American Airlines & Trust Erosion

This week, American Airlines canceled over 3,000 of its scheduled flights due to a wiring check within its MD-80s' landing gear. American gave no warning to the passengers who were traveling, and made little concession to its customers in transit for their lack of notice. Thus, many passengers were left holding their bags at various airports around the nation while American toyed with its MD-80s. American wasn't able to find accommodation for each passenger despite its best efforts, stranding passengers at airports or hotels overnight. Not the best way to go about winning new friends and influencing people.

Here we go again. Another airline super-blunder that could have been avoided had they put a better plan in place. While the wiring problem does take some time to fix, it's certainly not something that can't be performed with typical maintenance. Or if the problems were more severe, they simply could have taken 2-3 planes out of flight commission for a short period of time, fixed the problems, and moved onto the next planes. Some of these MD-80s are over 30 years old; they're bound to need some serious maintenance every so often. Certainly the issues could have been avoided by thinking through the best steps necessary and executing them along with other normal operations. Instead, American has a rather difficult and negative public perception to deal with as they move forward with their business. United dealt with something similar to this a year or so ago when they informed some of their best customers - the frequent United fliers - that they were jettisoning their frequent flier program in an effort to save money. Could anything be more asinine? If you already have a public-image problem, don't make it worse by adding fuel to their fire!

Few people enjoy traveling by air today. Having to deal with security regulations, long security lines, lost baggage, and snooty ticket counter reps, airlines not only mistreat their customers, but their employees as well. The hassles are simply too much for people to handle. Trust has eroded at most of these companies, and it may never return. Two Chapter 11 bankruptcies were just announced this week. One airline even shuttered its operations completely two weeks ago with no employee notice.

You know how hard it is to rebuild trust between people once the initial bond of trust is broken. It can be done, but it takes a lot of effort and forgiveness in people. In that regard, the airlines have a Long way to go to rebuild trust with their employees and customers.

These companies have gone from being in an incredibly exhilarating and beloved industry 30-40 years ago to being in the worst-performing and most hated industry in our nation. This is widely the result of trust erosion between management and employees; the company and its customers; and the company and the public at large.