Many air travelers say the thrill is gone from flying, voicing complaints about long lines, security scans, fares, extra fees, packed planes and irritable employees.
“I travel a lot, and it (stinks),” said Amy Brown of Monterey, Calif., as she wove through a line at Denver International Airport to check her bag.
Federal statistics reflect the unrest.
In the first quarter of this year, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported 1.30 complaints per 100,000 enplanements at the 18 largest airlines, compared with 1.01 per 100,000 in the same quarter last year.
Although airlines’ on-time rates have improved over the past year, there are more complaints related to bumping as airlines oversell flights and problems such as cancellations and missed connections.
Mike Schik, a Minneapolis accountant in Denver on business, said he still enjoys air travel. “But,” he added, “you don’t get the hospitality you once did, and now you have to pay for things you didn’t have to before.”
The looming busy summer travel season could reintensify discontent. An estimated 2.2 million passengers will travel daily on U.S. airlines between June 1 and Aug. 31, according to the Air Transport Association, a trade group representing the majority of U.S. carriers.
Experts contend that travelers’ frustrations result from faulty perceptions and that many aspects of air travel, including the security-screening process, have gotten easier.
“It’s not the nightmare story that everybody says it is,” said Air Transport Association spokesman David Castelveter. He pointed out the need for airlines to generate income, technological improvements and that security keeps “people safe from the bad guys.”
“Life changes, and we have to adapt to it,” Castelveter said. “People are going to be sadly disappointed if they think it’s going to be like it was 25 years ago.”
Tom Parsons, chief executive of , said: “Overall, I think the system works fine.”
Parsons said he likes being able to print his boarding pass before he goes to the airport, and he recently hasn’t been in a security line for more than five to eight minutes.
The Transportation Security Administration has worked out kinks, Parsons said.
“Sure, it’s an aggravation to take off your shoes, but you don’t have to turn on your laptop anymore” to get through security, he said.
The biggest complaint Parsons hears relates to irritable employees. “Employees believe they have been given the shaft,” he said. “The executives get millions of dollars in bonuses, and they can’t get a raise.”
Airline employees complain of increasing workloads and reduced staffing. Federal figures show full- and part-time U.S. airline employment has plummeted from 753,647 in December 2000 to 561,269 this March.
Employee layoffs are part of the airlines’ attempts to land in the black as they battle soaring fuel costs, a fragile economy and even a disruptive Icelandic volcano.
Average domestic airfares have dropped 6.1 percent — from $340.11 to $319.31 — in the last 10 years, the U.S. Department of Transportation said last week. The decline has been greater for Denver travelers, with average fares plummeting 30 percent — from $418.53 to $291.53 — between 2000 and 2009.
Those fares, however, do not reflect the extra fees travelers now pay for checked bags and once-free items such as meals.
Meanwhile, jet fuel prices have shot up from 75 cents a gallon in March 2001 to $2.20 a gallon this March. The record was $3.69 a gallon two summers ago, when fuel surcharges were piled on top of ticket prices.
To cut costs, airlines have pulled planes out of service, reducing the number of available seats.
Carriers acknowledge the frustrations. “There are fewer planes, fewer seats and more customers,” said Chris Mainz, spokesman for Southwest Airlines.
Airline officials say they have been working to improve what they call “the customer experience” with employee training, time-saving technology, online travel information and allowing travelers to customize service.
“We’re giving people options,” Mainz said. “There are some things that we didn’t have in previous years, such as online check-in, kiosks at the airport if you don’t check in online, and express bag drop for customers who have printed their boarding pass and just need to check a bag.”
Services are tailored to meet different travelers’ needs, said Barbara Higgins, United’s vice president of customer experience.
Mobile check-in and priority security access assist business travelers, Higgins said, while leisure travelers can purchase legroom per flight or Red Carpet Club privileges for a day.
Many of those options include the much-disliked fees.
“It’s understandable for people to be upset when something they had for free is taken away,” the Air Transport Association’s Castelveter said. “But if airlines don’t generate these revenue streams, fares go up.”
With fees for bags, meals and other items, Castelveter said passengers pay only for the services they use.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
