Trump's Willing to put Obama in prison.
Fasten your seatbelts: there's travel turbulence ahead. What
started as a summer of so-called "revenge travel," after two
years of the pandemic, has turned into travel hell.
"I'm extremely frustrated and disappointed," said one flier.
"They got a few people on board, and then all of a sudden,
canceled the flight," said another.
Kyndal Young and her kids weren't about to risk losing a minute
at Disney World this weekend. "In case we did miss this
[flight], I had an extra day to catch up
I built in an extra
day," she said.
Forty-eight million people are expected to be on the move this
Independence Day weekend, the busiest of the pandemic, and the
nation's airlines are struggling to keep up. Since Memorial Day,
in the U.S. alone more than 200,000 flights have been delayed,
and 24,000 canceled, impacting nearly 2.4 million passengers,
roughly the population of Houston.
That's up from pre-pandemic levels, while the airlines are
flying up to 25% less than 2019 (according to Flight Aware), and
charging 45% more for airfare (according to Hopper).
Correspondent Kris Van Cleave asked, "Is it fair to say this is
the airlines' fault?"
"There's shared responsibility; airline and aviation is a team
sport," said Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst and
founder of Atmosphere Research in San Francisco.
As far as what went wrong this summer, Harteveldt said, "It
seems everything has gone wrong. One, airlines are still working
to rehire pilots, flight attendants and other employees. Two,
the FAA is still working to rehire people. Three, the airlines
scheduled a lot of flights. And four, we've just had bad
weather, and a lot of it.
"You put that all together, and you have a fragile system that
has no room left to flex. It just shatters."
Van Cleave asked, "Congress, taxpayers bailed out the airlines
so they wouldn't lay anyone off. What do you mean there aren't
enough people?"
"The airlines got more than $50 billion in government subsidies
to keep operating and to keep people working, but in the first
few months, before any subsidies were guaranteed, and seeing
their traffic fall by 96%, airlines panicked."
That pandemic panic led to the airlines offering early
retirement to tens of thousands of employees. By December 2020,
more than 3,000 pilots took buyouts, worsening a growing pilot
shortage.
Delta pilots marked the start of this holiday weekend picketing
at airports coast-to-coast. Pilot Maggie Eickoff told Van
Cleave, "What Delta has done is overscheduled us. We just don't
have the pilots right now to staff it."
And COVID continues to be an unwanted passenger, resulting in
higher-than-normal sick calls.
Captain Laura Einsetler, who has been an airline pilot for 27
years, predicted, "It's going to be a rough summer, and so we're
just going to step through it as best as we can. It's as
frustrating for us as it is for the passengers."
"We do not want our flights delayed, either," Einsetler said.
"We like to be in charge, in control, and fly the schedule as we
have expected it to be. Right now, we're doing things to
sacrifice, things like flying on our days off and giving up our
vacations for ourselves."
"CBS Sunday Morning" tried to talk to the CEOs of the nation's
four biggest airlines, but none was available to discuss summer
travel. The airlines said they have already cut 15% of their
planned summer flights, and are ramping up hiring and training
to try to meet growing demand.
On Thursday, Delta CEO Ed Bastian sent a letter to customers
apologizing for the recent stretch of delays and cancellations.
Count Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg among the millions
affected. "I had a meeting with all the airline leaders about
what they're doing to prevent cancellations," he told Van
Cleave. "The next day, I woke up in the morning, my flight was
canceled."
"Is this the new normal, or is this going to get better?"
"This can't be normal," Buttigieg said. "We can't have this
number of cancellations and delays and accept it."
"What's your message to the airlines?"
"We're counting on you; we're looking for you to provide the
service that matches the tickets that you've sold," Buttigieg
said. "The bottom line is they need to deliver."
On Wednesday Sen. Bernie Sanders called for fines up to $55,000
per passenger if an airline cancels a flight due to staffing
shortages.
Van Cleave asked, "Is the situation so bad that DOT should start
fining airlines?"
"We have fined airlines where they've failed to provide refunds
or treat customers well," Buttigieg said.
"But not canceling a flight for staffing?"
"Right, so there are other authorities that we may have and
we're gonna look at it, but what I'd much rather do is just have
a good outcome so that we don't even have to go there. It's
clear that the airline sector is not ready to meet public
expectations, and I'm concerned about that."
Van Cleave asked, "Whose fault is that?"
Buttigieg replied, "I'm not interested in the blame game; I'm
interested in making sure the passengers can get to where they
need to be."
A record 42 million people are opting to drive this weekend, but
hitting the road comes with pain in the pocketbook. According to
AAA, gas prices per gallon are $1.74 more on average than a year
ago.
Van Cleave asked Monte Kenney, who was gassing up at a Buc-ee's
in northwest Georgia in the midst of a 3,000-mile family road
trip, "Why not fly?"
"It's too expensive," Kenney said, "and I've got a wife and a
kid with me, so to pay for all three, it would be even more than
what we're spending."
And those spending to fly aren't necessarily landing happy.
Airline analyst Henry Harteveldt found 74% who flew or plan to
fly said they regret their decision.
But he has some advice for finding friendlier skies: "Always
take a non-stop where you can. Take the first flight in the
morning that you're able to take. Those are the least likely to
be canceled or delayed."
He also said to pack light; checked luggage can complicate
things if you need to rebook.
But most importantly: keep it light. "If something goes wrong,
stay calm. But unfortunately, what you need to presume with your
summer trip is something will go wrong," Harteveldt said. "And
if it doesn't, be grateful, and maybe buy a lottery ticket."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/summer-travel-airlines-flight-
cancellations-delays/