By Thomas Black / Bloomberg Opinion
If you flew anywhere during Labor Day weekend, the typical advice was to arm yourself with patience and prepare for the worst. After all, you’d be joining a record number of about 17 million passengers seeking to cram onto aircraft for the last long weekend of the summer.
Despite widely held attitudes that airlines and airports provide terrible service and that it’s only becoming worse, the odds are that your flight will go off without a hitch and you will arrive on time. When adjusted for inflation, the cost of a ticket is much less than it was 30 years ago. The amenities at airports and aboard aircrafts have improved over time, driven by new technology and competition.
Overall, the system works. In the first five months of this year, less than 1.5 percent of flights were canceled, and 21 percent were delayed. Cancellations are lower than in 2019, the pre-covid benchmark year, and delays are a couple of percentage points higher. Weather is usually a main factor for cancellations and delays.
What hasn’t improved is passenger behavior. In fact, it’s much worse. The number of unruly passengers that the Federal Aviation Administration investigates is rising again this year after spiking during 2021, when the policies of mask mandates caused almost 6,000 flyers to go berserk. The number had been dropping from that peak, but this year is on the rise again. What’s going on? Why are more people losing their cool on planes?
If anything, the pressure-filled process of getting in and out of airports is smoother with new scanning technology and programs such as TSA PreCheck. If you find yourself removing your shoes, belt and laptop at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint while silently judging the confused family holding up the line, it’s because you didn’t shell out the $80 to enroll in TSA PreCheck. The TSA says that 99 percent of those enrolled wait less than 10 minutes to clear security. That wait time jumps to 30 minutes for the regular line.
The airline industry, especially in the U.S., is the most complicated among the different passenger networks. It combines private-sector airline competition with federal government management of the air traffic control system. Airports are often owned by cities. All must function well together. The industry’s infrastructure got a shot in the arm with overwhelming bipartisan support of the FAA Reauthorization Act in May, which hires more air traffic controllers and rolls out more technology to improve efficiency and safety at airports. The law also forces airlines to make fees more transparent and refunds quicker for canceled flights.
Even in the most acrimonious of political times, lawmakers agreed on the need to fly and do it safer and faster. That’s because the U.S. is a flying nation. High-speed trains never had a chance in such vast, rural expanses dotted with large cities. Hands down, the U.S. has the busiest skies in the world. The FAA oversees more than 350 air traffic facilities, and there are almost 20,000 public and private airports. Most of the action to manage 45,000 flights and 2.9 million passengers every day in the U.S. takes place behind the scenes.
The competition among U.S. airlines is healthy and fierce. The consolidation of the industry hasn’t reached a point where customers are lacking choice. There are four large airlines and a couple of others knocking on that door, such as JetBlue Airways and Alaska Air Group. A few low-cost carriers, including Frontier Group Holdings and Spirit Airlines, as well as several regional airlines help keep airfares down.
The average inflation-adjusted U.S. fare last year was $389, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That’s the lowest level ever and compares with $520 a decade ago and $502 in 2004. Of course, this isn’t adjusted for the costs that airlines have pushed to their customers, such as bag fees.
Still, the heated competition has tamped down fares and has driven airlines to offer more amenities and improve service. On-time arrival is still the best service indicator. This is why the Frontier and Spirit are struggling so much. They have dismal on-time records that make their bare-bones offerings that much more painful.
Expect more passenger records to be broken because of the convenience and affordability of flying. Frontier is offering one-way fares as low as $29, making this truly a transportation mode for the masses. That doesn’t excuse the rise in bad behavior. Perhaps the increased availability of alcohol on the airplane and throughout the airport — even right amid boarding gates — is creating this combustible cocktail for conflict.
The FAA adopted a permanent zero-tolerance policy against unruly passengers and backed it up with fines, flying bans and even criminal charges for the most egregious cases. The FAA has come up with ads, signs and internet memes to spread the word on the consequences of disorderly behavior. There needs to be more of this, and maybe even slip in a recorded message on the plane before takeoff. I would suggest one of those pithy signs be hung above that kiosk bar near the gates.
The next time you fly take in how the airline industry can handle such an influx of passengers, mostly without a hitch. Even have a cold one while waiting for your flight. But, please follow the rules and be on your best behavior. Maybe we’ll have gotten through this Labor Day weekend without yet another viral video of an unruly passenger.
Thomas Black is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the industrial and transportation sectors. He was previously a Bloomberg News reporter covering logistics, manufacturing and private aviation.
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