U.S. airlines respond to crowded flights with - fewer planes

U.S. airlines respond to crowded flights with - fewer planes


The miserably full flights of 2007 might seem cause for the airline industry to roll out a few more planes and ease the crowding, but passengers should expect just the opposite, at least in the United States.

Some big U.S. airlines are planning to reduce domestic capacity this year in hopes of driving fares higher to offset rising fuel costs.

So, barring a recession that reduces demand for air travel, expect flying across America to be more crowded and expensive in 2008. And, because full flights cause airlines all sorts of operational problems, expect a high level of delays and misplaced bags. And realize that your chances of getting bumped from an oversold flight could be higher and that then finding a seat on a later flight will take longer.

"It's not a good thing," Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, a group affiliated with the activist Ralph Nader, said of the prospect of airlines reducing capacity. "Every percentage point you go up" in available seats sold, Hudson added, "you're going to degrade the reliability of the system."

Travelers saw that in 2007, with the fullest jets ever and the highest percentage of late arrivals - 23.5 percent through the end of November - in the 13 years the Transportation Department collected such data.


The expected 2008 shrinkage of domestic capacity in the United States comes after two years of profits for the industry. That is far different that the abrupt shrinkage following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when demand for air travel declined sharply and airlines had no choice but to reduce fleets.

The current trend of reducing capacity is aimed at pushing fares higher. During 2007, among the top seven U.S. carriers, all but Southwest Airlines and Continental Airlines reduced domestic capacity. Some carriers expanded aggressively in international markets, where there is less low-fare competition.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/08/business/plane.php