Apparent Bomb Plot Will Test Airlines
An apparent attempt to detonate explosives aboard a transatlantic flight is likely to hamper efforts to convince more travelers to fly in coming months, postponing any recovery for the beleaguered airline industry, aviation experts said Sunday.
The latest incident, involving an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, occurred Saturday, too late to have affected most air travelers’ plans for the Christmas holiday. But analysts said that airlines could have a harder time attracting leisure passengers in the coming months, which are considered off-season and typically a period of low demand.
That in turn could lengthen the time the airline industry needs to recover from the dramatic downturn in air travel since the Sept. 11 attacks and the economic recession, analysts said.
“This doesn’t make people want to call their travel agent and book a flight again,” said Michael Boyd, president of The Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo. “Those who did travel over the holidays and found an unpleasant experience won’t be flying again for a while. The whole picture is not good.”
Airlines have been battered financially since Sept. 11, as travelers have avoided flying. Aviation experts estimate that U.S. carriers will report as much as $9 billion in losses for this year.
But slowly, air travel has been bouncing back, as a series of new security measures have been implemented at airports worldwide. Holiday travel, while well below last year’s level, was shaping up to be better than expected.
But even with more passenger checks and bomb-scanning machines, experts agreed that the most wary consumers would likely shy away from air travel, seeking guarantees that Saturday’s incident would not be repeated.
U.S. authorities Sunday were still trying to determine whether a man suspected of trying to detonate a bomb aboard American Airlines Flight 63 was acting alone or as part of a network.
Flight attendants and passengers overpowered the man, who appeared to be trying to blow the plane up with explosives packed in his shoes, U.S. aviation officials said.
The Boeing 767 carrying 185 passengers and 12 crew members was diverted to Boston’s Logan International Airport after the incident over the Atlantic.
“This won’t have a short-term effect on holiday travel,” said Thom Nulty, president of Navigant International, a travel management firm based in Englewood, Colo. “But every time there is one of these incidents, it hurts the airlines a little bit. And these kinds of incidents will [postpone] that recovery.”
Other industry consultants agreed that airlines could face a harder time persuading some travelers to return to the skies in the near future.
“For those already concerned about air travel,” said George Hamlin of Global Aviation Associates, “this is not reassuring and probably will cause some of them to further postpone their return to the air.”
Whatever the outcome of the investigation, the incident caps one of the worst years ever for the troubled airline industry and for American Airlines and its parent AMR Corp. in particular. Two of the airline’s jets were used in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. On Nov. 12, an American Airlines jet crashed after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport in New York.
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Reuters contributed to this report.
