Due to soaring fuel costs, the airline industry is losing money as it struggles to maintain business. To maintain profits while competing against the rising fuel costs, airlines have raised fares, added fees, cut capacity and scaled back expansion plans. It is a known fact that some airlines have even become bankrupt. However, rising costs is not the only obstacle that the airline industries face. A recent survey shows that they are avoiding taking trips by air (by plane) due to the hassles of air travel. The majority of travelers complained about the frustration at airports and on board the planes and stated that air travel is the worst type of travel (although air transport levels of security has been increasing). The respondents of the survey complained about worsened efficiency, less reliability and a deteriorated system.
This provides the airline industry a big problem because due to these reasons, more than a quarter of the population (America) said that they avoided at least one air trip in the last year because of the hassles involved in air travel. The Travel Industry Association estimated that 28 percent of air travelers avoided 1.3 trips each, which results in 29 million leisure trips and 12 million business trips that were not taken. This means that there were 41 million trips skipped, and this would cost the travel industry 18.1 billion dollars, which is a large proportion of the industry’s total revenue of 740 billion dollars.
To avoid complete bankruptcy of the today’s airline industries, it seems evident that it is and important time for America’s policy leaders to consider a meaningful air system reformation.
I believe there is reason to what the travelers are complaining about, because there are so many hassles and processes to go through at airports in America. There was a time when I was even asked to open my bible and take off my shoes and socks in search of drugs, when other Europeans (whites) just got sent through. This was very embarrassing and enraging for me, and although I enjoyed my stay in America, I do not relish the thought of revisiting an American airport.
This provides the airline industry a big problem because due to these reasons, more than a quarter of the population (America) said that they avoided at least one air trip in the last year because of the hassles involved in air travel. The Travel Industry Association estimated that 28 percent of air travelers avoided 1.3 trips each, which results in 29 million leisure trips and 12 million business trips that were not taken. This means that there were 41 million trips skipped, and this would cost the travel industry 18.1 billion dollars, which is a large proportion of the industry’s total revenue of 740 billion dollars.
To avoid complete bankruptcy of the today’s airline industries, it seems evident that it is and important time for America’s policy leaders to consider a meaningful air system reformation.
I believe there is reason to what the travelers are complaining about, because there are so many hassles and processes to go through at airports in America. There was a time when I was even asked to open my bible and take off my shoes and socks in search of drugs, when other Europeans (whites) just got sent through. This was very embarrassing and enraging for me, and although I enjoyed my stay in America, I do not relish the thought of revisiting an American airport.
Survey: Americans make 41M fewer air trips
Washington, May 30, 2008
Business Week
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