Grand Rapids Airport (GRR) News and Developments

[crinzema]

3 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Ooof:

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/01/grand-rapids-airport-ceo-resigned-after-poor-leadership-marks-in-survey.html

Grand Rapids airport CEO resigned after poor leadership marks in survey

So did he resign after getting this survey, or was he asked to resign? If he resigned after having his people give him poor marks on one survey, it seems like he'd take the opportunity to adjust his leadership style. The leadership team could have even hired consultants to help with that. Strange...

Those numbers are not even that bad. If those were presidential favorability numbers, we probably would have a president who just achieved world peace.

[MJLO]

7 hours ago, crinzema said:

Those numbers are not even that bad. If those were presidential favorability numbers, we probably would have a president who just achieved world peace.

They are abysmal for anything other than political approval ratings.  Our leadership team starts putting supervisors on improvement plans if their numbers get below 80%.  Think about what can happen if even 20% of your workforce  becomes disenfranchised.  The impact on productivity and turnover can be dramatic.

[GRDadof3]

2 hours ago, MJLO said:

They are abysmal for anything other than political approval ratings.  Our leadership team starts putting supervisors on improvement plans if their numbers get below 80%.  Think about what can happen if even 20% of your workforce  becomes disenfranchised.  The impact on productivity and turnover can be dramatic.

I was going to say, those aren't very good ratings for a CEO. 

[GRLaker]

3 hours ago, MJLO said:

They are abysmal for anything other than political approval ratings.  Our leadership team starts putting supervisors on improvement plans if their numbers get below 80%.  Think about what can happen if even 20% of your workforce  becomes disenfranchised.  The impact on productivity and turnover can be dramatic.

As someone in leadership that has served in it at a few stops in my career, I could counter that with the fact that it doesn't matter who the leader is - there will always be that 20% that are dramatic and self-disenfranchised and leaders hands are tied for getting rid of them because of HR restrictions. To have a leader's job rely entirely on feedback from the lowest rung of the hierarchy is a good way to have a revolving door of leadership.

Perhaps neutral needs to be eliminated from those metrics. You either approve or disapprove of his leadership. If those neutrals didn't necessarily disapprove of anything, you're looking at an approval rating of 75%. 

[MJLO]

1 hour ago, GRLaker said:

As someone in leadership that has served in it at a few stops in my career, I could counter that with the fact that it doesn't matter who the leader is - there will always be that 20% that are dramatic and self-disenfranchised and leaders hands are tied for getting rid of them because of HR restrictions. To have a leader's job rely entirely on feedback from the lowest rung of the hierarchy is a good way to have a revolving door of leadership.

Perhaps neutral needs to be eliminated from those metrics. You either approve or disapprove of his leadership. If those neutrals didn't necessarily disapprove of anything, you're looking at an approval rating of 75%. 

Agreed, though in the studies I've seen, the percentage of people who are unhappy no matter what,  the people who complain because it's a function of their personality is actually in the 5-8% range.  They typically tend not to be very mobile in their careers anyway.  They are usually the toxic personalities that you actually want to leave, but they won't lol.  When you start getting below that 20% you could actually be looking at a cultural issue at an institutional level.   

Either way airport officials are conspicuously dancing around specifics on this.  My gut tells me there must be more to it than just a cultural survey.   With survey results like that his unpopularity would have been no secret and I doubt that report was a surprise.   

[arcturus]

Glad they took a year to find someone that lasted a year.

The airport seemed to do fine without a CEO and you have to wonder if the position's importance is overstated.  Aren't most of the jobs government, airline employed, union, or restaurant run?  None of those jobs are under the purview of the Airport Authority as far as I know which would make their input pretty much irrelevant. 

[GRLaker]

14 minutes ago, MJLO said:

Agreed, though in the studies I've seen, the percentage of people who are unhappy no matter what,  the people who complain because it's a function of their personality is actually in the 5-8% range.  They typically tend not to be very mobile in their careers anyway.  They are usually the toxic personalities that you actually want to leave, but they won't lol.  When you start getting below that 20% you could actually be looking at a cultural issue at an institutional level.   

Either way airport officials are conspicuously dancing around specifics on this.  My gut tells me there must be more to it than just a cultural survey.   With survey results like that his unpopularity would have been no secret and I doubt that report was a surprise.   

5-8% is likely more of an accurate stat. 20% was definitely hyperbole on my part. I just think of the few bad apples that I've inherited as a leader in my career and the idea of them determining my job security, and it made me cringe. 

But yeah, I wouldn't doubt that there is a lot to this story that no one is making known to the public. I'm surprised this even made it to the public.

[MJLO]

9 minutes ago, arcturus said:

Glad they took a year to find someone that lasted a year.

The airport seemed to do fine without a CEO and you have to wonder if the position's importance is overstated.  Aren't most of the jobs government, airline employed, union, or restaurant run?  None of those jobs are under the purview of the Airport Authority as far as I know which would make their input pretty much irrelevant. 

Yes the people who work at the restaurants work for HMS, not the airport.  I can't imagine they are included in that survey.  The airport authority still would have a significant amount of people working for it.  All vendors and airlines work under contracts with the AA, that will take staff to manage.  The AA also markets the airport as a whole which would be another department.  Plus you have PR ect ect.  My guess would be the largest department of employees that works directly for the airport authority would be facitlities/maintenance staff.    I bet a couple hundred people (maybe more) work for the airport itself. 

[Raildude's dad]

I have a couple acquaintances that are airport employees and they are tight lipped .  I think there's more to the story than poor results on a survey. 

[joeDowntown]

New aircraft services company coming to GRR  

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/03/30-jobs-and-6-million-investment-coming-to-ford-airport-with-second-aircraft-services-company.html

Joe

[GRDadof3]

Just booked a multi-city set of flights out of GRR in July (GRR -> Denver -> Flagstaff ->GRR).  $100/ticket cheaper x 5 people than ORD. Love it. 

[walker]

35 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Just booked a multi-city set of flights out of GRR in July (GRR -> Denver -> Flagstaff ->GRR).  $100/ticket cheaper than ORD. Love it. 

Stopped out at the airport Wednesday midday which is usually a slower time and the short-term spaces were completely full.  I wandered around with others for quite a while looking for a spot and finally beat out someone for a spot on the top floor of the parking deck.  There weren’t even any delays and or any other unusual temporary reasons I could surmise for the parking congestion.  We’re not even in the peak spring vacation times yet. 

Of course, if I had been traveling, I’d be parking in one of the outlying lots or I’d be getting a ride.    
 

[GRDadof3]

42 minutes ago, walker said:

Stopped out at the airport Wednesday midday which is usually a slower time and the short-term spaces were completely full.  I wandered around with others for quite a while looking for a spot and finally beat out someone for a spot on the top floor of the parking deck.  There weren’t even any delays and or any other unusual temporary reasons I could surmise for the parking congestion.  We’re not even in the peak spring vacation times yet. 

Of course, if I had been traveling, I’d be parking in one of the outlying lots or I’d be getting a ride.    
 

I just saw an ad somewhere for a new limo service to and from the GRR airport. They handle your bags and everything. You give them your itinerary and they'll even be waiting for you when you get back to GRR. I'll have to see where I saw that. I don't think Uber or taxi drivers will touch your bags. 

[Pattmost20]

25 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

I don't think Uber or taxi drivers will touch your bags. 

Taxis might not, as an Uber driver I always helped passengers load and unload bags (when they let me), and I've almost always had my uber driver offer to do the same when I travel.

[RegalTDP]

28 minutes ago, Pattmost20 said:

Taxis might not, as an Uber driver I always helped passengers load and unload bags (when they let me), and I've almost always had my uber driver offer to do the same when I travel.

In my experience, Uber and taxi drivers both always at least offer to handle my bags.

[RegalTDP]

Not sure if anyone on here follows Marcy Wheeler (a Nat Sec journalist who lives in GR) but she called out GRR on Twitter this morning:

 

[walker]

4 hours ago, RegalTDP said:

Not sure if anyone on here follows Marcy Wheeler (a Nat Sec journalist who lives in GR) but she called out GRR on Twitter this morning:

Topic drift I suppose but Marcy Wheeler is a well respected investigative journalist and she works mostly from unclassified sources and documents from her home in GR.  Here is a profile article about her from the Columbia Journalism Review:

CRJ: marcy-wheeler-knows-more-than-she-tells-but-she-tells-a-lot

Here's her blog that's currently caught up in the Mueller investigation among other things:

emptywheel blog

I don't know anything about Wheeler's groping problems but a couple of years ago I was standing in the security line at GRR just behind a couple of young women who were discussing the possibility of being groped if they triggered the backscatter machine.  One said, if the TSA agent was good looking she wouldn't mind.  (I'm just reporting what I heard - I take no position on this.)  

Edited March 1, 2019 by walker

[GRDadof3]

4 hours ago, RegalTDP said:

In my experience, Uber and taxi drivers both always at least offer to handle my bags.

I'll have to give it a try. It's usually five of us when traveling as I don't do any business travel anymore. Just vacations. 

[arcturus]

Flew in on SW Air middle of February from MDW.  Totally booked.  If they can fill a flight in the depths of winter what does that say for demand during tourist season?

[GRDadof3]

2 hours ago, arcturus said:

Flew in on SW Air middle of February from MDW.  Totally booked.  If they can fill a flight in the depths of winter what does that say for demand during tourist season?

I booked our Spring Break flight coming up April 1st, way back in August or September of last year. Allegiant. Got 5 of the last 6 seats on the plane. 

[SupercityGR]

I always fly grr cause I know the airport and its convenient for me. But it seems like a lot of the time Chicago is still killing us on price. 

[joeDowntown]

Allegiant is adding another flight to Florida. Sarasota/Bradenton. 

https://www.wzzm13.com/mobile/article/travel/pack-your-bags-allegiant-announces-new-flight-from-grand-rapids-to-florida/69-f6790524-ff46-46ac-8981-9796cd7f058c

[Guest]

6 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

Allegiant is adding another flight to Florida. Sarasota/Bradenton. 

https://www.wzzm13.com/mobile/article/travel/pack-your-bags-allegiant-announces-new-flight-from-grand-rapids-to-florida/69-f6790524-ff46-46ac-8981-9796cd7f058c

I will never understand why people love going to Florida so much..... 

[GRDadof3]

2 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

I will never understand why people love going to Florida so much..... 

You're kidding, right? I'm not exactly a huge Florida fan but I certainly comprehend the draw.  i.e. it's cheap and warm. 

So far we've been extremely satisfied with Allegiant. Crossing fingers our flight tomorrow is on time with plenty of time to watch MSU from our own living room. 

 

[Allison Slater]

I just always think "why not Texas, though?" I really don't like Florida. Except for Cape Canaveral. That place is pretty nifty. And after Pence's announcement last week, it sounds like I'll need to make a trip there in 5 years.