Rough Summer Is on the Way for Air Travel

Rough Summer Is on the Way for Air Travel

CHICAGO, May 20 - Brace yourself for a summer of miserable air travel.

Planes are expected to be packed fuller than at anytime since World War II,
when the airlines helped transport troops. Fares are rising. Service frills
are disappearing.

El Castor...

The cut backs make sense. When was the last time you got on a bus or
train and someone walked up and down the aisles literally handing out
free lunch or dinner and a can of Coke? When I get on a plane I want
to get where I'm going as quickly and inexpensively as possible. If
I'm hungry I don't mind paying for lunch, and a couple of bucks for a
movie seems reasonable. The freebies are an anachronism dating back to
the Pan Am Clipper and the Ford Tri-Motor. As for fares rising -- well
that's the cost of fuel.

Logjams at airport security checkpoints loom as the federal government
strains to keep screener jobs filled. The usual violent summer storms are
expected to send the air traffic control system into chaos at times, with
flight delays and cancellations cascading across the country.

And many airline employees, after years of pay cuts and added work, say they
are dreading the season ahead. Those workers - and there are about 70,000
fewer of them than in 2002 - will be handling more than 100 million more
passengers this year than they did four years ago.

The friendly skies, indeed.

El Castor...

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into."
Jonathan Swift

Jim Higgins...

I viewed the article with less than delight since I will be going to Oakland
in June and coming back with daughter #2 and two grandchildren for an
extended visit. We will be on a red-eye-shudder.