MINNEAPOLIS — The summer travel season could hold especially high stakes for the airline industry this year.
Most analysts believe the nation’s major airports could see repeats of 2007’s record flight delays, detours and cancellations. The Federal Aviation Administration recently singled out a handful of airports that it believes could be especially prone to backlogs because of crowded flight schedules.
But this year, those delays could take place against the backdrop of executives from Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines telling Congress and the Department of Justice why they should be allowed to merge. In that event, the executives likely would have to explain why scenes of people sleeping on top of their luggage will become a thing of the past, rather than a fixture of the future.
How bad could it get during the peak travel season?
“This summer should be like any summer, unpleasant and ugly. Stay home,” said Michael Boyd, an airline analyst in Evergreen.
It could be worse if the unions at Northwest or other airlines take out frustrations with proposed deals while on the job.
United and Continental are reported to be eyeing a deal too.
Airline consultant Patrick Murphy Jr. thinks employees of Northwest and Delta are unlikely to be disruptive, whether by staging sickouts or other actions.
“I think employees are smart enough to realize that’s not going to be useful,” said Murphy, a partner in Gerchick-Murphy Associates, a Washington-based airline consulting firm.
But that view isn’t unanimous.
Airline consultant Adam Pilarski said that as details of the Delta-Northwest pact come out, for example, some employees might decide they’ll be losers in the deal.
“Once you find out what it will entail, you may start getting annoyed with management,” said Pilarski, who is with the Avitas consulting firm near Washington, D.C. “Since you can’t take it out on management, you take it out on the flying public.”
