Given all the coverage of how passengers are dissatisfied with airline service and the growing crescendo of announcements about additional fees they will be charged by airlines, it is a shock that a Travel Industry Association survey indicated travelers are blaming government not the airlines. In fact, when asked who passengers think are looking out for their interests, they responded that it is the airlines.
Regardless, in the first quantification of how the hassle factor impacts both the airlines and the economy, the survey showed passengers avoided 41 million trips over the past 12 months at a total cost to airlines of $9 billion in revenues. The exodus cost the economy $26.5 billion which includes the $6 billion lost to hotels and $3 billion lost to restaurants along with the fact that federal, state and local governments lost more than $4 billion in tax revenue. Couple that $26 billion with the $12 billion + delays are expected to cost the economy this year and it is little wonder that business aviation continues to boom.
“The air travel crisis has hit a tipping point – more than 100,000 travelers each day are voting with their wallets by choosing to avoid trips,” said TIA President and CEO Roger Dow. “This landmark research should be a wake up call to America’s policy leaders that the time for meaningful air system reform is now. With rising fuel prices already weighing heavily on American pocketbooks, we need to find ways to encourage Americans to continue their business and leisure travel. Unfortunately, just the opposite appears to be happening.”
Travelers are most irritated about the air travel process, not the airlines, which is counter-intuitive given all the coverage about lousy airlines service and the crescendo of announcements about additional fees being charged. Indeed, the top issue is delays, which at this point, is an issue for policy makers who have stalled reauthorization and modernization with political infighting. Given their ability to fly in underutilized airspace to underutilized airports, delays are not the problem for the growing air taxis industry as they are for scheduled carriers.
The next two issues include cancellations, which touches both airlines and the government; and inefficient security screening, another government issue. Using air taxis, which have been exploiting the growing commercial airline hassle factor for many months, eases both problems.
Passengers clearly feel that no one is taking responsibility for the government problems, nor do they think anyone is doing anything about it.
More than 60 percent believe the air travel system is deteriorating with one-third of all air travelers expressing dissatisfaction with the air travel system. In addition, 48 percent of all frequent air travelers (5+ trips per year) are dissatisfied. Air travelers expressed little optimism for positive change, with nearly 50 percent saying that the air travel system is not likely to improve in the near future. The survey of 1,003 air travelers (adults who had taken at least one roundtrip by air in the last 12 months) was conducted between May 6 and May 13, 2008.
What was most shocking about the survey is the fact that passengers are blaming government more than the airlines for the top three factors they cited as driving them away, indicating that they are pretty sophisticated about who it is that is actually causing problems. Perhaps all the ink devoted to airspace system limitations is having some impact. But what is surprising is the fact that survey participants trusted airlines more than twice as much as they trusted government to solve their problems. But when it comes to fixing problems 33 percent said government needs to get involved while 61 percent would rely on the marketplace to solve problems, meaning passengers may know capacity limitations are part of the problem but not the fact that no amount of marketplace manipulation will solve it or it would have been done long ago.
A majority also indicated they are not willing to pay more for fixing the system. Nor should they be expected to pay more, given the billions they already contribute to the constipated Aviation Trust Fund.
To some, it may be surprising that this dissatisfaction has not been turned into political action by Congress to pass Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization and fund the modernization that proponents say will resolve some of the hassle factor. The pressure seems to be increasing to no avail with new organizations joining in support of passing modernization and rolling out near-term initiatives that would help increase efficiency and reduce delays. The Business Travel Coalition and Former AMR CEO Robert Crandall think there is more to the picture and are pushing for a National Aviation Policy and given the state of the industry, they may be right. Related Story
Even so, turning passenger dissatisfaction into political action has never worked, despite the fact that 88 percent of those surveyed said they were voters, as evidenced by a failed attempt to garner public action during a similar delay-and-congestion crisis in the late 1980s. It is clearly easier to stop traveling than to tilt at that particular windmill. In addition, the poor, hapless traveler is no one’s constituent and it is for that reason taxes keep being piled on whether they are local hotel and restaurant taxes or aviation fuel and ticket taxes.
The Travel Industry Association called on each of the major presidential candidates to commit to addressing this issue “for the millions of American air travelers – and voters – who face the trials of the antiquated air traffic system on a daily basis and to issue a comprehensive plan to fix major elements of the air travel system during their first term in office.” It has already met with Republican Candidate John McCain and has invitations out to meet with other presidential candidates.
Good luck with that. We have seen these same sentiments expressed before with each air travel crisis when too much demand leads to delays and cancellations. This time we have the added hassle factor of irrational, and often ineffective, security procedures that are little more than window dressing that serve to frustrate travelers more than terrorists.
We have seen such calls for presidential candidates in every election year. The failure of Congress to pass the critically needed reauthorization legislation is a perfect illustration of just how little this issue resonates with them. Even so, you’d think an estimated $40 billion hit to the economy would get some attention. But such issues pale in comparison with the sound bites candidates can receive on such critical pocketbook issues as health care, prices at the pump, and rising food costs. Even the war in Iraq is playing second fiddle to the impact of fuel prices on the family budget.
“Many travelers believe their time is not respected and it is leading them to avoid a significant number of trips," said Allan Rivlin, a partner at Peter D. Hart Research Associates, which, with the Winston Group, conducted the study. When asked who is least respectful of their time they blame airline and security personnel.
Besides the fact that it is the government passengers blames rather than airlines, the only silver lining is safety, despite the fact the survey was conducted just after the massive aircraft groundings and FAA’s oversight failures this spring and the steady drumbeat for the last year about the dilution of safety with maintenance outsourcing.
“A majority of travelers thought that air travel safety was getting better and a majority thought the security was improving as well,” said David Winston, President of the Winston Group. “But there are clear frustrations around efficiency and reliability, which are contributing to travelers avoiding air travel.”
Air Transport Association said the survey only supports what ATA has been saying for years and that is “that we have an aging air traffic control system that is in desperate need of replacement,” said ATA President and CEO James C. May, who said this crisis is worse than what the industry faced after 9/11. He said if TIA wants to do something truly meaningful, it will join ATA in asking for immediate action on key initiatives to improve all aspects of air travel. These initiatives include:
• Implement NowGen technologies to provide immediate system efficiency gains, that means helping DOT/FAA work on the full list of 77 initiatives that an industry coalition provided last fall
• Resolve New York region airspace issues and accelerate airspace redesign to relieve pressure that delays in that region put on the rest of the system
• Urge Congress to fight sky-high oil prices while not imposing unfair environmental fees on airlines
“Just six months ago, TIA proposed raising revenue through a tax on passengers, an unsuitable solution to an already overtaxed industry,” said May. “We hope that we can work cooperatively with TIA to reduce, not raise, the cost of travel.”
But there is much that can be done without reauthorization as outlined in a 77-point proposal by an industry coalition, including ATA, last fall. The coalition dubbed it NowGen and noted most of the initiatives center on the New York area where problems tend to ripple through the entire system. Of the 77 initiatives only 12 are complete, according to a recent update. Another 26 are in the works while work has yet to start on 21 and no action is planned on the final 18. Instead we get absurd marketplace proposals that cap flights at the three New York area airports and a stubborn insistence on such marketplace initiatives as slot auctions, for which the Department of Transportation does not even have the authority to mandate.
TIA will host an emergency summit of travel leaders on June 17 in Washington, DC to discuss next steps for moving this issue forward with policymakers.