American Airlines has parked about 100 regional jets because it can’t get enough pilots to fly them. CEO Robert Isom told an investor conference regional carriers are hardest hit by the pilot shortage. “There is a supply and demand imbalance right now, and it really is within the regional carrier ranks,” the Dallas Morning News reported him as saying. “We have probably 100 aircraft or almost 100 aircraft that aren’t productive right now, that aren’t flying.” The loss of the aircraft, mostly smaller planes with about 50 seats, has been blunted somewhat by the use of larger aircraft by the regionals.
Paul: Thank you and I agree that AirVenture made the right call. I know that other Avweb readers will disagree. To them, I say do you really think that Jack Pelton and the EAA folks based their incredibly tough decision to cancel on the so called hysterical, left leaning, out-to-get-Trump media? Or perhaps they based their decision on the best scientific data and public health guidance available to them? I mean, c’mon,
As an aviation enthusiast, I don’t dispute that the decision really sucks. But it is a necessary decision in order to save lives. You can be angry and indignant, if you must. But I don’t think that any virus cares much about anyone’s anger or indignation.
Everyone stay safe and healthy - we are all in this together.
It was the right decision for many reasons for the EAA to cancel. Yesterday I was convinced G/A and the airline industry was finished. It was the airlines that brought us this pandemic and society is thinking twice about travel. And who has money left to spend on personal travel, (tourism), and aviation? How do you cut capacity and not lose money? As I write this, I learned Mr. Buffet has jumped out of the airplane, and sold off his entire holdings of the airline industry. That is a very bleak outcome for the airlines. However, that leaves every reason for G/A to thrive. There are definitely going to be very few airlines left to serve the country, so G/A should be able to continue forward as time moves on. General aviation has the added benefit of a relatively sterile mode of transportation.
The decision is not brave, it’s not courageous, it’s not even based on what we now know as far as the nature of the virus. We are emerging from the flu season and the late July time is historically safe to be outside and enjoying the sunlight as any other year. There is zero evidence that this year will be different. None. Nada.
I assume that the decision is based on money; that attendance will be down so profits will be down. That’s fine; but I would have respect for EAA if they had expressed money as the reason. Personally I am not renewing my EAA membership because the only reason I do renew it is for for AirVenture. It’s unfortunate that the organization based n freedom and managed risks has succumbed to the irrational.
Agree with you Mark. Too busy to watch cable TV, rely on other people to keep me informed on the virus hysteria. I’m heavily employed in the Aviation industry and never been busier.
Once again, reporting favors the negative and the positive gets ignored. There was once a time when people thought Pilots are ‘Fearless Leaders’. Fortunately the ones in my circles still are.
Your comments on G/A may be spot on. My company’s DO and higher ups keep telling our pilots that our clients and owners are just waiting for the restrictions to be lifted and plan to fly their planes a lot. Not much flying happening now but the company’s business model has enabled us not to lay off or cut pay. Company is also planning trips in a way to minimize or eliminate any airlining to position crews.
As long as it was a business decision by EAA to cancel, then so be it. My current company and my first company after 9/11 stay/stayed in business by not flying trips at a loss. Many small freight carriers folded after 9/11 doing trips at a loss. Would not be surprised if that happens again after this current event. If that many possible spectators are not planning to attend due to the current concerns, it makes little sense to proceed if the event is going to lose money. Now if it was a political decision. . .
I have much respect for Paul when it comes to aviation but this isn’t about aviation. This is about Chicken Little Culture. And I agree with you 100%. Common logic says if grocery stores and what some entity decides what is an essential business can stay open, then it should be about personal choice. I also agree with you this is all about money. Or the lack of what might have come in as a result of the Scare Factor that seems to be so prevalent with at least half our population. If EAA had come clean with the real reason, it would be more palatable. My membership doesn’t end for several months but, I may do as you and not re-up. This is much the same as not voting for a politician that lies to me. I’m done with that.
Just like 9/11, it’s the over reaction that ultimately damages the 99.99% of us personally. We still have not recovered from that panic as we see with TFR’s, GA airport fences, and TSA making passengers remove their belts and shoes.
EAA does an outstanding job. Unfortunately, once again, GA will be trounced by something that has nothing to do with GA.
Non political comment incoming:
This was the right decision based on the real demographics of the average age of those attending. Like it or not it’s an older one, and older folks seem more susceptible to this dreaded disease. Kudos to Jack and crew over there, this was a tough decision but it was the right one.
It is unfortunate that the varied opinions are based on emotions rather than science-based facts. There is evidence of how the Covid-19 spreads when you review the areas of the outbreak of people testing positive where they are close proximity. (Meatpacking plants, nursing homes, etc.).
What needs to be done is more widespread testing to it can be further determined how wide-spread the cases are OR are not. We just don’t know how many of the population are positive.
Based upon the limited data of the spread at this point, Jack Pelton made the right call. I believe it had nothing to do with politics or money, but what was the right thing to do for the safety of EAA members, public, vendors, and EAA staff. I know the man and many of the staff and it was a very hard decision to make.
It may well turn out that the virus would diminish by July, but the scope of the event and what needs to be done to prepare and conduct AirVenture needed to begin now. The data is not there to be sure the event would be safe. If you were in his shoes, would you take the risk?
I like many, find myself in the middle of the effects of Covid-19. I am the administrator for a school district aviation/aerospace curriculum and our whole program has been turned upside down. Our local EAA chapter hosts the program where we build aircraft and conduct the AOPA high school curriculum. Students are bused to EAA Chapter 1240 Aviation Development Center during school day mornings. That program is gone for the remainder of the school year as we try to do the best we can online.
The big question we face is what will we do in August when school is scheduled to begin? Will the virus be contained by then? Will it be safe to gather thousands of students, teachers, and staff together? I understand the weight of the decisions that need to be made. Lives are at stake and you can’t afford to take risks without hard facts.
Thank you Jack for making the tough, but correct decision.
This is a big bummer as I’d been planning to attend OSH this year, after an 11-year pause. I know that that “loss” is nothing compared to what’s going on worldwide. I reluctantly agree with you, John, except for: “…but the scope of the event and what needs to be done to prepare and conduct AirVenture needed to begin now.” Preparation to hold this type of event during a pandemic would have had to have started many more months ago. As Paul points out, we still have no plan in most states to effectively test and monitor, i.e., we can’t even meet the strictures put forth by the president that he said should be met before restarting activities. Today’s news is that the president’s revised expectation is 100,000 deaths, up from 60,000. That’s not good.
You do realize that Covid-19 (Corona Virus) is not the flu (Influenza Virus) - that it being a novel virus, nobody has even partial immunity to it from prior exposure to variants; that according to WHO statistics, it has a 10% death rate among those confirmed by test as having caught it; that it is just beginning to spread to rural America from the urban areas by secondary (person to person) contagion; that the USA, as a nation, this past weekend experienced it’s highest daily death toll, that rural hospitals don’t have the resources to treat Covid-19.
You are correct Jeff, much of what would have to be done would have been started months ago, and the staff was developing options as best they could. Another fact is the guidelines of the State of Wisconsin’s scheduled phase-in of reduced restrictions. I hope the frustrations of staying at home, social distancing, and the economic impact does not cause folks to abandon do what needs to be done to remain safe and healthy.
Here in the USA, anyone that dies from any cause gets tested. If they show a positive for the antibodies, then they are listed as a CV19 death. That’s one of the reasons how a 0.05% rate can easily get inflated to an implausible 10%.
“Good Intentions” being made from bad data are not laudable; in fact, the proverb is that they line the road to …
The way I see it, it was the right call to cancel, and it has nothing at all to do with the virus itself. It’s simply this: EAA effectively isn’t allowed to begin the necessary grounds preparations in time, so the only other real alternative would be to reschedule it. But they scheduled it for the week they did based on school summer vacations (some of you may recall they adjusted the week slightly a few years ago for that reason). But supposing they did reschedule anyway, you know many of the vendors and performers wouldn’t be able to accommodate the new dates, so it would be a scaled back version of the show. Further, you know attendance would be down quite a bit, so all of that combined, they probably wouldn’t even break even on costs. Given all of that, I had already decided that I wasn’t going to attend this year, because it wouldn’t be worth the expense of me traveling from CT to WI for a greatly scaled-back show. And it’s an understatement for me to say that I was really looking forward to going this year, and had been planning to attend since last summer (when I wasn’t able to attend due to work obligations).
So forget the arguments about EAA “caving”, or the “POLS/Dems/whoever” winning, or the media making this out to be more than it is, or even if you believe that this virus is bad. None of that really matters if the show was bound to be significantly smaller with who knows what restrictions that would have made it less enjoyable to attend. Wait until next year when it can (hopefully) go on as usual.