US air traffic is simply atrocious. The aircrafts are getting older - so are the flight attendants! The snacks and food offered on flights went from complimentary to paid and to disappearance (they don't want to have the inventory management headache!) - LOL.
Safety is in question. First, lack of inspection by the authorities is increasing the risk. Recently, we saw a spate of a large number of flights being canceled due to pending inspection. In a bid to keep the carrier running, safety was prioritized. The rich no longer want to fly with commercial airlines and they fly via NetJets! There were 339 incidents in 2007 when two aircrafts came dangerously close to each other or to objects on the ground. I experience more bumps in landing these days, hmmm.....are those due to reduced paychecks to the flight pilots?
Consolidation emerged much to the disadvantage of the chagrined consumers. Prices were hiked as soon as the Delta-Northwest merger started coming into transition phase. I see further consolidation in form of combining the points, miles, etc. The airlines must be cursing themselves for introducing the points system to begin with.
The options provided to the consumers are causing the issues to a certain degree. To woo the customers, airlines provide tons of options. However, the infrastructure required to support it is simply absent. For instance, take the condition of La Guardia airport. It is no where close to the state-of-the-art airport-designs I have seen at other domestic or international locations. Yet, it is a nerve center for the entire US traffic. Any backlog there causes cascading effect in the system. Such airports need to be corrected in terms of design.
Most of the US airline carriers are trying to improve. Air aviation is a highly leveraged business with huge capex and/or leases (depending on how you laid it out) unless you have a niche target market to focus on luxury flying. The fuel prices are leading airlines to become very insensitive to the consumer needs. Airlines started taxing consumers with charges for checked in luggage in order to make up for prices. Southwest has good hedge against oil. What about others? I saw someone shouting on cnbc when the oil went up by $11 /bbl (chuckles).
I blog this as I am waiting at the airport due to a flight cancellation - they said that there was some weather issue. However, another airlines is letting its flights go at the same time to the same destination. Is this an outright lie? who knows? Can FAA do something about it? Do they care? Blakey unabashed the airlines publicly last year. Does he have enough powers to do something?
2 comments:
Common man, there are uncertainities all around...then why u want to be certain about your every flight. Discomfort @ airport made you spit about airlines but did u ever thank them for making so many of your trips happen :) And complain about old cariers and old attendants....i would say not everyone desevre the young hehehehhe
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