Latest / Brian Thomas / IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff

Transcript

IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: See the talk station.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: It is 8 30 it is friday eve it is
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: a time i look forward to every week it's time
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: for iheart media aviation expert jay ratliff with a bunch
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of great topics in the world of aviation my friend
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: jay ratliff it's great to have you back on the
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: morning show.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: You know the nice thing brian is there's so many
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: good topics that pop up between our conversations that I
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: always look for the ones that I think you would
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: respond to the best.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: But throw me any curveball you see, brother.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: No, no, no.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Something's not on the list.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: No, I was busy talking to Judge McDowell on the break.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: And that's normally when I pull up my aviation news
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: for the day. And that's where my curveballs typically come from.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: And since I didn't get the chance to do that,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: you apparently know about something that's cropped up since I
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: got here. No, no, no, no, no, no.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I'm just used to it.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: And, you know, I do 1,500 or so segments a
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: year across the country.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And when it comes to.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: You, you always, I never have to feed you the
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: stuff and you just, you know, repeat blah, blah, blah.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It's such a fun discussion. So fire away, brother.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: No, I listened. I really enjoy this. And certainly everybody
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: can tell if I haven't said it out loud before,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: it is a welcome diversion from politics. And, uh, well,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: the end of the society, basically I'll sum up everything
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: going on in the world all in one breath there.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about it. The TSA pausing its expansion plans
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: on gate access program. This relates to non-passengers, as I
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: understand it, Jay Raleigh?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It does, Brian.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: And what they've done is they said we're at a
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: point now where we feel comfortable that we can kind
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: of return to the old days and allow non-ticketed passengers
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: to go past the security checkpoint, be screened. And that way,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: if you want to accompany a friend or family member
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: to the gate to see them off, you can. If
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: you want to go to the gate to welcome someone home,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: you can. And the ultimate plan is to roll this
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: out at more than 300 airports. But they have 13
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: right now that they're working on, and they're still working
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: out some of the bugs. So they said, for now,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: we're going to keep it at the 13, and maybe
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: the rollout plan is going to be slightly delayed past what.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: It was going to be. But it's just a pause.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: And one of the things I was looking at was, okay,
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: are they talking about taking this off the table? And
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: from what I'm seeing, no. And for all the business
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: owners that have shops on the other side of the
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: security checkpoint that before could enjoy all the traffic of
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: both ticketed and non-ticketed passengers, I'm thrilled that that additional
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: revenue is going to come their way. Because believe me,
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: it's a very, very tough business when you have to
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: have a business in an airport and count on just
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: passengers that are rushing to the airplane to be your customers.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: So to have people show up early and get a
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: drink or something to eat or something like that.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Before, during, or after is great.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: But yeah, the 13 airports right now, and I don't
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: have a list of those in front of me, Brian,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: but they are at this point in time, it's going well,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: but they they've identified a few things they need to
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: work out before they're going to continue the expansion.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Uh, Historic fare increases. And that seems to me under
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: current situation involving aviation fuel going through the roof, I
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: would think historic fare increases should be expected throughout the
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: entire world. But this relates to Ryanair and airfares in
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Europe next year.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the CEO for Ryanair. And remember, Ryanair is one
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: of your and I's favorite topics because that CEO is
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: somebody who said, we really don't need seats on an airplane.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Let everybody stand up and just kind of hold the
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: thing over their head like they do on a subway
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: or a train. He's also the one years ago that
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: had to pay toilets at the lavatories on a plane.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: So this is kind of a maverick with a different
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: kind of view on the world. But he made a
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: very good point, and he said that next year in 2027,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: we're looking at fare hikes in Europe unlike anything they've
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: ever seen before. And the reason for that goes back
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: to another topic you and I have talked about on
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: fuel hedging contracts. Airlines have been known, especially here in
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: the United States... To enter a contract where you negotiate
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: the price of fuel in advance, you lock it in
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: for a set period of time at a set price.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: If the fuel prices drop, the airlines are paying more.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: If the fuel prices go up, the airlines.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Are paying less. It's a consistent.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Amount for the fuel that the airline is getting. Now,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: when COVID hit, fuel prices dropped, you know, they plummeted.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: And a lot of airlines here in the country had
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: these fuel hedging contracts locked in where they were paying
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: way more for fuel than the going rate. So we've
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: gotten away from it here in the United States, but
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: in Europe, about 70% to 80% of airlines use these
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: fuel hedging contracts that go back quite a ways. Now,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: those contracts expire at the end of the year, which
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: means that these airlines that have been enjoying these lower
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: prices for fuel that they've been able to pass on
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: to customers are now going to have to push the
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: airfares higher to reflect the market demand. And what the
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Ryanair CEO is saying is the fare increases are going
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: to be so significant, 20, 25, 30 percent and more,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: it's just going to be horrific and it's going to
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: put a lot of carriers in harm's way if they're
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: not going to be doing well financially. So for any
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: of our audiences looking at traveling to Europe, as many
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: do on an ongoing basis, I would suggest grabbing your
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: tickets as far in advance as you can. Obviously, get
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: the trip cancellation insurance to protect yourself. But with these
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: fuel hedging contracts, these safety nets expiring on all these airlines,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: and they're forced to renegotiate the next round, if it's
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: a year, year and a half, whatever it might happen
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: to be on those contracts, they're going to be paying
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: a much, much higher price for fuel than what.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: They're doing right now. And that's the reason that these
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: airfares are going to go up so much.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: That's to be expected. Don't go away. More with iHeartMedia
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: aviation expert Jay Ratliff. And I guess if you had
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: the dime to get into a Ryanair lavatory, can you
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: get out of it? Don't go away. Locked in a lavatory,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: among other stories, with Jay Ratliff. I'll be right back.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: 55 kick station. You ever been in a cockpit before?
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Jay Ratliff has. He's iHeartMedia aviation expert. We get him
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: every Thursday for the last half of the week. 8
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: o'clock hour, which I love, and the curveball I'm throwing
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: at you this morning, hot off the press this morning,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: along the similar lines as Ryanair conversation about fare increases.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: American Airlines just released its expectations on earnings, and it's
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: not looking good. Revenue failed to help the airline recover from, yes,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the spike in fuel costs. They said it expects to
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: lose between $ 1 and $ 1. 60 a share on a dusted basis.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Forecast earnings of up to $ 0. 65 a share to a
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: loss as low as $ 0. 65 a share. And the stock's
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: down in pre-market trading. There's one among many airlines that
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: are going to go through the same thing, wouldn't you say, Jay?
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 3: But, you know, Southwest this week also reflecting higher fuel
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: costs said we're going to make money, but not as much.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Of course, we had Delta with their earnings as well.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: And for all other airlines other than American Airlines in
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: the country, Brian, it seems like we're going to make money,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: but not as much. poor American, they're just limping along here.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: And it's a matter of, well, we're going to lose,
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: and now we're going to lose more. And that's one
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: of the reasons that when the discussions, I can't call
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: them discussions, when the topic was floated around about American
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: merging with a United, something like that, that a lot
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: of people laughed it off. And I thought, well, look,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: if I'm an American Airlines stockholder, I like that idea
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: a lot. Because American, it's almost impossible for them to
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: make money given their current model They're really having a
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: difficult time. They've got high labor costs. Some of their
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: fleet is a little bit older, so the maintenance costs
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: are higher. Just a lot of challenges, including several of
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: the markets that they continue to fly into that aren't
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: quite as profitable as what they have been. They're trying
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: to turn things around from a customer service side of things,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: which I do like, but there's only so much you
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: can do. And I suspect, and I would not be
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: surprised if in the very near future, you hear that
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: joke kind of resume like, yeah, wouldn't that be funny
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: if these two airlines got together? Because I think that
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: there could be some discussions because under the Trump administration, this.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Type of merger would be allowed.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: Now, I think under the Biden administration, there might have
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: been a little bit of pushback given the fact of
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: how many routes would overlap and how many cities would
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: lose service because they.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't have as much service.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: And airfares would go up as a result of two
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: carriers becoming one. But they've got to do something, Brian,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: because they can't keep losing money at a time when
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: other carriers are making money. Remember last year, United and
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Delta headquarters, a quarter where they reported.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: A billion dollar profit.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: If American rolls out a profit, it's in the hundreds
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: of millions of shares. And normally it's, you know, 200
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: million or something along those lines. It's a fraction of
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: what other airlines are making. So Yeah, I'm not surprised
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: with the news that American came out with, and it's
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: just another continuation of a story for them that really
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: doesn't change the direction of where the airline is going.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: They're talking a good game, but they're just not making
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: enough logistical-type changes to affect the outcome on the revenue side.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: DayTradeFund.com. I bet there's money-making opportunities even with a stock
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: that's not predicted to do really well during the year
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: based on your methodology.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm not one of the buy, hold, and pray
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: kind of guys.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: You know that. I know that.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: I just bring it up.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I'd like to use it and leave it alone.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Because I watch stocks, I see some of these aviation
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: and other types of stocks, and I can see if
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: somebody's about to spend a half a million dollars on
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: the stock because you can see the listed limit orders.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: In place.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: And I see people grabbing these blocks of shares for
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: a half a million dollars, quarter of a million. And
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: I'm thinking that that's probably going to drop another 15, 20%. percent,
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: sometimes within the day.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And it does.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: How about that?
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: You know, just because you've got a lot of money
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: doesn't mean it's a smart decision. I used to watch
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: people do that and think, hey, they know what they're doing.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: And I would buy shares along with them only to
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: find out, oh, I'm now down 15 percent.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I should have done what I thought to do. But
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: aviation stocks.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Right now, it's tough. Any transportation-related security is a difficult
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: buy right now for me because of the fact that
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: there's so much of a challenge right now. And the
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: idea is, especially on the aviation side, well, when the
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: fuel prices drop, so will the fares. And look, all
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: the CEOs have pretty well made it clear. Look, even
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: when fuel prices drop, we don't see the fares changing
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: much because the demand for travel is there. And it
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: will allow the ones making money to make even more money.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: And that's, you know, again, if the demand is there,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: they're not changing anything because everything they do is reflective
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: of their advanced bookings. If the advanced bookings start to
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: drop off, then they adjust as they need in certain markets.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: If they don't have to and they can make money
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: and the yield or the profit for passenger remains high,
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: they're going to bleed us for every single little bit
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: they can and without apology. Or a thank you, by
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: the way, for flying them.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: True.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Well, hang on, Jay, because we're going to bring up
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: the story. Well, American Airlines will remain in our topic
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: of conversation coming up next about scary moments on an
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: American Airlines flight, but also locked in a lavatory on
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: an airplane. I don't even like being on an airplane,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: let alone a lavatory on an airplane. That sucks. We'll
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: talk about that one.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: The Talk Station.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: 848 and 55 KRC, The Talk Station. Tech Friday with
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Dave Hatter tomorrow. Big bomb dropped the other day on this.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: It could shut down like 70% of the website. But
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: without further ado, I heard aviation expert Jay Ratliff is
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: going to tell us about it. Well, it's an American
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Airlines flight out of St. Louis. You say scary moments?
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: What happened here, Jay?
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Well, they had passengers that had boarded this American Airlines
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: flight to Chicago. And Brian, they had a problem with
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: the engine. In fact, they tried to start it up,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: and it was making all kinds of noises and certainly
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: concerned a lot of the passengers.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: And the pilot said, hey, we've got some issues with
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the engine.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: We're going to have to get it. looked at by
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: our maintenance team. The maintenance team came out and looked
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: at it. Two hours later, they are cleared to leave,
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: so back.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: In the plane, off they go. The plane takes off.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Fifteen minutes later, that engine fails again drastically, and now
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: the cabin starts to fill with smoke and haze.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: The crew declares an emergency. They come back. They land
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: in St.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Louis.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: They order an emergency evacuation. Everybody's out. all of the
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: emergency exits to get off the plane.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: So apparently the maintenance issue was not properly addressed or fixed.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know the specifics there, but I am not
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: surprised to say that we had passengers who didn't let
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: us down. Many were dragging their large hand-carried bags that
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: they removed from the overhead storage compartment against the instructions
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: of a uniformed flight attendant. Idiots slowing down the delay
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: or slowing down the emergency evacuation process. of an aircraft,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: which continues to be the case without any single bit
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: of consequence from the FAA for people that disregard that
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: safety instruction.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: It just drives me crazy.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: And sadly, you and I are gonna be talking about
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: one day when somebody gets seriously injured or killed because
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: of idiots stopping to collect their overhead baggage.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: You know, and before you pointed that out, I was
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: just going to say, there are no atheists in a
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: smoking plane with engine trouble, you know? And then here
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: you go. You're going to delay everybody else getting off.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I guess you're really not that concerned about your life
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: or anybody else's. All right. Pivoting over.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: 90 seconds is the time that it should take to
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: get everybody off that airplane with half the exits blocked.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: Now think about boarding an aircraft 40 minutes and it
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: takes 90 seconds or less. The miracle in Toronto, you
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: can look that up. It was a, Air France flight that, yeah,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: landed long, went off the runway, caught on fire. You
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: look at what, nothing was left of the aircraft. It
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: was just burnt to a crisp. And you look at
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: that and wonder if a single person survived. Everybody survived
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: because the flight attendants got everybody off in less than
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: 90 seconds. We had an American Airlines flight on fire
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: in Chicago.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: It took four and a.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Half minutes to get everybody off the stupid airplane because
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: the idiots stopped to get their luggage.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Can't believe that. Well, no, sadly, I can, Jay, because
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: you mention it all the time.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: It's just something that's got to change, Brian. It's got
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to change.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I'm with you, man. All right, what happened with this?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: How did a passenger get locked in a lavatory? Isn't
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: that kind of hard to do in a plane lavatory?
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Well, apparently it's pretty easy to do because this 69-year-old woman,
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: she was on a transcontinental flight, Seattle to Newark, I believe,
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: United Airlines, just goes to the lavatory.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: And when she's finished, the door won't open. She can't
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: get it open.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: She makes enough of a ruckus. The flight crew comes over.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: They try to unlock it to help her to get out.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: The door won't budge.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: It's stuck.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: She's in there now for five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: going on 20. And finally, the captain says, look, we
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: can't have somebody in a part of the plane that
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: if we have to have everybody seated with their seatbelt
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: on to be secured, because that's not the case in
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: the lavatory. So they declare, it wasn't necessarily an emergency,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: but they had to divert towards Chicago. Because the plane was,
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: let's land in Chicago. If the maintenance teams come on,
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: take the door apart to get this poor woman out
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: of there. But finally, Brian, as the aircraft was on
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: its approach into Chicago, they were able to finally get
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: that door busted open enough that they could get her out. Now,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: I'm sure that this woman, you know, a lot of
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: people are already anxious flyers.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: But, you know, I mean.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: To be stuck in a lavatory for 15 minutes or
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: more for a lot of people would be very uncomfortable.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: For those with a little, you know, claustrophobia, it would
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: be very, very bad.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: And, of course, I'm sure when she came out, everybody
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: gave her a round of applause of some kind, which
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: only makes it even more embarrassing. Although the round of
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: applause was probably, hey, you know, we don't have to
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: go to Chicago.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: We get to keep going to Newark, which is good.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: But I am sure United is going to apologize in
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: a very significant way she might get 5,000 frequent fire miles.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Maybe I'm being a little bit too optimistic, but yeah, look,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: the United CEO just came out saying that a wealth
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: tax should be in place and there should be a
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: hundred percent inheritance tax. So United is a very left
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: leaning company. And even the CEO feels important for him to, uh,
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: comment on things that he has absolutely no business commenting on.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Well, and I appreciate you commenting politically on the 55
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: KRC morning show.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: That's enlightening information for my listening audience. Uh, and well,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: let's face it. It'd have been a lot worse if
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: that blocked bathroom was on the previously mentioned flight. That's smoking.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: There's another reason.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: And that's, you look and you just, and what happened
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: was they just, after that, they got the lady out
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: that lavatory is in op.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Nobody can use it. They can use the remaining lavatories. Yeah.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: But yeah, if you can't be seated, and there have
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: been discussions at times to put a seatbelt in the lavatory.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine?
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: No. Especially, it's one thing to be claustrophobic. The other,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: if you're a germaphobe and you're stuck in a lavatory
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: with an airplane.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Those discussions never went far for all the obvious reasons.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, since we're almost out of time, let us,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: as we always do, end on hub delays with the
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: local weather report. I can imagine flying in and out
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: of CBG is okay, but it depends on where you're going.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: What's it look like out there, Jay?
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Really, anything east of the Mississippi is good today, but
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: I think Phoenix and Denver are going to give us
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: some delays, minor delays at those hubs. The rest of
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: the country, just a beautiful, beautiful day to take to
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: the skies. So if you picked today, you picked a
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: good one.