Airline Industry

Travelers aren't too pleased with the North American airline industry - especially traditional carriers such as United Airlines and US Airways - pushing down customer satisfaction ratings after two years of improvement. On a 1,000-point scale, fliers gave airlines an index score of 681, down from 683 last year, according to a survey from J.D. Power and Associates. More than 13,500 passengers weighed in on categories including cost and fees, in-flight services, boarding and deplaning processes, flight crew behavior and more.

The nation's airlines reported more delayed flights and a higher rate of mishandled luggage in February while complaints by passengers jumped nearly 30%. Meanwhile, complaints against airport security agents dropped slightly. Airlines reported an on-time arrival rate of 79.6% in February, compared with an 86.2% rate in the same month in 2012, according to statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The rate of delayed or mishandled bags grew to three bags for every 1,000 passengers in February from a rate of 2.64 bags in the same month last year, according to the federal agency.

The U.S. airline industry has been on a hiring trend lately, but don't expect that to continue too much longer. For the ninth straight month, the airline industry added full-time employees in August, with employment numbers up 2.8% from the same month last year, according to the U.S. Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In August, commercial passenger airlines employed 388,523 full-time workers in the U.S., up 10,688 workers from August 2010, according to the bureau.

The nation's airlines improved their on-time performance and baggage handling rates in 2012 but passenger complaints rose anyway, a reflection of increased unhappiness with air carriers, according to authors of a new study. Despite better performance by airlines in key areas, the rate of complaints against carriers jumped 20% in 2012 compared with the previous year. Most of the gripes focused on flight problems, reservations, ticketing, boarding and consumer service, according to a report issued Monday by professors at Wichita State and Purdue universities.

The airline industry ranks lower than many in customer satisfaction, and the score has been falling, an annual survey indicates. Average customer satisfaction scores, 2000 (on 100-point scale) Scheduled airlines ............63 TV broadcasting ...............64 Newspapers ....................68 Motion pictures ...............68 Hospitals .....................69 Hotels ........................72 U.S. Postal Service ...........72 Telecommunications ............72 Electric utilities ............

Airplanes will be packed during the holiday season, fuel costs should drop slightly next year while demand for airline seats will continue to grow. Those are the predictions of two reports released Thursday, both of which paint a relatively sunny picture for the U.S. and the world's airline industry. Does that mean a drop in airfares next year? Airline officials declined to answer that question but said the rise in airfares over the last decade has not kept up with inflation.

The terrorist attacks that shocked the nation 10 years ago today devastated few industries as much as the airline business. In the decade that followed, U.S. air carriers have been battered by a sharp drop in demand, soaring fuel prices, wars, an outbreak of the deadly SARS virus and a stinging recession — forces that have led to billions of dollars in industry losses. Taxpayers and passengers have also had to pay in cash, delays and frustration: Air passengers shell out $1.8 billion annually in new airline fees to help fund $57 billion in airport security improvements mandated by the federal government over the last decade.

As more carriers try to match the success of low-cost king Southwest Airlines, they're flying an airplane that's already the industry workhorse: the economical Boeing 737. Boeing has delivered more than 2,500 of the squatty-looking planes since their debut in 1967, making the 737 commercial aviation's top seller. Another 440 are on order at the Boeing plant in Renton, Wash. The aircraft is flown by 159 airlines worldwide.

President Bush signed a bill providing $15 billion for the airline industry hit by job cuts and plummeting ticket sales since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "The terrorists who attacked our country on Sept. 11 will not shut down our vital businesses or thwart our way of life," Bush said in a written statement from his Camp David retreat in Maryland.

Tuesday evening's crash of an American Eagle propjet on a short flight from Greensboro to Raleigh, N.C., is the latest in a series of setbacks for the newly beleaguered commuter airline industry. The last two months have not been good ones for a segment of the transportation industry that until recently has enjoyed spectacular growth with deregulation. Last year, commuter planes carried some 50 million customers.

News that the tiny Samoa-based carrier Samoa Air has begun to charge fares based on the weight of its passengers has some fliers worried that the idea might catch on with other airlines. “There is no doubt in my mind that this is the concept of the future,” said Samoa Air's chief executive, Chris Langton. But industry experts don't think the idea will fly. “Any airline that tries that, heavy people would not fly that airline,” said Jan Brueckner, a UC Irvine economics professor and expert on the airline industry.

The airline industry thinks it's just plain unfair that they have to disclose the total cost of a ticket to passengers. The U.S. Supreme Court begs to differ. The justices have left intact Transportation Department rules requiring airlines to prominently feature the total cost of air travel in ads and online, rather than lower -- and misleading -- pretax prices. The airlines had shamelessly argued that the rules violate their free-speech rights by preventing them from illustrating how fees and taxes drive up passenger costs.

The proposed merger of American Airlines and US Airways will reduce competition and lead to higher fares, critics of the union argued before a U.S. Senate panel Tuesday. But supporters of the merger said the creation of the nation's largest airline will improve service and protect the jobs of hundreds of airlines workers. The testimony came Tuesday before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. The merger, which was announced last month, must still get approval of the U.S. Department of Justice and the judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceeding of AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines.

Here's a question for you: Is there a single example of consumer prices going down and market competition increasing after deregulation of a U.S. industry? I'm serious. The phone industry? The cable industry? Regulatory oversight for both was eased - and in some cases eliminated - and look where that's gotten us. And now look at the airline industry, which witnessed its latest multibillion-dollar deal Thursday with the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, creating the world's largest carrier.

Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways became the latest airline to report strong profit for 2012, another signal of a resurgence of the nation's airline industry. US Airways, which has pushed for a merger with American Airlines, reported Wednesday a record profit of $537 million for the year or $2.79 per share, compared with a profit of $111 million in 2011. For 2012, total revenues for US Airways reached $13.8 billion, up 5.9% over 2011, with revenue per available seat miles up 3.9% and the average percentage of filled seats at 82.9%, compared with 82.3% in 2011.

Brand-new "flushable potty economy seats" on planes mean you'll never again have to crawl over others to use the bathroom. Talk about convenient! And airlines make money on the deal by adding seats where toilets once were. "It's a win win for everyone," crows a blog with an illustration of the new seats that was posted Monday by a Northern California travel agency. They're kidding, right? Of course. It's a humorous holiday attempt by Fremont-based Let's Fly Cheaper to take a jab at the airline industry and create some marketing buzz too. "The airlines always find new ways to charge us extra dollars," says Chief Executive Ramon van Meer.

Airline chief executives, meeting Sunday as a group for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, face further losses on top of last year's $17 billion unless they shrink the industry by a third, analysts said. British Airways, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and other major carriers won't return to profitability by trying to fill their planes and win market share with low ticket prices as they are now, said Chris Tarry, an airline analyst at Commerzbank.

Airplanes will be packed during the holiday season, fuel costs should drop slightly next year while demand for airline seats will continue to grow. Those are the predictions of two reports released Thursday, both of which paint a relatively sunny picture for the U.S. and the world's airline industry. Does that mean a drop in airfares next year? Airline officials declined to answer that question but said the rise in airfares over the last decade has not kept up with inflation.

After a 16-year career in the airline industry, Claudia Helena Oxee doesn't mince words about what's wrong with airline passengers today. “Let's face it, passengers dress the way they want and do what they want,” said Oxee, who worked on the station crew at John F. Kennedy International Airport for TWA, Pan Am and LTU International Airways, now Air Berlin. “The level of passengers has been degrading.” Now retired and promoting a book about her experiences, she said she would “crack the whip” on unruly passengers if she were still working at an airport.