Commercial air travel meltdown.
It’s no surprise to those who read this blog, but some new facts and findings make it clear that commercial air travel is indeed at its all-time low in terms of performance and likely to get worse–if that’s even possible–before it gets better.
You can read all the latest in this horror story in the current issue of BusinessWeek (September 10, 2007). The cover story is entitled: “Fear & Loathing at the Airport: How a failure of leadership led to the summer from hell.”
Take a look at some of these facts reported in the article, just don’t say we didn’t warn you. They’re rather ugly.
- Through June, more than 909,000 flights were late this year alone. That’s a doubling of late flights compared to the same period in 2002.
- If you fly in 2015, you will be one of a billion people taking to the skies, a 36% rise in fliers from the current level.
- Some officials within in the FAA predict that this year’s Labor Day crunch could become commonplace within the decade.
- Late arrivals, lost luggage and people getting bumped from flights are all on the rise–and steeply, to boot.
- At Chicago’s O’Hare, only 64.3% of flights have departed on time so far this year.
Yes, I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Perhaps what is most maddening about this situation, and what makes this BusinessWeek article a fine read, is that the FAA is making little to no progress on correcting these issues. Why? In-fighting and competing demands from various special interest groups. Money is not the issue, or so it would appear because the FAA did not spend all of its budget last year!
It’s a real mess, and obviously private fliers don’t fly outside the FAA’s sphere of influence. Unfortunately.
