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Case study analysis

Jessica Ayala
BriseidaGonzlez
Guadalupe Snchez








Introduction
This analysis will briefly explore the role of communication in air navigation safety, and how the
lack of communication in American Airlines has caused several mortal accidents of hundreds of
passengers and crew members. We will also explore the history, challenges, strategies, and
solutions for American Airlines to help it grow and become a safer airline.
In every organization, the ability to create effective relationships is crucial.During critical
moments, effective communication can mean the difference between life and death.
Communication can help us coordinate procedures and activities including the team work that is
necessary for the effective operation of aircraft.
American Airlines will face a change in its structure and communication that could jeopardize its
coordination and operation, so we will provide with solutions and strategies that can help it
stabilize.


History, Development and Growth
America Airlines come from small independent airlines delivering mail. One of the independent
airlines was the Robertson Aircraft of Missouri that it had begun to fly in 1921, and employed
Charles Lindbergh was the first American aviator that flight across the Atlantic Ocean of May
2021, 1927. In 1929, The Aviation Corporation was founded and acquired a small lines. It had
acquired interests in over 90 aviation-related companies. In 1930, the board broke off the airlines
into Colonial and Universal Airlines. Universal Airlines name changed to American Airways, the
predecessor of American Airlines. In 1933 American Airlines ordered its first Curtis Condors
biplane airliners. In 1936, American Airlines flew the worlds first commercial DC-3 from
Chicago to New York. In 1941, American Airlines started flying to Mexico and in 1987 to Latin
America with service to Caracas, Venezuela. But it wasnt until 1989 when American Airlines
acquired Eastern Airlines routes into Central and South America for approximately $430 million,
which American Airlines became a major carrier to the region. In 1953, American Airlines
begun non-stop transcontinental service using DC-7s. A DC-7 was an advanced development of
the DC-6B piston-engine airliner. It was introduced to the American Airlines on its New York
Los Angeles route in November 1953 to provide nonstop transcontinental service in both
directions. On January 25, 1959 American Airlines was the first airline to introduce coast to
coast jet service with the introduction of Boeing 707 Stratoliner. In 1979, American Airlines
moved its headquarters from New York to Dallas /Ft. Worth. In 1981, it marked the retirement of
the Americans Boeing 707 fleet. It also marked the introduction of the American Airlines
advantage program, Americans frequent flyer project. American Airlines Inc., is a major U.S.
airline headquartered in Ft. Worth, TX and in February 2013 announced plans to merge with US
Airways group, creating the largest airline in the world. In 1973, American Airlines is the first
airline to hire a female pilotBonnie Tiburzi. When she started flying the industry looked a lot
different than it does today. Two of the three airlines shed applied to (Eastern and Trans World
Airlines) have gone out of business and American no longer offers the New York to Albany
route she was stuck flying as a starting pilot. Bonnies first position was as a flight engineer, a
member of the flight crew in an aircraft who monitors and operates aircrafts system; have mostly
gone away as planes themselves have become more sophisticated. She had flown hundreds of
charter flights before, but never flown for a major commercial airline. By contrast, American
Airlines had looked beyond her gender in offering her a job in 1973. But like all starting pilots
she was lowest in the seniority system, describes the practice of granting privileges to
members of the airlines, meaning shed have last pick of which flights she wanted to take. After
she became a mom, she oriented her flying schedule towards being home as much as possible.
After 26 years of flying commercially, Bonnie took an early retirement at the age of 50. I could
have been the most senior pilot at the company if Id stayed until, she said, but I wanted to be
home. Be Yourself. Nonstop; We Know Why You Fly, We Are American Airlines. is the
famous slogan they carry.


Vision, Mission and Goals
One of American Airlines priorities is to earn their customers loyalty. In order to accomplish this
mission they try their best to give customers value and offer great services. They consider
themselves as a diverse company in which gives them knowledge about the many cultures and
people around the world. American Airlines focuses on giving the best lowest price possible for
their customers while also offering good flights. They state on their webpage that they have cut
more than $6 billion in costs since 2003 including more than $4 billion in non-labor costs.
Throughout the many years of business, American Airlines has come up with an overall mission
of consistently exceeding their customers expectations.
As a growing global company, American Airlines constantly needs to be seeking for the next
big thing that will make them grow even more. The company has to always make sure that their
vision comes in contact with the mission that they have as a business. Recently the company has
been looking into creating a partnership with U.S. Airlines. They have said that they would be
taking the best qualities and systems of each and putting them together to offer their customers a
even better experience.
American Airlines identifies themselves as a company that is always seeking for excellence by
making their customers experience their priority. The overall goal that they have is to always
give out their best by dedication and constantly looking for ways to improve their service. Giving
back to the communities is considered one of their important goals. They constantly succeed by
building foundation and meeting their key company wide-goal.


A SWOAT Analysis
American Airlines Inc. is the major airline of the United States and is the worlds second largest
airline in passenger miles transported, passenger fleet size and operating revenues. This company
is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Ft. Worth, TX. Adjacent to its
largest hub at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport. American Airlines operates an extensive
international and domestic network with scheduled flights throughout North America, Latin and
South America, Asia and Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean. American Airlines was at the number
120 on the fortune 500 list of companies in 2010 and is a founding member of the one world
airline alliance.

Strengths
Strong hub in Dallas/Ft. Worth
Advantage recognized as the best customer loyalty program
Strong brand image and started many new routes since 2010
Strong image for onboard entertainment content
Wide reach with over 250 destinations with a strong fleet size of 600 carriers


Weakness
Real networks performance has compared to other companies success in the same
field
Generally comparing in online growth and innovation



Opportunities
Online growth
Strategic alliances
Influence on code share agreement with other airlines
More international destination on popular routes
Financial positions is a cause for any concern



Threats
US economic strike
Increasing fuel costs
Increasing labor costs
Pressure from regulation bodies and government policies
Low fare service providers


Communication Strategy and Challenge (The problem)
Efficient communication is very important for the right control of a company. Especially for a
company that has millions of customers lives in its hands. Efficient communication between the
pilot, the crew, the customers and ground staff is the key portion of the safe flying of aircraft.
In the aviation industry, every piece of information plays a crucial role. The aircraft radio
communication system connects the pilots in the planes to the control tower on the ground for
the correct and safe flow of the flights. This system uses a communication network known as
Very High Frequency (VHF) that controls the movements and procedures of the flights. The
system is a channel of communication between the pilots and controllers that helps to avoid
mistakes that can lead to accidents costing lives of hundreds of people while flying an airplane.
How the communication is done?
The radio allowscommunication between pilots and air traffic controller around the world. The
entire communication is done in a just one language, English. However, sometimes the crews of
the control towers or pilots are not fluent in this language. This is when the language becomes
crucial for the smooth flow of the flight. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration, 2004)
estimated that, 70% of aircraft accidents involve human error, resulting from failures in
interpersonal communication
Misinterpreting anothers person message:
The American Airlines crash in Columbia in 1995 was the result of this type of communication
problem. The flight 965 traveling from Miami, Florida, to Cali, Colombia, crashed against the
mountains.
"Where are we?"
These were the final three words of the pilot, three minutes before crashing five miles from the
airport.
The Colombian ATC (air traffic controller) had no radars available to see the plane, the location
and position of the flight was purely based on radio communication. The original waypoints for
flight 965 were crossing Tulu passing Rozo then finally reaching Cali. The ATC informed the
pilots that they could take the way directly to Cali, meaning there wasnt any delay to
approaching Cali. The pilots misunderstood the expression, assuming they could take the route
directly to Cali forgetting about the other points, Tulu and Rozo.The pilots then erroneously
cleared the approaching waypoints from their navigation computer, taking a complete wrong
way directly to the mountains.
The air traffic controller believed that some of the requests of the pilots did not make
sense,he had a lot of trouble understating them, but did not know enough non-aviation English
to confront this.
After the examination of the black box, Scientifics discovered that there was confusion between
the flight crew members and the ATC. American Airlines received numerous lawsuits from the
families of the victims. Investigators concluded that the accident was the result of a human error
because the flight crew failed to execute the flight procedures of approaching and that poor
communication was one of the causes for the accident.
Flight Safety Information (2004), reports that Between 1976 and 2000, more than 1100
passengers and crew lost their lives in accidents in which investigators determined that
language had played a contributory role

Maintenance errors:
Communication in aviation maintenance is crucial because it can cause or contribute to many
aviation accidents. Some maintenance errors such as: parts installed incorrectly, missing parts,
and necessary checks not being performed, in addition to many more threats, are examples of
mistakes of the aviation maintenance technician. Sometimes these mistakes are present but not
visible and can be catastrophic for the aircraft.
In May 25, 1979, the American Airlines Flight 191 a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, crashed at
Chicago's OHare International Airport. It was during the takeoff roll, when the left engine and
its pylon separated from the wing. The pilots continued the takeoff, but the engine separation
damaged the hydraulic system of the aircraft wing. The aircraft rolled to the left and crashed
seconds from the takeoff. 273 people were killed. This was considered the deadliest accident in
this airline's history and also on the U.S., before September 11.
The National Transportation Safety Board found that mechanics had taken a shortcut in the
maintenance of the aircraft when removing the engines from the plane's wing pylons.
The procedure recommended in the manual of the DC-10 called for the engine to be detached
from the pylon before removing the pylon itself. American Airlines instead began to use a
procedure maintenance that would save approx. 200 man-hours, and ordered their mechanics to
remove both parts at the same time as a single unit to save time and money.
Another human error took place in this accident, since it was no longer possible to abort the
takeoff at this point, the pilots followed standard operating procedure for an "engine out"
situation, the pilots reduce the airspeed to the speed specified in the emergency procedure for
engine failure during takeoff, but they didnt know that this action was not recommended for
damage in the hydraulic fluid lines leading to the loss of the aircraft control. So the supervisors
failed to inform and train the pilots correctly about this procedure.
In response to this accident, American Airlines was fined $500,000 by the U.S. government for
improper maintenance procedures. However the DC-10 insurance paid American Airlines
25,000,000.
The most frequent problems in the procedures on aircraft maintenance are: not delivering
information, sending wrong information and lack of responsibility. These three combinations
contributed to the accident of the flight 191 of American Airlines.
Recently AA created a policy called Just Policy which talks about how human errors are
always going to appear, but the important thing is that they have to learn from errors, and take
the correspond actions to fix it, admit they are wrong and fix it . Before the policy was
created, supervisors would take disciplinary actions to the last person that worked with the
aircraft, now under this policy nobody is guilty until they investigate. Basically they help the
employees to not feel guilty and be honest, so they can explain what they saw or what they did.
Later investigators can figurate out what was the cause and can find a solution, so it wont
happen again. The culture (philosophy) of AA is called Safety engineering and human factors
which means that even professionals can and will make errors. Essentially, errors will happen,
they will learn from them, and will prevent the error to happen again.

Against the merger- A communication problem:
After declaring bankruptcy in 2011, American Airlines and US Airways decided to merge and
the two companies will be renamed American Airlines Group Inc. creating the largest airline in
the world.
The consolidation of these two airlines will not only result in higher ticket prices because there
will be fewer airlines competing, but also is creating a battle between the workers that integrate
the company. There is no communication between them because pilots and workers from the two
airlines are fighting for seniority, they still dont know what policies and goals will be followed,
either U.S airways or the ones from American Airlines.
Not only the government and some economists are against the merger, but unions for US
Airways, mechanics and workers did not support the merger either, saying Parker president of
the new airline-we are negotiating a new contract with their unions insteadof focusing
on our goals with the new American. Unions are clamming new contracts before joining the
company. The new American Airlines is not focusing in the service, its goals, and much less in
the communication.
American Airlines does not have the best reputation in safety procedures; in the last 50 years has
had the 5 worst aviation accidents in the world. Now the merger will bring more difficulties to
build a better and safer airline. Although the new American Airlines is going to bring more profit
and more connections than American and US Airways individually offered, the communication
between the co-workers, pilots and management is not going to be efficient. We have already
explained the importance of communication in a company, especially for the aviation industry.
Misunderstandings or not communicating at all can be catastrophic for travelers.
Wages and Labor unions- The real enemy:
With the merger, American shareholders will receive an equity split of 72% and 22% will go to
U.S Airways. The new airline will increase fees for the baggage and the food, but yet employees
of American have suffered of bad treatment. Their wages have been reduced 17%, and they also
have one week less in their vacations.
Labor unions in American Airlines are far from protecting the salary of the employees. AA has
three unions, one for pilots, one for flight attendants and another for mechanics, engineers,
workers, etc. All three unions approved $20 million bonus for the management.Not only that, the
Top union officials make from $200,000 to $250,000 or sometimes more, when employees and
even pilots make around 70,000 a year.
Poor communication between the crew could lead to deficient crew coordination and
performance. Now with the merging the lack of coordination between employees could be the
principal factor in aviation accidents.

Solutions
A single language:

The aviation is a global industry and the fact that it uses a single language can create serious
errors and misunderstandings.
The language-related problems cited in the accident of the flight 965 could have been avoided.
Now days American Airlines continues to have several issues when operating internationally
because accented English or native language accents are used by air traffic controllers, creating
confusion about instructions. A lack of communication between the pilots and air traffic
controllers during a flight can contributed to an accident.
Not only is the cabin an area where information transfer is important, but also the
communication between cabin crew and passengers is fundamental. The messages that flight
attendants provide to the passengers are vital because they not only inform about board services
but also about required safety procedures to survive in an emergency situation, including
evacuations. Lack of communication between flight attendants and passengers can jeopardize
safe evacuations. Sometimes flight attendants in American Airlines dont even introduce
themselves.
We encourage American Airlines to implement these solutions to the language and information
transferring problem:
1. - Offer classes of different languages to the pilots and flight attendants.Perception and
language issues need to be part of those classes and communication trainings. Also we
need to explain the worker how asking questions is critical for clarification and can help
to reduce wrong information transfer improving the effectiveness in the communication
interactions. It is important to transmit shorter and less complex messages to minimize
risks and misunderstandings because a lot of information can lead to distractions that can
cause ineffective performance.

2. Flight attendants should give the security and safe information to the passengers in at
least 3 or more languages besides English. All aircrafts should be equipped with
technology: screens and earphones that will have the option of at least 7-10 languages
for passenger to select. The flight attendants have two safety obligations. One is to
prevent accidents, and the second if the accident cannot be prevented is to maximize
survivability. Both roles require effective communication, but if some of the passengers
dont speak English, they wont be able to perform well in a case of an emergency.

3. Training related to effective listening should be offered to the pilots to provide greater
focus and attention. Active listening should be part of the training. Other important
aspects that should be covered are: process of listening, barriers to effective listening, the
steps of better listening and the cost of poor listening. The barriers to effective listening
should cover topics such as lack of concentration, prejudging messages, and making
assumptions. Steps for better listening will include focus, patience, and asking questions.
Active, effective listening skills are crucial in creating the best possible communication
environment. The best method for this would include experimental exercises, and
roleplaying.
Information and good communication are important to make good decisions, but Impulsive
decisions and too much information can lead to errors, with these training and classes pilots and
flight attendants will be able to take the enough time to think out their moves and choices in any
emergency situations, the difference between one or two secondsis a better decision.

Maintenance Communication and Responsibility:
Communication issues in aviation maintenance and inspection is a contributing factor to error in
aviation. American Airlines showed lacks of responsibility and communication in 1979, when
flight 191 crashes due to an error of maintenance and lack of information of procedures. There is
no doubt the American Airlines is having problems with the maintenance training. Human
factors such as: fatigue and stress can cause maintenance problems and aviation accidents.
Aviation safety relies on a good performance in maintenance, so its very important to focus on
the mental and physical health of the technicians and pilots. By doing the following solutions we
can improve the quality of the maintenance.
.
1. Reduce the work hours of the employees. Fatigue is a really important factor of
maintenance that results in accidents and it is also the principal reason for the reduction
of alertness and coordination. Employees should not work more than 8 consecutive hours
and should have a break of at least 15 min after each 3 hours.
2. Workers including supervisors need to take assessments andregular trainings of the new
procedures and changes in new and old aircraft.
3. Give more time to employees to perform duties. Trying to get the job done with limited
time has shown large amount of errors when mechanics perform critical activities on the
aircraft.
4. Change the philosophy of the airline: saying that even professionals can and will make
errors, is not ethical. It is true that nobody is perfect, and that nobody is exempt of
making errors because we are only humans, but showing that, it is already an excuse for
them to not perform well. Actually, the airline is unconsciously giving the employee
permission to make mistakes.
5. Adjust the new Just Policy. Although it is true that this new policy will help to find
solutions for errors, report and identify violations when they occur, it is failing to avoid
the errors. The policy needs to be stricter, and create stronger disciplinary actions to
employees that fail to perform correctly, and prepare a better coaching role model in
aviation maintenance and inspection.

Recently a report released by the FAA showed that American Airlines wasnt following the
required maintenance procedures. It is very discouraging that technology keeps improving, but
yet accidents attributed to maintenance failure and human factors have not been decreased.
Fatigue, stress, pressure, inadequate skills and lack of communication will continue to be the
eternal nightmare for travelers of AA if they do not change their strategies.


Against the merger:
In order to accomplish the future success of the new airline, the crew needs to be able to transfer
information, follow commands, ask questions, communicate and execute orders.Communication
is the key for the good performance of the flight.Effective communication cant overcome
deficient technical flying proficiency, same as excellent technology and skills cant overcome the
effects of lack of communication.
If the American Airlines has a flight crew in which its members can talk to one another and
whose voices are listened to, the company would be able to avoid several accidents. Its true that
the merging is bringing enemies to the company and among employees. The solution for the
battle and to create a positive communication climate relies on the employees. If you have happy
employees you have happy customers. We suggest American Airlines to take in consideration
these solutions:
1. Raise salary to all employees. AA is wasting all this money to finance legal battles,
advertisement, to pay salary for management and representatives of the unions,
instead of paying their pilots, flight attendants and mechanics. These employees have
sacrificed a lot for the company, and it is always true that how you treat your people,
is how they treat your customer. Lack of motivation among employees could
become in a serious human factor for the company that in the long or short run could
create bad performance.
2. Provide with a training that emphasizes in the concept of trust, team work, and a
positive environment between employees and peers. By doing it, crew will learn to
utilize appropriate communication to establish effective coordination during the flight
and maintenance of aircraft.
3. Create a communication training to understand defensive, disconfirming, supportive
and confirming messages. The wrong usage of these messages can disrupt the
communication process.Lack of understanding and behaviors such as frustration,
anger, embarrassment could cause serious error in operation and further accidents.
4. Create new labor unions that really represent the people and help the crew understand
that there is no need to compete between them. AA needs to keep communication
open between labor unions, management and employees. By doing this employees
would know that their needs are valuable. Getting the trust of all employees could be
difficult but a good labor union and a good communication can rebuild employee
confidence.


American Airlines needs to take the right operational and strategic moves, so it can create a
collaborative atmosphere and maintain a safety culture. Otherwise battles between the two
airlines and unions will leave the company at the top of the most hated airlines.
Its not easy to bring more than 80,000 workers from different unions together, especially if
those unions are not doing their job, but with new unions and by improving dialogue and
providing a good environment between management and employees the airline would be able to
succeed.


Conclusion
Even though, American Airlines is known for having the larger amount of crashes throughout the
past years. We believe that communication is the key in every company and that is crucial to
make it a priority to always be seeking for ways to improve the way the employees come in
contact. American airlines can improve their business by building better safety training, a
communication system and an effective team interaction. It can make the difference between a
successful airline or the worst company, the American management needs to take this solutions
and problems incredibility seriously now and after the merging with U.S Airways, so passengers
can have a safer and enjoyable travel experience.


Work Cited

http://www.pilotfriend.com/training/flight_training/communication/radio_com.htm
http://stoenworks.com/Tutorials/Aircraft%20radio%20comm.html
NASA: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/sscg/04.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines
http://www.aa.com/i18n/amrcorp/newsroom/company-history.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191
http://www.historycentral.com/aviation/airlines/American.html
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/07/we-have-changes-afoot-at-the-new-american-
airlines-as-more-leaders-are-named.html/
http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/airlines/4269-american-airlines.html
http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/principles-management-p-o-m/208221-swot-
analysis-american-airlines.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61292145/Swot-Analysis-on-American-Airlines
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardfinger/2013/04/29/why-american-airlines-employees-loathe-
management/
http://www.maintenanceassistant.com/blog/poor-maintenance-cost-lives/#sthash.Um4npkSx.dpuf
http://www.maintenanceassistant.com/blog/poor-maintenance-cost-lives/#sthash.Um4npkSx.dpuf
http://legacy.justculture.org/
: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/27/99739/american-airlines-hit-with-largest.html#storylink=cpy
crainsnewyork.com

https://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&oq=flight+965+&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i24l3.3
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965

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