Fred Harteis News Articles - Summer forecast: Lines, full planes, higher fares

Fred Harteis News Articles - Get ready to hurry up and wait. Summer 2006 is shaping up to be the busiest on record for air travel. This summer is expected to be the busiest ever for air travel in the U.S.

Nearly 207 million passengers are expected to board U.S. airliners for domestic and international trips in the next three months. That's up from 205 million in the June-August period last year, and from 185 million in summer 2001, before the Sept. 11 terrorism nearly brought travel to a halt.

From airport parking lots to security checkpoints to the planes themselves, events are conspiring to create long lines and cramped quarters — all at higher fares. Airports, airlines and the government are girding for the crush.

Fueling the high demand for air travel is a U.S. economy strong enough to offset a double-digit percentage increase in fares. For each mile the airlines carried a passenger in April, they were collecting 11% more than a year earlier, according to the most recent industry figures.

Even before the high season for travel kicked off with the Memorial Day weekend, airlines were begging passengers to arrive earlier, pack lighter, prepare to wait — and stay calm.

Along with the huge volume of summer travelers, other factors could make such blow-ups common. Among them:

•Fewer workers. Fighting huge losses, airlines have laid off more than 150,000 workers in the last five years. The big traditional airlines are running with 21,000, or about 7%, fewer workers than last year, according to recent government numbers. Airlines say they've offset many cuts through better use of technology — check-in kiosks, for example. But the fact remains that fewer people remain to work ticket counters, transfer baggage and solve problems.

•Fewer seats for domestic travel. While demand is up, the number of seats on U.S. planes on domestic routes will be down 2% this summer from last year, according to the trade group Air Transport Association. Seating capacity on flights between the USA and foreign cities, however, will be up more than 4% over last summer. Chasing the higher profit they can get on international trips, U.S. carriers including American, United and Delta have added dozens of international flights to Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean in the last two years.

•Packed planes. Airlines struggling to cope with record high jet fuel prices are packing as many passengers as possible onto every flight.

•Bumping. Airlines in general have been bumping more passengers from flights so far this year than a year ago, Department of Transportation figures show. From January to March, American, American Eagle, Delta, Southwest and others involuntarily bumped more passengers than the same three-month period a year earlier.

Source: USAToday.com

About Fred Harteis: Fred Harteis leads Harteis International. Fred Harteis has a background in agriculture and has lead many successful business ventures.