Perfect Sense
Kim du Toit
May 14, 2008
9:32 AM CDT
Okay, so I read this about the airline industry:
Fewer Americans are expected to fly this summer, but don’t expect more empty seats as carriers park planes to help offset surging fuel costs.
The trade group for the nation’s largest airlines on Tuesday forecast 211.5 million passengers will travel on domestic carriers between June 1 and Aug. 31. That would be a 1.3 percent drop from last summer.
Airlines are reducing their carrying capacity amid slower economic growth and rising jet fuel prices, the Air Transport Association said.
So one would think, therefore, that with fewer planes flying, that delays will be reduced?
Silly rabbits.
But planes will be nearly 85 percent full and delays emanating from New York-area airports will remain a problem, ATA President and Chief Executive James May said. [emphasis added]
Well, that explains it all.
Unusually, I have some sympathy for the airlines nowadays: fuel costs must be astonishing, and while it makes sense to let a few planes remain idle, those planes still have to be paid for—and no flying, no revenue.
Just out of curiosity, however, I looked up a couple of coach fares yesterday:
DFW - Paris: $1,100
DFW - Paris - Vienna: $900
The outgoing DFW - Paris flight was the identical American Airlines flight number in each case. I could understand the price difference if both flights were AA: but the CDG - VIE leg was Austrian Airlines, which isn’t even a partner airline to American.
Now that makes no sense.