Smaller jets, fewer flights this fall
by Stewart on 12/10/09 at 2:29 pm
Major airline companies in the US are planning drastic cuts in spending starting this fall. What does that mean? Smaller jets, fewer flights, less flexible-schedules and one of the most dramatic decrease in the industry after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The first sign is the decrease of domestic seats on sale for October: less than 21%, according to OAG, one of the most important aviation-data firms. And since this is not enough, companies intend to reduce much more flights this winter. Big airline carriers are canceling their less lucrative routes and pushing the ticket prices higher, hoping that they will crowd their planes, although the economy is still weak.
Another trend noticed in the airline industry is a slowly but surely shift to the low-cost practices. Major airlines, operating international flights used to carry more than 83% of the domestic passengers in 2001. Nowadays, the same airlines take 61% of the travelers, while the regional and the low-cost companies grew to 39%. These usually operate smaller planes and this means not just traffic jams in the main airports, but also uncomfortable seats, poor customer services, smaller bathrooms and bumpy flights.
The cuts are obvious: the nation’s biggest airlines – Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines reported a 26% shrunk of their domestic capacity, since 2000. By contrary, the most important budget airline, Southwest Airlines announced increases of 70% for the passenger traffic, since the beginning of the decade.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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