Oh, my gosh. Are the holidays already almost over?

Alas, I do believe they are. Alas, this also means my brief respite from commenting on the trials and tribulations of this wacky industry we love for some strange reason is coming to a close.

Sniff. Sniff.

Yes, airline fans, PlaneBusiness Banter will return later this week, after our usual holiday hiatus.

And, if PBB is back, that means I’ll be hanging around here again.

Woo hoo!

But not before we watch more football.

Hey, we have our priorities straight.

But you know, some things just call you back home.

And today, a full page ad in the Chicago Tribune had that siren call effect on yours truly.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been rather amused at how the mainstream media, for the most part, has taken the United Airlines public stance on the airline’s continuing problem of cancellations — and run with it.

Yes, well, those of us in the industry know better, don’t we?

I think we only need to go back to this summer and the problems with Northwest Airlines to understand the blueprint for what has been going on with United the last week or so.

It’s pretty simple. This is what happens when you have crew scheduling set with no margin of error, you add a little dash of bad weather, and you have a management team who, unfortunately, assumes that it will be able to count on a lot of pilots “volunteering” to fly more during the holidays.

Right.

This isn’t just about “bad weather.”

Given what said management team has done for the employees at the airline the last couple of years — I find it hard to understand why no one in management at United would not expect what we have seen happening at United.

And in case some people needed a bit of help in understanding this — the United Airlines’ pilots ran this full page add in today’s Chicago Tribune.

Hap, I say, Happ, I say, Happy New Year Everyone!

Ticker: (Nasdaq:UAUA)

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airline unions, ALPA, United Airlines