House packed at airline safety roundtable

by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - It was a packed house at the Guam Legislature's Public Hearing Room Wednesday night and all for good reason. As not only were United Airlines officials but customers on hand to discuss the recent challenges with the Guam-based operation and the issue of safety.

"But taking 300 passengers on board going up in the air and turning around and saying the seal was leaking and making too much noise to me that's unacceptable," said Dr. Thomas Shieh, a million-mile flyer and one a several who expressed concern over his recent challenges with United Airlines locally. While he wasn't on United Flight 200, Shieh's wife and daughter were on board that flight earlier this month, which was delayed due to mechanical issues specifically a "seal issue of the first officer's window of the cockpit." He said, "Next time if you decide to delay a flight due to maintenance issue, please make absolute certain that the issue is fixed permanently."

Like Shieh, frequent flier Eloy Hara says while he felt united employees were friendly, he questioned not only whether united on a corporate level really valued Guam but the age and quality of its Guam-based fleet. "But as soon as they switched, all of those airplanes disappeared and we got what I call 'junk airplane', and you know what that insults me a lot," he shared.

While some expressed their concern, others shared their satisfaction with the airline like Lee Webber, who says he feels perfectly safe flying the airline. "I think the Guam community, at least from my perspective, I've flown United for a long time and I continue to fly United, and I'll fly United in the future"

United Airlines meanwhile voluntarily participated in the roundtable based on those very concerns. Managing director of sales and business development based here on Guam Sam Shinohara said, "As Guam's hometown airline, please know that my coworkers and I personally have an appreciation for long and proud history of having serve Guam and Micronesia and how important safe and reliable air transportation is to all us and to the communities and customers we serve."

He noted before lawmakers and dozens of United employees that even one irregular event can impact more negatively the communities in the region than a cancelled or delayed flight in any mainland US point. He adds its also drives unwanted costs to United, adding, "United recently acknowledged in communications to the leadership in this region that certain aspects of our merger have not flown as smoothly as we would liked; for that, we greatly apologize and we continue to take corrective action."

In addition to undertaking a number of new policies and procedures aimed at facilitating better customer handling, United is also cycling certain aircraft fleets through additional preventative maintenance work.

Shinohara says United is aware that its operation at times have caused some frustration in the community, noting, "As you all know, the 777s have had some high profile irregular operations very recently, but out of the sixteen 777s flights cancelled this year, six have occurred since June 1. No doubt we all know about the Midway [Island] diversion, but sometimes irregular operations happen and in the case of Midway our crew did everything right."

He further apologized and shared his disappointment in the operational challenges United has faced these past several weeks but assured United's commitment to safety will never be compromised. United's vice president of corporate safety out of Chicago Mike Quiello, who reiterated Shinohara's commitment to safety on Guam. "Under no circumstances will United compromise safety," he assured. "We have no higher obligation to our coworkers our passengers, our airline - I trust our crews and aircraft maintenance technicians and our ground crew," he said.

Shinohara says that its important to note that out of 676 scheduled 777 flights only 16 have been cancelled this year. As far as the Guam-based fleet, it consists of 12 Boeing 737 aircraft and nine rotating Boeing 777s that are maintained by United's locally-based FAA-licensed and certified technicians. The Boeing 737s will be undergoing an interior renovation with the 777s recently refurbished.

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