Problems lining up on runway
Air travelers haven’t seen the end of packed planes, flight delays and mishandled luggage just yet: Labor Day looms.
Starting Wednesday, nearly 16 million passengers, up 2.6% from last year, are expected to jam airports to get away for the long holiday weekend, capping the worst season for air travelers in recent memory.
“If summer so far is any indication, it’s going to be a mess,” said Kate Hanni, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights.
The nation’s highways are expected to be no less jammed. The Automobile Club of Southern California expects a record 4.1 million Californians to hit the road.
But if you thought that the end of summer vacation and the start of school would signal the end of torment for airline passengers, think again. More ordeals await travelers in the months ahead.
New airlines are adding planes, which may lead to more flights and cheaper fares. With that come more delays, more crowds, more frustration. Pilots are in short supply and air traffic controllers are retiring at a record pace, trends that could make matters worse.
“Any way you look at it, it’s bad,” said Lance Sherry, executive director of the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University. “If people don’t get fed up with air travel and take other forms of transportation, then there is no light at the end of the tunnel.”
At Los Angeles International Airport last week, Lawrence Bailey stepped off a flight that departed Miami four hours late because of a mechanical problem. Passengers had to switch planes before taking off.
It was par for the course for Bailey, a Los Angeles resident who travels at least once a week as a divisional sales manager for a large bank he declined to name. He estimates that at least half of the flights he’s taken so far this year have been late 45 minutes or more.
“I don’t like it, but I’m used to it,” Bailey said. “I have no choice. I have to fly for work.”
The airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration blame weather for many of the delays, but analysts say summer storms in the East and Midwest only tipped a transportation system that was already teetering.
During the first six months of 2007, nearly a quarter of all flights were delayed, the number of mishandled baggage items jumped 25% and complaints climbed nearly 50%. The data were the worst since the federal government began keeping track in 1995.
And these delays are no longer a 15-to-20-minute hassle.
From June 1 to Aug. 15, 1 of every 7 flights, or nearly 200,000 in all, was delayed 45 minutes or more, according to FlightStats, an online flight tracking service. Such “excessive delays” are up 36% from a year ago.
But so far, low airfares are keeping many passengers from walking off. Summer fares are down 2% overall compared with last year, and in some markets, fares have dropped as much as 30%, according to Farecast.com.
“It was painful to fly in terms of delays, but in terms of the pocketbook it wasn’t too bad,” said Farecast.com spokesman Nick Leahy.
The summer’s delays and congestion have been a problem mostly for domestic airlines. International flights are up, but major problems have been limited to a few destinations such as London’s Heathrow Airport.
There is also a silver lining for Southern California travelers flying during the Labor Day holiday. LAX might not get as busy as last year, travel site Orbitz said.
LAX, which was the nation’s busiest over Labor Day 2006, has fallen to eighth among major airports in tickets booked so far for this Labor Day weekend. More passengers are choosing to fly out of nearby airports in Burbank, Long Beach and Orange County.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, which has posted the worst delays this summer, tops the list for Labor Day this year.
For the summer, LAX also had fewer flight delays than airports in the Midwest and on the East Coast, where severe storms have wreaked havoc on air travel.
In an unrelated incident this month, a computer glitch at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency kept thousands of international travelers stuck at the airport.
Although LAX has been less congested, travelers here have not been immune to the misery of flying. Some of the most delayed flights end at LAX, including a Delta Airlines flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy airport that was never on time during the month of June.
“It might not start there, but in the end LAX is a recipient of the delays,” said Joe Brancatelli, editor and publisher of online business travel website JoeSentMe.
The recent surge in delays can be traced back to the Sept. 11 attacks, which grounded air travel and sent U.S. carriers into a tailspin. The industry lost billions of dollars and some companies were pushed into bankruptcy.
In response, airlines slashed their workforces, cut pay and grounded airplanes. When air travel began to recover, major airlines changed the way they operated, flying smaller planes to fewer and larger airports.
But that has meant more packed planes -- profitable for airlines but uncomfortable for passengers -- and more planes at key hubs. In addition, there are fewer people to handle baggage and maintain the aircraft, so there’s less wiggle room when severe storms hit.
“It’s not the weather,” said Sherry, the director of the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research. “We’re scheduling flights in excess of the airport’s capacity to handle it, and the weather makes it worse.”
With the return to profitability, airlines recently announced plans to bring back pilots, mechanics and flight attendants. American Airlines said this month that it was rehiring 460 attendants and Northwest said it would hire 360 pilots.
The FAA is also pushing for funding to update its antiquated 1960s technology, which has hampered the agency’s capability to handle more traffic.
“Ultimately, the solution is going to be to move to a satellite-based control system,” said Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman. “It will allow us to do more precise arrivals and departures.”
But technology might not be enough, analysts said, warning of problems arising from a shortage of pilots and air traffic controllers that could hamper moves to improve on-time performance.
“It’s the next great crisis,” Brancatelli said. “All this will keep the delay game going.”
Airlines are bracing for the loss of more pilots. The shortage has already led one airline to cancel hundreds of flights. Last month, Northwest was forced to scrap about 10% of its flights after many of its pilots maxed out their flight hours for the month.
Veteran pilots are retiring or being lured away to better-paying jobs with foreign companies while domestic carriers are finding fewer new recruits, many of whom are turning away from starting jobs at regional carriers that pay as little as $20,000 a year.
“It’s a serious problem, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Capt. John Prater, a 29-year veteran at Continental Airlines and president of the Air Line Pilots Assn.
Shortages of controllers could also add to delays. In the last eight months, more than 700 retired or resigned, and 2,000 more are eligible for retirement by year-end.
“We’re understaffed now, and they’re still trying to jam as much traffic as they can through the airspace,” said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn.
When there are not enough controllers or those with sufficient experience, airplanes are spaced farther apart for safety, adding to delays, Church said.
Although most passengers appear to be taking the delays in stride, some have begun adjusting their travel plans.
Bryce Berg, a Long Beach resident and director of purchasing for Aegon’s Transamerica life insurance subsidiary, used to fly 80,000 miles a year, making him one of American Airlines’ top customers.
He’s curtailed flying to 50,000 miles and now takes a car if the drive requires less than four hours.
“I only fly when I really have to,” Berg said as he waited for his bag at the American terminal at LAX last week.
His flight from Dallas was late one hour, which wasn’t too bad, he said, compared with the flight out, which kept him stuck in Chicago for several hours.
“It’s just such a pain,” he sighed.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Traveling smarter
Here are tips to make your trip a little more manageable.
Fly direct. Pick a direct flight if possible.
Space out your connections. If changing planes, choose a trip that has about three hours between connections.
Check your flight’s on-time record. The website FlightStats can tell you the on-time performance of a particular flight as well as an airport and what times of day are worst for delays.
Try to get a confirmed seat assignment. If you can’t, prepare to be bumped off the flight because many are oversold.
Do last-minute checks. Before leaving for the airport, check the airline’s website for flight status and print out a boarding pass if possible. You might also want to double-check airport or weather advisories issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, at www.fly.faa.gov. While you’re at it, see how long you might have to wait to get through airport security at waittime.tsa.dhs.gov. (The wait times are historical but are a good guide to what you might encounter.)
Keep essentials with you. Bring extra prescription or other medicines (24 hours’ worth if possible) and protein snacks such as peanut butter. Take lots of reading material.
Spread the risk when packing.
If checking bags, families should distribute their clothes among the suitcases so everyone has something to wear if some of the luggage is lost.
Times reporting by Peter Pae
