Consumer Travel Trends and Facts

If you use or work in the air travel system in this country, you want to be kept up to date on the information and trends that can affect you. As recent news accounts have noted, air travel is growing more crowded, more prone to interruptions and problems, and generally less pleasant for consumers and the people who serve them.

We've tried to assemble some important and resources in this section. Let us know about other resources we should add.

Consumer outlook: crowded, delayed, slower

Planes have been growing steadily more crowded this year, as passenger volume continues to rebound since the 9-11 attacks. During January and February, the major airlines carried 0.6 percent more domestic passengers and flew fewer domestic flights than last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

However, during this summer travel season that trend will accelerate. Planes will be more crowded than ever as they pack on estimated 207 million people — an estimated jump of 2 million people (or 4%) from last year, according to the airlines' lobbying arm, the Air Transport Association.

At the same time, airlines are dropping the number of flights from 44,000 in April 2005 to 42,000 a year later as carriers trim costs by flying fewer airplanes, with fewer planes on hand as backups when flights are delayed in the usual summer storms.

Complicating things still further, the federal government is having problems filling airport screener jobs, which threatens to make security check point waiting times much longer.

While fewer employees serve customers

The New York Times reports that there are 70,000 fewer airline workers than in 2002 to handle 100 million more passengers than four years ago.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) says the ranks of airlines workers dropped 5.4 percent in March compared with last year, "the 15th consecutive month that full-time equivalent employee levels for the scheduled passenger carriers declined compared to the same month of the previous year."

Delays and complaints increasing

As practically all travelers know, airline travel is something to complain about more often than we'd like. One news account noted that at the 35 busiest airports, through which almost all passengers travel, the number of delays rose to 922 in April from 704 during the same month last year.

The BTS got 709 complaints in March from consumers about airline service, up 2.5 percent from the 692 complaints received in March 2005 and 29.1 percent more than the 549 filed in February 2006.

Perks are down and complaints are up

One travel industry consultant put it bluntly, "Using frequent-flier mileage is virtually impossible today."

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