforces that message whenever he speaks to employees. Several years ago the airline hired Steve Predmore, an experienced staffer at the National Transportation Safety Board, to be its head of safety.

Hmmm. Well, with Time part of the corporate media perhaps one would expect such fawning praise. So then I went to airsafe.com to see what I could find:

JetBlue Airlines has not had any passenger fatalities since it began service in 2000. The airline has experienced one serious incident involving an uncommanded roll during a landing attempt at JFK airport in New York in May 2000.

Indeed, this seems to be supported by a query of incidents involving JetBlue at the National Transportation Safety Board's website.

But what about the airline industry in general? Has it become more unsafe due to this push for profits? Not according to this chart (suffice to say a significant number of the airline fatalities for 2001 have little to do with faulty maintenance).

What Meyerson doesn't seem to get, what completely goes over his head, is that a push for profits and safety aren't exclusive of one another. In the free-market there already exists a huge incentive for high safety standards. If your planes crash, people probably won't want to fly them. Planes are expensive, crashing them hurts the bottom line. From a purely profit-driven standpoint you want to be as safe as possible -- even if you secretly hate all of your customers.

In fact, if you actually stop to consider Meyerson's column it's really quite breath-taking in its stupidity. He begins by citing the recent JetBlue incident and then points out the airline's maintenance practices -- nevermind the fact that there is no apparent connection between the two! In fact, if there are any suspicions raised here, it's over the Airbus, which apparently has a history of such incidents. Why doesn't Meyerson address this? It is because Airbus is the creation of European governments who continue to shower the firm with subsidies that protect it from free-market pressures? Is it because the firm's two assembly plants are located in Toulouse, France and Hamburg, Germany instead of El Salvador?

Oh, and one more fact that must stick in Meyerson's craw -- JetBlue is union-free. Coincidentally -- or not -- the firm has a reputation for excellent customer service:

True to his roots at Southwest, Neeleman's also built an airline that excels at customer service. He's made finding employees who know how to keep customers coming back such a priority that getting hired is harder than being accepted into the Ivy League. Last year 130,000 applicants vied for 2,000 jobs. To choose its hires, JetBlue tests them on how they would handle a long list of hypothetical situations involving demanding passengers.

Neeleman asks each person he hires to follow a few corporate commandments known as the Values, embodying safety, caring, integrity, fun, and passion. Perhaps because the airline is doing so well, some employees willingly go beyond these edicts. "Right now, it's a lot like working for Microsoft in the '80s," says Chris Calta, the company's customer service training manager. That may also explain why a group of New York gate agents was spotted last winter spontaneously breaking out into a little song and dance for passengers delayed by weather. "I really am evangelical about being nice," says Neeleman.

Viva capitalism.