What is going on at our airports?! Glenn Beck has noticed an increase in flight issues – delays, technical problems, understaffing. So, he speaks with aviation expert Mike Boyd, who explains where he believes these issues are coming from. Are they widespread? Or is it just one airline? And can the FAA fix these issues under President Trump?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Mike Boyd. Welcome to the program, Mike, how are you?
MIKE: I'm doing fine. It's an honor to be here.
GLENN: Thank you. So thank you for coming on. I've been asking for an interview with Secretary Duffy, and we haven't been able to align the schedules yet.
But I am very concerned about our airlines. I was on a plane. These were all American Airlines, by the way. I was on the plane. The pilot, we got on. It was like two hours, three hours later late. We got on. And the pilot was standing in the aisle. And he said, everybody, I don't want you to blame the airlines. I want you to blame me.
And we're like, oh, okay.
And he said, because I wouldn't accept the plane, that they wanted to us fly because I have flown it before. And it has problems. And they haven't fixed those problems. And the only way it's going to be fixed is if we reject it. And say, I can't fly.
I don't know if that's true or not. Or what this guy -- you know, what the story was. But that didn't fill me with confidence. I'm like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. So you're actually saying, the airline is not repairing a plane.
And I don't think -- I mean, I don't think our airplanes are in trouble, and going to start falling out of the sky. But that has been happening lately.
What is happening with our airlines?
MIKE: Well, I think the experience you had, that one specific one. We've done a lot from -- I come from an American Airlines background. Nevertheless, we've done a lot of work with American pilots unions. These are very professional people. The fact that guy stood up there and said, I'm not confident with this airplane. That's a safety -- that's a safety plus.
GLENN: Oh, I appreciated that. We thanked him for that. Thank you. Thank you.
MIKE: But we have a major problem with American Airlines. If you have pilots saying, I don't trust you. These are not yo-yos. These are not good consumer men's. These are professionals. If they say that, we have a problem in America. If that happens in America, and I think you might want to call the folks down there in Fort Worth, their brand-new American Way headquarters. They spent billions on them and asked questions.
But overall, I haven't seen that. Are there big problems with air traffic control?
Yes. No question about that. And we finally have somebody that the FAA and the DOT, who has a clue. And that will be addressed.
But overall, if it's just one airline, you're on the right track, as far as looking at it.
GLENN: Okay.
So this is -- but are you seeing this kind of stuff happening with other airlines.
MIKE: No. No.
GLENN: I'm flying out of Dallas all the time. So I generally fly American. And I occasionally will fly Delta. But, you know, it's mainly American. So I just assume this is happening on other airlines as well.
Because I'm reading the comments from people. And they're like, I can't trust that I can get there the next day anymore.
And that's a real problem.
MIKE: Well, because air travel is. I have to get there times certain.
This is not a game. I have to get to the bar mitzvah, whatever I'm going.
So if they can't get there, I'm not going to go. And the reason I'm not going to go, is you can't get me there. Now, if you look at reliability.
And again, we've had some issues, like Frontier Airlines, if you want to see Saturday Night Lights, go to YouTube. You'll see a gated -- a gated net, Frontier Airlines. It's really bad. But if you look at others, like our friends at United Airlines -- and I don't work for those guys. They have a system where if you book at United, very often, they're with you the whole damn trip.
If you don't like a lot of text messages, don't book them. They're with you, the whole time. And their CEO is functionally age, about making sure, whatever went on. Whatever it is. Take it or leave it.
From that point, I think you may have stumbled over something that affects the metroplex, more than anything else.
GLENN: So how's -- because I've been on the plane. And everybody is like, we're going to have missing.
You know, you will miss your connections.
And everybody is like -- is this kind of -- is the airline system set up almost like the Just In Time supply line? That if it did ever go into catastrophic failure, it would be a real problem.
Because, I mean, it's just one plane arrives, just in time for everyone to unload and reload and take off again.
MIKE: Well, yeah. That's just the issue. In ancient times, our friends at Southwest could come in and go in ten minutes.
Today, you can't get ten seats emptied in that amount of time. So they're really trying to cut down the amount of time, on the ground. That makes sense.
The question is, they have to have systems they can't be allow them to do that.
Now, delta has put in a very comprehensive system that only works for Delta, where they have been able to coordinate all those things, and do a better job of it.
But you're right. If you're coming in and going out, and that airplane has to do a go-around, coming into Atlanta. That could be 15 minutes.
That 15 minutes could mean, you can't get across the terminal to get your connection. That's going to happen.
GLENN: Tell me about the situation.
Because, Stu, you did a documentary on how bad the air traffic control system was. Right?
STU: Yes, I did.
GLENN: And is that on YouTube still? What was the name of it?
STU: It is. Countdown to the next Aviation Disaster. Unfortunately the countdown was not as long as you would have hoped it would have been.
GLENN: Yeah, it is. I mean, what's going on in our air traffic control.
And I would never want to be an air traffic controller. The stress these guys are under.
And that's not -- I'm not even calculating the stress on how close these planes are flying in and out now.
I mean, I'm just thinking, back in the good old days, where it was very stressful.
Now they're still passing paper to each other. And these planes are one on top of the other one.
When are we going to change this system and update it?
MIKE: Duffy is doing that. Duffy is not -- and finally, we have an FAA administrator who has a clue. Brian Bedford. He's been around. No, I've known him for 40 years. This man knows the business, and he's all business.
And, you know -- and, you know, I know he's good because Chuck Schumer doesn't like him. So that underlines everything right there.
GLENN: Good.
MIKE: So that's starting right now. Look, we testified to Congress in 1994 on this. On a free flight system, that you could make it far more efficient. The FAA blew it off. The FAA has always been a repository of some really great people at the operational level.
But at the top, these are just political appointees. Take a look at the FAA administrator that the -- the last president wanted. Phil Washington. Nice guy. Clueless. But he was a good appointee.
We can't do that anymore. I think we're going to see some major changes right now.
GLENN: Now, can -- how long is it going to take us to fix this?
MIKE: Well, you know, one of the things.
It's sort of -- what Duffy said, well, we have a -- there was a program in place to fix it over the next five years. And that's ridiculous.
So he's on it. I mean, he just went up to Wisconsin. He found the oldest, I think the oldest control tower in the nation. We're going to fix this. He's really making a point of trying to get it done.
And I think he's doing it incrementally. Where like Newark. What a disaster. I don't mean this city, necessarily. I do.
(laughter)
But at the airport, you know.
He's trying to make that work better.
This guy is on it. So I'm thinking 18 months.
It's going to be incremental. But we will start to see this happen.
GLENN: In Newark, or in the country?
MIKE: In the country. Because we can't have a free flight system that is far more efficient --
GLENN: What does it mean, a free flight system?
MIKE: There's a free flight system -- they want to ignore this, where every airplane takes off, and it finds its own ways. Keep in mind, the skies aren't crowded.
You can put 250,000, count them, 737s in a cubit mile of airspace, parked, not moving.
But that's a quarter million of them. And any time in America, today, in the sky, you might have just 14,000 -- 14,000 airplanes in the sky.
GLENN: Wow.
MIKE: But that's like 11 million cubic miles of airspace. So we can use our airspace better.
But what we've had is quite frankly, an FAA that hasn't wanted to think about it. It's more worried about itself. I am convinced that is going to change over the next two years.
GLENN: And are we close to having AI do all of this free flight stuff?
I mean, I would imagine that you don't -- I mean, you don't need to check in with tower, if AI is assisting finding it.
MIKE: Oh, exactly. We've got to use that. And a lot of it -- it's -- the head of the FAA has always been the clown of the Titanic. He says, slow down.
And by the time, it gets back to the engine room, you know, we've hit the iceberg. I think it's one of those things that we have to recognize, a lot of stuff has to change organizationally at the FAA, and at the department of transportation. I think finally we have people that can actually address that.
GLENN: Wow!
That is -- I mean, this is wildly optimistic, but I am happy to hear that. I like Secretary Duffy.
I don't know much about him.
Not enough to say enough like you're talking. That makes me feel really good. I'm very concerned about our air travel.
It's not good. Not good.
Not going in the right direction.
MIKE: It's not going in the right direction.
I find out, if I treat the customer right, they might come back and fly me, and what's happening now, people are getting away from some of these really low fair airlines, where the seat is like, a bucket seat in a C-119.
They don't want to fly those things anymore. And people like United and Delta and other carriers are saying, we'll take your business.
And they are.
GLENN: I have to tell you, at times, I'll be on a plane. And I think we're like one scruffy dog with one blue eye, just walking down the aisle, creepily away from third world airlines. I mean, it's like, there are times I'm like, is there a chicken going to run down the aisle too? What country do we live in?
It's beyond. It really is the greyhound of the sky now.
MIKE: It is. There's no question. My mother was a stewardess in the 1930s. Everybody dressed up.
GLENN: Yes.
MIKE: Today, you're lucky if everybody is dressed.
(laughter)
GLENN: I don't know why we haven't had you on before, Mike. You're very funny.
Mike, thank you so much. For an inside look on this. I appreciate it. Mike Boyd, aviation expert. From the Boyd group international. He's the president and CEO.
MIKE: Me pleasure. Thank you.
GLENN: He's the guy who consults all these airlines and tries to help fix them.
And is also, you know, testifying in front of Congress all the time.