Alaska pilots to get new V.P.

Alaska Airlines, feeling pressure from federal investigators and from its own employees, is making what it calls "a fundamental shift" in its flight operations - including changing the job of a key executive.

John Fowler, executive vice president of technical operations and systems control, will no longer supervise Alaska's 1,270 pilots.

Instead, they will report to a new vice president of flight operations, Kevin Finan, who will report directly to company President Bill Ayer.

In recent weeks, Fowler has emerged as a lightning rod for criticism by pilots angered by directives they perceived as violating work rules simply to bail the company out of crew shortages stemming from poor planning.

In addition to the changes at the top, Alaska is giving - at least temporarily - more influence to pilots, mechanics and support workers in deciding how the airline should be run.

Like most airlines, Alaska normally plans flights based on what the marketing department thinks can make the most money.

The operations department - pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, ground workers and counter clerks - then does what needs to be done to carry out the marketing plan.

But Ayer told employees last Friday, via an internal Web site, that Alaska was "making a fundamental shift for the near future."

"Our schedule traditionally has been more marketing-driven but for now it will be more driven by operations," Ayer said.

Alaska spokesman Greg Witter said that once the airline brings its performance to "a level our customers expect," the company will return to its traditional approach.

The actions come at a time when Alaska is scrambling to deal with both a Federal Aviation Administration safety inspection and an FBI criminal probe into the airline's maintenance practices.

In addition, the FBI and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the fatal crash of Flight 261 off Southern California Jan. 31.

The airline is also trying to shore up sinking employee morale and stem rising criticism of its senior executives by pilots, mechanics and flight attendants.

While executives blame the morale problems on disruptions and emotions stemming from the crash of Flight 261, employee leaders say the roots are in labor-management relations.

"There is a long history of the employee groups here feeling just a huge, huge disconnect from management," said Thomas Lent, president of the Association of Flight Attendants council representing 1,900 Alaska flight attendants.

"When labor and management are disconnected, that promotes isolation and misunderstanding. I think we've suffered from that for many, many years," Lent said.

The changes come a few days after more than 100 pilots convened at a sometimes-heated union meeting April 3 at a SeaTac hotel.

Following the lead of 64 mechanics, who a few weeks earlier had sent Alaska Chairman John Kelly a letter saying they felt pressured by management to cut corners on maintenance, the pilots drafted a proposed resolution declaring no confidence in Kelly, Ayer and Fowler.

The resolution was discussed, but not adopted. Instead, the pilots voted to convene special meetings in Seattle, Anchorage and Los Angeles to hash over possible revisions to the resolution before voting on whether to formally send it to the airline's board of directors.

Many pilots applauded the promotion of Finan, a pilot who is a former Navy squadron leader and decorated Vietnam veteran, and the fact he will report to Ayer. John Sluys, chairman of the pilot union's master executive council, called it "a positive move."

"I think it allows for better communication," Sluys said. "Captain Finan has an exceptional reputation among the pilot group in Los Angeles, and we're confident that our concerns as a pilot group will receive prominent attention with his leadership."

Finan steps into a job that had been vacant this year, after Mike Swanigan, who had held it for five years, returned to flying. Company insiders say Swanigan became increasingly frustrated working for Fowler and trying to keep up with aggressive expansion plans conceived by the marketing department.

Alaska says Finan was placed under Ayer to free Fowler to concentrate on other matters, including the NTSB investigation of Flight 261 and an internal company audit scheduled to begin next week.

"This is an important position for us to fill as it will allow John Fowler . . . to focus 150 percent on maintenance and engineering issues," Ayer said in a press release. "With the FAA audit and our own audit under way, along with the NTSB investigation into Flight 261, John has a very full plate."

Fowler declined to comment on the changes.

Alaska also is taking steps to reverse a pattern of delayed and canceled flights that has plagued the airline most of this year.

Alaska perennially ranks among the worst of the nation's 10 largest airlines for on-time performance, owing in part to operating in inclement weather in Alaska. But following the crash of Flight 261, Alaska faced the additional burden of having to yank several aircraft from service for extended periods as investigators zeroed in on maintenance questions the accident raised.

The airline also canceled dozens of flights in March because it could not entice enough flight attendants and pilots to come in on their days off to man the flights. Union leaders blamed the shortfall on poor planning.

Last week, Ayer ordered a reduction of the planned spring flying schedule and said he would hire more outside maintenance help to improve equipment reliability. He told employees the changes were aimed at "achieving better on-time performance."

"We have not been meeting our goals or our customers' expectations for on-time performance . . . ," he said. "We want - and need - to get more of our customers where they want to go on time and without hassle."

On the day the structural and operational changes were announced, chairman and CEO Kelly sent an unusual two-page letter to all employees that began:

"Stop the world, I want to get off. Have you ever felt like that? Have you felt like that lately? Join the crowd."

Kelly told employees that Alaska will continue to "be under a magnifying glass" and warned them not to air concerns in the media. He noted a recent visit with a leading trauma expert who gave him "some new perspective" on why there is so much dissension among employees.

Kelly said the expert told him employees are quite naturally experiencing a "grieving/healing process," having lost friends and colleagues among the 88 people who perished on Flight 261.

"I'm not saying this is some sort of excuse for people who feel compelled to air their concerns or anger . . . but it does lend some perspective on why everything seems to be coming to a head at this point in time," Kelly wrote.

Kelly asked workers "to simply do our jobs" with "a positive attitude."

Despite that admonition, Alaska's flight-attendants union on Monday delivered a five-page letter to Kelly outlining continuing concerns about the way the airline is run.

"What we're really advocating is a departure from Alaska's corporate philosophy that's been alive and well for too many years," said Lent, the union's leader. "It's a very bureaucratic, very top-heavy, very insulated culture, and the higher you go the more isolated you get."

"We've got such an opportunity in the midst of all this craziness to do something unprecedented, if the corporate leaders will get together with us and say, `We need you, come along with us and help us out.' "

"This isn't about kicking the company while the company is down, it's about wanting to be part of the solution, and the only way we can be part of the solution is if the company lets us in."

Byron Acohido's phone message number is 206-464-2352. His e-mail address is bacohido@seattletimes.com

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FBI hotline

The FBI is asking anyone with information on safety issues at Alaska Airlines or the crash of Alaska Flight 261 to call a hotline in San Francisco: 415-551-7100.