Air sickness
For those who thought my Sunday column about the travails of air travel were just the ruminations of a grumpy old guy, The Wall Street Journal reports that:
1. June was one of the worst months in U.S. history for flight delays, according to the FAA.
2. Cancelled flights last month more than doubled versus the same time span last year.
3. More than 30 percent of all the planes scheduled to land in U.S. airports for the largest 40 airlines were late in June.
4. The average delay was 62 minutes.
5. "Hundreds of thousands" of air travelers were left stranded for hours, if not days.
6. The problem isn't simply weather; it's crowded skies, overtaxed and obsolete air traffic control systems, and airline industry cutbacks
Comments (5)
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Did you ever hear Lewis Black's version of what's up with awful air travel conditions? Check out his CD of the appearance at Carnegie Hall...
Posted on July 18, 2007 4:11 PM
Wiil do. Thanks for the tip. I'll also need to post a link to the Business Traveler's Bill of Rights. NPR ran a report this morning.
Posted on July 18, 2007 4:14 PM
Just got back Friday the Thirteenth from a four-planes trip home from Australia.
Was terrified, knowing that I had this to look forward to: 1) leaving Cairns about 7:00 AM on the 13th and flying to Sydney, where we'd wait in the terminal there a few hours before 2)catching our scheduled flight to Los Angeles, 3) then catching another flight to Chicago, and finally, 4) boarding a plane for the final ride to Raleigh-Durham's airport.
Scheduled arrival time in Raleigh-Durham was 11:20 PM on the Thirteenth (1:20 PM on the Fourteenth in Australia).
Having read about airport delays and other air travel problems, I fully anticipated experiencing at least one delay, if not more.
I fully expected to arrive home later than 11:20 PM on the Thirteenth.
But everything worked out beautifully.
We left Chicago slightly later than scheduled, but then arrived "home" at the Raleigh-Durham airport EARLY!
The flight between the United States and Australia is brutal, simply because of how many hours you're in the air, but I'm a huge fan of Qantas airlines.
There may be better airlines out there than Qantas, but among U.S.-based airlines, I'd strongly encourage them to study and try to emulate what Qantas does.
Despite the 13-plus hour flights to and from Australia, passengers are treated to every courtesy and every treat that stands a good chance of making the flight more bearable and comfortable.
I've been fortunate enough to have traveled to Australia two times before this year's trip, and Qantas has never disappointed.
At the very least, there are exceptions to the negative "rules" that seem to be dominating air-travel statistics nowadays.
Posted on July 19, 2007 7:40 AM
Hardy:
Good to hear from you. And good to hear you had such a good trip.
I don't want to paint all U.S. airlines with a broad, negative brush -- and all nondomestic airlines with too positive a brush.
But I found British Airways to be especially pleasurable to fly as well.
Posted on July 19, 2007 8:44 AM
I am still sticking up for the airlines. Travel I40 to Tennesse, Tuesday, tractor trailer turn over in west lane, I understand 3-4 hour delay. In east lane tractor trailer wreck with cars 1 hour delay. Came home today to find out Wenover had caved in. Sent on tour, with no instuctions on how to get to 29. Came by Aggie Football field, had been to a game there, so I found my way home. Heck, I did not get a travel voucher for this. Airlines gave me many vouchers, for travel. You right on British Airways, they are great. I like American Airlines to.
Posted on July 19, 2007 9:34 PM