The problem is that US airlines have a monopoly on domestic travel. In aviation this is known as cabotage. Because US airlines do not have to fear competition from external airlines, the larger carriers do not see a need to improve service standards or lower prices. It is actually a very interesting fact that at the time of the 1944 Chicago Convention which sought to liberalize air travel, the US who sought unlimited third (freedom to travel from one's home country to a foreign country), fourth (freedom to travel from a foreign country back to one's home country), and fifth (freedom to travel from one's home country, stopover in a foreign country and unload and taken on passengers and cargo before flying to another foreign country) freedoms, the US was unwilling to relent on cabotage (domestic travel, for instance between New York and Utah).
In 2023, 22.06% of all U.S. airline flights experienced some form of delay. That is 41 MILLION pissed off flyers. One fifth of flights being delayed is a staggering number, which causes ripple effects of sometimes expensive and devastating consequence to travelers.
Airlines are clearly not a typical form of public transportation akin to trains, for example. Flying represents a unique set of variables that will foil all attempts to make it more efficient as a public utility. Some things just aren't fixable by government intervention.
For flying to become pleasant again, the prices of flying must increase dramatically, and airports in smaller cities closed. The socialization and regulation of the industry, with intense pressures from all sides to democratize this mode of transportation, and maintain it as a public utility has resulted in the massive clusterf#ck we are experiencing. Flying is an awful experience.
The post office is on the way out. So is the massively regulated airline industry.
So, you're not alone in feeling this way about the state of air travel today. It's like the whole luxury experience of flying has been diluted down to something you'd find at your average retailer. Remember when airports used to be a showcase of sophistication and style? Now, it's all about the "airport hobo look."
But then you have this whole other world emerging – flying private. It's where the well-dressed folks have disappeared to, off in their own private hangars away from the rest of us. It's almost like they've created this exclusive club within the airport, leaving the rest of us to wonder what happened to the glamor of air travel.
It's kind of a mirage, isn't it? The fancy ones haven't vanished; they've just found a way to hide from the rest of us. It's a sign of the times, I guess – the haves and the have-nots, even in the world of airport terminals.
I did not read anywhere in this article regarding "What to Do About It". Here's one (a pet peeve): Stop allowing passengers to carry on all of their luggage. Bring back the size box and enforce it.
This is not much more than an advertisement for the author's book. For example there is zero discussion of what the solution to the problem is. I searched online and found this from a review: "Sitaraman’s solution is a return to government oversight, with regulation of prices and a licensing system to ensure that all cities receive service." OK. The FAA or someone is going to dictate prices? That has never worked. We could alternatively enforce existing laws on predatory pricing. When I fly from Washington, D.C. to California if I fly from Washington Dulles on United I pay a much higher price than if I fly out of Baltimore (a short drive away) where even United matches the low price offered by Southwest Airlines. When Southwest began flying out of Dulles, United lowered their price until SW left, and then raised their price back to the existing high levels. This is a clear violation of the Sherman anti-trust act, but our DoJ instead of investigating and prosecuting this sued Microsoft over their bundling of Windows with a web browser (remember the browser wars?). We need to open our skies to real competition! Another approach would be to allow foreign airlines to fly between the east and west coasts. We might even get lie flat seats that are offered internationally!
What an unfortunate article. Vastly more people can afford to travel now relative to the days when only the privileged few could enjoy incredibly inefficient 747 lounges. The airlines are not extraordinarily profitable over time, relative to other sectors. Yes, there are itemized fees and crowding -- but perhaps the airlines are simply responding to consumer willingness to endure a few hours of discomfort to save money. All the while, flying, in the US and elsewhere, is much safer than in was in 1978, and continues to improve.
And to even raise the pandemic...sheesh. So many industries were impacted and received subsidies. Blame whatever abuses may have occurred on Washington, where the shots were called.
Hub and spoke routes make every route dependent on every other route. Economically, Toledo to Raleigh depends on how full are all the other routes to Raleigh. When everything flies at capacity, it works. But when volume sags, it implodes because they can't simply trim unprofitable routes. So it's a massively cyclical approach and not as stable as we would like.
Was this article around 3,000 words or more? I can sum it up in two. "Flying sucks." But i guess you couldn't get it past the editors with only two words.
I have a practice in this life that leads me evade problems to avoid dealing with them. I confess I never fly but I also confess I must to conduct research for my next novel. In it my main character travels to Switzerland and Israel to anoint the two Witnesses of John's apocalyptic vision. Jacob travels by tugboat to evade the controllers of America's dystopia.
I only need to research specific locations in those countries so I might write a better story.
My scheme has me hiring a concierge service that arranges first class, super-duper air service and hotels and costs tens of thousands of dollars. Oh well, I guess I better sell more books!
The first time I flew was in a SC-3 in 1964. It was far more comfortable back then, but it was also far more expensive. Deregulation not only forced cheaper fares, but it also caused an explosion in cargo flights that made almost everything cheaper. Signing deregulation into law was just about the only thing Carter got right.
I can't believe this article didn't have one mention of the dreadful and intrusive post-9/11 "security" procedures. Also, part of the employee shortage is due to vaccine mandates, also not mentioned.
If I had known we were going to skip the "How to Fix It" part mentioned in the headline, I wouldn't have bothered reading this article. I didn't need to waste eight minutes of my life to learn that flying sucks.
Written by someone who may be put off by how ordinary people can now afford what used to be the exclusive domain of the rich.
Inflation adjusted, flying in 2023 is FAR FAR cheaper AND more convenient than it was in the late 1970's - yes, yes, yes there are problems in the US industry - but I suspect that most of the complaints are coming from people who cannot bear to see the astonishing access to flying to almost any corner of the US (and world)
We can keep on improving - I know one thing - if the US Government were to decide it knows better, the poor will lose - prices will go up and flying will become impossible for many except the rich and well connected
Despite the comment and photo caption claiming overhead bin space has gotten smaller, as a lifelong global traveler I observe bin space as generally larger and improving on newer aircraft configurations. The biggest change in the US has been airlines charging for checked baggage (Southwest the noteworthy exception) so people drag everything they can onboard to avoid a significant extra expense.
For the price of a mid priced automobile you can purchase a safe and serviceable personal aircraft that will see you door to door faster and with far fewer griefs than flying commercially. I'll never fly commercial again.
Toldeo is 45 minutes from Detroit's airport, which is a major hub. One could argue that the absence of flights to Toldeo shows the effectiveness of deregulation rather than the problems with it.
The problem is that US airlines have a monopoly on domestic travel. In aviation this is known as cabotage. Because US airlines do not have to fear competition from external airlines, the larger carriers do not see a need to improve service standards or lower prices. It is actually a very interesting fact that at the time of the 1944 Chicago Convention which sought to liberalize air travel, the US who sought unlimited third (freedom to travel from one's home country to a foreign country), fourth (freedom to travel from a foreign country back to one's home country), and fifth (freedom to travel from one's home country, stopover in a foreign country and unload and taken on passengers and cargo before flying to another foreign country) freedoms, the US was unwilling to relent on cabotage (domestic travel, for instance between New York and Utah).
In 2023, 22.06% of all U.S. airline flights experienced some form of delay. That is 41 MILLION pissed off flyers. One fifth of flights being delayed is a staggering number, which causes ripple effects of sometimes expensive and devastating consequence to travelers.
Airlines are clearly not a typical form of public transportation akin to trains, for example. Flying represents a unique set of variables that will foil all attempts to make it more efficient as a public utility. Some things just aren't fixable by government intervention.
For flying to become pleasant again, the prices of flying must increase dramatically, and airports in smaller cities closed. The socialization and regulation of the industry, with intense pressures from all sides to democratize this mode of transportation, and maintain it as a public utility has resulted in the massive clusterf#ck we are experiencing. Flying is an awful experience.
The post office is on the way out. So is the massively regulated airline industry.
So, you're not alone in feeling this way about the state of air travel today. It's like the whole luxury experience of flying has been diluted down to something you'd find at your average retailer. Remember when airports used to be a showcase of sophistication and style? Now, it's all about the "airport hobo look."
But then you have this whole other world emerging – flying private. It's where the well-dressed folks have disappeared to, off in their own private hangars away from the rest of us. It's almost like they've created this exclusive club within the airport, leaving the rest of us to wonder what happened to the glamor of air travel.
It's kind of a mirage, isn't it? The fancy ones haven't vanished; they've just found a way to hide from the rest of us. It's a sign of the times, I guess – the haves and the have-nots, even in the world of airport terminals.
I did not read anywhere in this article regarding "What to Do About It". Here's one (a pet peeve): Stop allowing passengers to carry on all of their luggage. Bring back the size box and enforce it.
This is not much more than an advertisement for the author's book. For example there is zero discussion of what the solution to the problem is. I searched online and found this from a review: "Sitaraman’s solution is a return to government oversight, with regulation of prices and a licensing system to ensure that all cities receive service." OK. The FAA or someone is going to dictate prices? That has never worked. We could alternatively enforce existing laws on predatory pricing. When I fly from Washington, D.C. to California if I fly from Washington Dulles on United I pay a much higher price than if I fly out of Baltimore (a short drive away) where even United matches the low price offered by Southwest Airlines. When Southwest began flying out of Dulles, United lowered their price until SW left, and then raised their price back to the existing high levels. This is a clear violation of the Sherman anti-trust act, but our DoJ instead of investigating and prosecuting this sued Microsoft over their bundling of Windows with a web browser (remember the browser wars?). We need to open our skies to real competition! Another approach would be to allow foreign airlines to fly between the east and west coasts. We might even get lie flat seats that are offered internationally!
What an unfortunate article. Vastly more people can afford to travel now relative to the days when only the privileged few could enjoy incredibly inefficient 747 lounges. The airlines are not extraordinarily profitable over time, relative to other sectors. Yes, there are itemized fees and crowding -- but perhaps the airlines are simply responding to consumer willingness to endure a few hours of discomfort to save money. All the while, flying, in the US and elsewhere, is much safer than in was in 1978, and continues to improve.
And to even raise the pandemic...sheesh. So many industries were impacted and received subsidies. Blame whatever abuses may have occurred on Washington, where the shots were called.
Hub and spoke routes make every route dependent on every other route. Economically, Toledo to Raleigh depends on how full are all the other routes to Raleigh. When everything flies at capacity, it works. But when volume sags, it implodes because they can't simply trim unprofitable routes. So it's a massively cyclical approach and not as stable as we would like.
Was this article around 3,000 words or more? I can sum it up in two. "Flying sucks." But i guess you couldn't get it past the editors with only two words.
I have a practice in this life that leads me evade problems to avoid dealing with them. I confess I never fly but I also confess I must to conduct research for my next novel. In it my main character travels to Switzerland and Israel to anoint the two Witnesses of John's apocalyptic vision. Jacob travels by tugboat to evade the controllers of America's dystopia.
I only need to research specific locations in those countries so I might write a better story.
My scheme has me hiring a concierge service that arranges first class, super-duper air service and hotels and costs tens of thousands of dollars. Oh well, I guess I better sell more books!
(sign up at tiogam.substack.com to read my short stories and notes.)
The first time I flew was in a SC-3 in 1964. It was far more comfortable back then, but it was also far more expensive. Deregulation not only forced cheaper fares, but it also caused an explosion in cargo flights that made almost everything cheaper. Signing deregulation into law was just about the only thing Carter got right.
Sorry, it was a DC-3...
I can't believe this article didn't have one mention of the dreadful and intrusive post-9/11 "security" procedures. Also, part of the employee shortage is due to vaccine mandates, also not mentioned.
If I had known we were going to skip the "How to Fix It" part mentioned in the headline, I wouldn't have bothered reading this article. I didn't need to waste eight minutes of my life to learn that flying sucks.
Something tells me his answer for how to fix it is to create a consumer board 2.0 of our betters to figure out how to fix it. (They will not fix it).
The headline is misleading. The problem was presented, but not even a whiff of a solution.
Written by someone who may be put off by how ordinary people can now afford what used to be the exclusive domain of the rich.
Inflation adjusted, flying in 2023 is FAR FAR cheaper AND more convenient than it was in the late 1970's - yes, yes, yes there are problems in the US industry - but I suspect that most of the complaints are coming from people who cannot bear to see the astonishing access to flying to almost any corner of the US (and world)
We can keep on improving - I know one thing - if the US Government were to decide it knows better, the poor will lose - prices will go up and flying will become impossible for many except the rich and well connected
Despite the comment and photo caption claiming overhead bin space has gotten smaller, as a lifelong global traveler I observe bin space as generally larger and improving on newer aircraft configurations. The biggest change in the US has been airlines charging for checked baggage (Southwest the noteworthy exception) so people drag everything they can onboard to avoid a significant extra expense.
For the price of a mid priced automobile you can purchase a safe and serviceable personal aircraft that will see you door to door faster and with far fewer griefs than flying commercially. I'll never fly commercial again.
Toldeo is 45 minutes from Detroit's airport, which is a major hub. One could argue that the absence of flights to Toldeo shows the effectiveness of deregulation rather than the problems with it.