El Blog de Tomás Cano

Flying: hours of pleasure with minutes of genuine panic.
Airlines are now proud of the young age at which their pilots are becoming Captains.
The low cost companies and why not say it, their legacy, has entered in to a spiral which nobody in the industry dares to predict but the final result will be worrying.
Times have changed since German pilots could only fly in Germany or Spanish in Spain. Frontiers have disappeared on a world level except for a few countries that are thirty years behind present day aviation.
I have no intention of upsetting anybody with my opinion, there is no reason to. It is simply what a lot of pilots are saying or discussing when they have just finished operating a flight with turbulence, storms, technical problems, or the whole crew feeling pressurised by the companies that do not appreciate their work. There are many tough jobs and a pilot’s is one of them. Passengers arrive at their destination without major inconvenience but are often unaware of what the technical or auxiliary crew have had to deal with during the flight.
We are entering a situation where the the number of pilots required in the next few years by the airlines could reach 20.000 and according to the latest surveys, 865.000 cabin crew.
We have reached a point whereby the authorities should study the possibility of extending the date of retirement of those pilots interested in doing so. In the USA they are contemplating increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67 in order to continue providing experience and support to the new pilots joining the airlines.
Another aspect which should be studied in order to find a solution, is the instruction of young pilots. They should be trained more in line with the tasks they are going to carry out and above all what they are going to face. Nowadays many young pilots and first officers have been taught to trust what computers and the LCD instruments show. They take off and before the under carriage is fully engaged, they have already connected to auto-pilot, with no or very little manual flying. In the long term, these techniques, learnt by young pilots, can only cause problems and in some cases serious ones.
Who is responsable for all this? There are many factors but a lot of the fault lies with the airlines.
The situation at Ryanair and its samurai Michael O’Leary deserve special mention. His personnel policy and treatment of ground staff – whether they are sub-contracted or not -, his pilots and cabin crew, is already unacceptable and to continue with his arrogant attitude especially with the pilot sector, those who fly his planes, is in my opinion the start of a serious problem with a difficult solution and with unforeseen consequences.
It is one thing to be “off piste”, but those at Ryanair want clients, pilots and the rest of the personnel to jump through hoops.
It seems fair to me that any pilot should have the right to move from one company to another with total freedom, especially when leaving a company where freedom is limited or controlled and above all to have the right to go where salaries are better or for an improved quality of life.
Airline pilots know that the power or a considerable part of it, is in their hands, along with their colleages the cabin crews, TMAs, check-in, flight despatch, loading and unloading and this power can manage to change an airline in to a Great Airline. In any case, I have known directors who base their
personnel strategy on disposabilty.
 

I embark the aircraft deep in my thoughts. As if I were an automatom, I make my way to my seat, make myself comfortable and close my eyes. I cannot stop thinking that aviation is LIFE and everything that I love.
Perhaps it is an excuse for not seeing my daughters grow up, realising its due to seeing them so little. I cannot play with them now as they are women. Nevertheless I love my work and continue thinking that aviaion is LIFE.
Who has not been in an airport at some time and realised that the building made of iron and cement is alive and never sleeps. Its blood is the thousands of humans of different races, who for a short time live together there.
Aviation is LIFE, says a beautiful little girl on her death bed, in the most inhospitable corner of the earth. The father whispers to his daughter “before long you will be playing like before; the iron bird will arrive with your salvation, and you will then be better”.
Aviation is LIFE because its roots are watered by the blood of many. There are so many that when I count them it makes me sad as many friends are amongst them.
If so many have given their blood for it, why should I not give it my life.
ooOoo

Michael O´leary, me recuerda al samurai Miyamoto Musashi.
Nunca me gustó el libro que escribió este samurai, porque esta basado en tener la espada entre las dos manos hacia arriba. Y por encima de su cabeza. Tampoco porque su filosofía se basa cómo servirse de los hombres, para tener poder, filosofía que no tiene nada de glorioso.
Volviendo al tema de marras, parece indicar el sector de que Norwegian puede empezar a necesitar más recursos ecónomicos, ya que están barajando vender su división de leasing y compra de aviones.
No en vano la expansión que han acometido y la cantidad de aviones comprados, hay pocos que la puedan soportar.
Nada en contra de el Señor O´leary o de Norwegian, ellos sabrán lo que hacen. A pesar de que a ambos los he alabado o criticado, me cae bien este Samurai, llamado Michael O´leary. Y norwegian es una compañía que lucha por hacerse un hueco entre las LLC.
La batatalla entre las low cost, esta en auge y dejará algunas bajas. Y es probable, casi seguro que el samurai O´leary sea al final el vencedor.
Cuando se entra en estas guerras, que empiezan siendo comerciales y terminan siendo personales o una confrontación de egos, no olviden ninguno los Idus de Marzo, recuerden que a César un adivino le dijo que cuidara de este día. Cuando se producen este tipo de guerras en las que vale todo, me vienen a la memoria tiempos en que la traición juega también un papel importante en el transporte aéreo.
porque suelen ser cada uno de los combates muy personales y diria que mortales para ver quien destrye a quien, y la traición suele venir de los, informadores, de los espias de mercado, y de consejeros. estas batallas pueden conducir a un cisma entre los lóbulos cerebrales.

WHO WILL HELP YOU
no one,  only yourself especially when failure becomes part of your life, or you are broke
when you are a child, your dreams accumulate day by day
How many things will I do? you ask yourself
dreaming is what allows you to go to bed every night, waiting for tomorrow
I will continue to dream tomorrow
I can say that what I dreamed as a child became a reality
dream, young friend, face life, always with a smile
do not stop smiling or dreaming
because life is as a poet said “long as the stick of a chicken  hen house, but full of shit”
do not be discouraged, dream and when you want to turn dreams into reality you must fight for them
dreams do not come true without struggle, work, love, passion, patience
share your dreams with others, you will be able to summon them to join your dream to be part of that dream
be honest with them, choose the best
choose those who know or are more prepared than you
treat them as part of your dream with affection honesty
trust them to make your dream bigger and make it a reality
those humans who join your project, need freedom, need passion make them feel that they are your dream team, because they truly are
you need human beings who are great people, they just need your support to become great professionals
you may be a great dreamer and entrepreneur if you do not support your own peers you will never reach your goal

I have often written about pilots/aviators, always with the utmost honesty; I always will as I have enormous respect for their work and because every day they are faced with a “decisive moment”. I could talk of other professions that also deserve a profound respect but not in vain have I spent my life amongst these airlines and people.
I have known pilots who have been born to fly and I have occasionally known those who have not, although someone once said “I prefer to be an old pilot than a good pilot”. It is true that some pilots have been “heroes of the skies” at some point.
But the truth now is that it is not made up of heroes, but professional men.
In the short history of air safety, the changing point came to be in the 1950’s, with the incorporation of reactor aeroplanes, that were much more reliable and easier to fly in comparison with the plunger engine that preceded them.
With the incorporation of the reactor aircraft the number of accidents due to mechanical errors or atmospheric conditions were greatly reduced. There was a dramatic change and improvement in air safety which opened the door to air travel as we know it today.
At the end of 1970, a decision was made that would improve safety on board to standards we know today. A small team of investigators from a NASA centre in Mountain View, California, started – with a view to safety – a systematic evaluation of the pilot-plane relationship.
One of the members of the team was an investigative psychologist and young private pilot by the name of John Lauber. This young man spent years observing operations “in situ” or perhaps we should say both flying as a passenger and in the cockpit. The first thing that Lauber found was a culture dominated by the authoritarian captains; old reactionaries who were against the idea of working as a team, who did not allow interference from any of their colleagues.
In the airline Pan Am, these captains were known as “Clipper Skippers” in a clear reference to the pilots of the hydroplanes of the 1930’s. NASA spoke to Pan Am to lend them a “flight simulator” – something unknown to some of them.
With this simulator, different types of breakdowns or difficulties during the flight could be simulated. The flight simulator was created by Hugh Patrick Rufell Smith, a modest British born doctor who died a few years later but is reknowned nowadays for having reformed the global operations of airlines, saving numerous human lives.
John Lauber was very much involved in this process of radical change of what is today known as safety on board. Nowadays flight simulators are a fundamental tool for pilots and safety, spread around the whole world – the only bad thing about them is the quality of their coffee which is barely drinkable!
John Lauber, in order to achieve the fundamental tool which was and is to work as a team, discuss situations and improve procedures, coined the phrase C.R.M. which means resource management. Teamwork is more important in aviation than the ability of one of the crew members. Today the First Officers manage or handle the aircraft and are free to express their opinions and consult the Captains. Therefore the pilots in control delegate functions, often ask for advice or simply communicate their plans to the crew.
Many ask the question, do they need to know what a C.R.M. is. When it is nothing more than the principle of many other programmes laid down by civil aviation authorities, airlines and manufacturers.
It has not been easy reaching this high level of safety on board. One has to bear in mind that the way has not been without its difficulties. The accepting of all the procedures has been difficult in some countries or regions in the world; for example in Asia where C.R.M. is or was against the traditions of the hierarchy and respect for elders.
A notorious case was the accident of a Korean Air Boeing 747. During the landing at Guam, the captain made the decision to descend prematurely and crash on a dark night. Neither the First Official nor the flight mechanic passed on their concerns to the pilot in charge, although both were aware that the operation was incorrect and would end in tragedy, with the loss of 228 lives.
In summing up, in the life of every man there is always a decisive moment and probably his future life is written in that instant.
Defending this profession, because probably only the surgeon and the pilot or pilots deal with the fine line which opens and closes the subtle border between life and death with such intensity and as many times during their lifetimes.
Fortunately nowadays we no longer have “Clipper Skippers”; we have professionals with a high level of preparation, who face difficulties as a team, although sometimes the high technology cockpits in the aircraft can create more than one problem.
They no longer have to be arrogant to be professional.

THE ORPHANAGE
When you have spent your childhood and youth in an orphanage you learn to be alone
After that experience I learned to handle myself well by social networks, amount in other aspects
I am impressed by the amount of human resources companies looking for staff
I read with interest job requests from people who have crossed the border of 50 years
Are companies interested only in  people with a year experience, not 20 years experience
The human resources departments answer you in some cases that you do not give the profile
Maybe because they think you get up at night five or six times to go to the bathroom
As an Entrepreneur have experience in all this, the way they treat you
They a looking for people, no matter the intellectual level or the background, look for experience at zero cost, but experience which kind of it
In linkedin you can read what I mention
men and women of human recursos express things like we must fight, not stop fighting
Sure that way you will get a job. We keep your CV just in case (sic)
Pay attention to the gurus, who have read Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, all their messages emanate from these great philosophers.
And what we can do the ones who have read the great philosophers
One comes to the conclusion that after these philosophers nothing else has been written
So all those who have passed the barrier of 50 or 55 years fight, keep fighting but I recommend you start from scratch
There is no choice but think, dream in  something in what we have been  dreamed during our life, because now is the right time tos start again and keep an eye that we are  alone we started in some cases alone  and alone we will finished hopefully for a long time

I get bored almost all comments in the social networks
Linkedin amazed me by the amount of posts the gurus coach and lidership masters
Looking for as many likes as possible accounting for thousands
How is it possible that thousands of people give their like to charlatans
They Speak about lidership and when you investigate many of them have never created a single company
Although great teachers continue to insist that leaders become leaders because they are formed to become so is totally wrong
The leader is born, lives among us, our groups of friends have a leader our community of neighbors has a leader
When all these teachers of the lidership show me in their majority what has been their contribution to the business world then I will be in a possition to believe them. But today there are more masters of lidership (sic) than leaders
That shows that our society is sick, that the departments of human resources do not work
And are unable to find leaders
Because to be a leader first you have to be a good person
I know many entrepreneurs who have made themselves and they are true leaders
The leader is one who is able to start a company with only a pice of paper and a pencil
The others except exceptions are no more than utopianists
Life is very short, to pay attention to the maesters who teach you how to be come a lider mainly because, life is too short for loosing the time and instead death is very long

No esperes apoyo de aquellos que has apoyado a lo largo de tu vida

Se estima la incorporación de unas 2.500 aeronaves en América Latina para los próximos 20
años, de acuerdo a un estudio del fabricante Airbus, un crecimiento superior al 50% en la
cantidad de aeronaves volando por la región.
Las compañías low cost están apareciendo por el continente americano como setas, hay una fiebre en el sector aéreo.
Esto hará que muchas compañías aéreas se replanteen sus estrategias en todos los aspectos.
Hay que mirar el futuro con optimismo porque los clientes de Latinoamérica tendrán opciones tanto en la corta, media y larga distancia de poder volar de forma más económica
Existen operadores de aeropuertos secundarios y terciarios que están haciendo grandes esfuerzos por hacer más asequible el transporte aéreo. Un caso concreto y digno de admirar de cara al futuro es Air Panamá que operando a destinos como Bocas del Toro, David, Changuinola, El Porvenir,Isla Contadora, a nivel secundario y terciario opera con sus Fokker 100 o Fokker 50, esta haciendo una labor muy importante para acercar estas pequeñas localidades a la capital, sin olvidar sus vuelos internacionales a San José de Costa Rica, Cartagena, Medellín y nuevos destinos que están en estudio en función del mercado.
La compañía Air Panamá acaba de firmar un acuerdo de colaboración y representación con la compañía española Wamos Air, en la que Air Panmá representa a la compañía aérea española en el Itsmo.
En las próximas semanas se han convocado reuniones extraordinarias para nombrar los nuevos GSA en Europa lo que le permitirá dar a conocer los destinos turísticos por excelencia en Panamá, por toda Europa y que no tienen nada que envidiar a sus rivales turísticos
Air Panamá tiene una inversión importante en Costa Rica con su compañía Air Costa Rica, y que espera expandir en el futuro.
Como pueden ver el mercado Latinoamericano no da tregua y está en una expansión nunca vista con anterioridad, la pregunta puede ser ¿Están las autoridades Turísticas y de Aviación Civil preparadas para ese desarrollo?. Sin lugar a dudas yo diría que si por lo menos en el caso de Air Panamá, hay una gran confianza en que la linea aérea se consolide en sus nuevos proyectos. Y como esta compañía todos los nuevos jugadores del nuevo transporte aéreo del Continente Americano son conscientes de la importancia de tener una conectividad que ayudará al Turismo, pero también a sus economías. En la lucha contra la pobreza la aviación y su desarrollo tiene mucho que aportar a Latinoamérica.

Copa Airlines, with its low cost Wingo, are intent on having the monopoly of Hispano-America at all costs.
I read with curious interest the statements made by Mr. Pedro Hellbron, who manages the airline and cannot help but be amused by his complete arrogance concerning the building of the second terminal at Tocumen airport being just for Copa – let’s not have one that wants all the airlines!
Copa is a company that deserves respect, as they all do, whether it is Volaris, Avianca, Viva Colombia, Tam, Gol, or Air Panama i.e. all the operators of that continent. Mr. Hellbron as head of Copa wants everything but everything in life is not possible.
It is worth high-lighting the feeder concept and its impressive hub in Tocumen, linking Hispano-America and the United States.
Copa reminds me of the ’80s with Iberia cutting the distances. They were the owners of everything and everyone in the Spanish private sector had to face not only the inconveniences, the affronts and a long way round until common sense prevailed and things changed from fierce confrontation to “co-operation is better than confrontation”.
I do not think that Copa’s management currently posseses that common sense; to the contrary – its cruel and ferocious fight against anything that annoys or gets in its way is simply swept under the carpet.
They are mistaken at Copa as it is better to co-operate than to confront airlines that are inconveniencing them or in direct competition. In my opinion one should avoid upsetting the competition; that in some cases operates in secondary and tertiary airports. It is unbelievable how the arrogance of the monopoly wants competition eliminated, even when it is not direct.
Copa has my respect but not my understanding. I do not understand elimination policies but the creation of wealth for a continent like yours which many players are helping to create. If you eliminate the players the game is finished and they also end up turning in to clowns for what they are fighting for.
European operators in the search of El Dorado have an obsession with Copa, so they can operate in a feeder role and do not realise this airline will give them the seats they want on each flight. The big European operators are putting themselves in the hands of a company like Copa that can help them grow in the search of El Dorado or simply limit growth.
European operators should reflect on this issue and look for alternatives which exist and with their help, are achievable or they can grow in a more natural way.
To me personally if I were a director of a European airline I would not be happy to be in the hands on my long distance flights of a company that exercises a monopoly and destroys whatever stands in their way in Hispano-America or Europe.