Despite Recent Severe Weather, Travelers Blame Airlines Most for Flight Delays

A majority of air travelers have been delayed within the past three months -- and they are holding the airlines responsible, according to a new survey focused on consumer perceptions of the causes for air travel delays.

The survey was conducted by market research firm TNS and was based on interviews August 16-19 with 2,500 members of the TNS US online panel. Respondents were screened for past month travel and past three-month air travel.

Just this month, a Federal Aviation Administration report named June 2007 one of the worst travel months in U.S. history. At the same time, the Department of Transportation stated that the first half of 2007 was the worst for air travel delays in 13 years, when the department first began keeping statistics. The TNS study reveals that among those who expect to travel over the Labor Day holiday, 30 percent plan to travel by air. Despite the delays, the Air Transport Association expects 15.7 million passengers will fly over the Labor Day Weekend -- a 2.6 percent increase over last year. As the already busy skies become increasingly crowded this
holiday weekend, consumers can only hope that airlines will be prepared to meet the demand.

"What's interesting is that consumers are now blaming the airline itself for their travel delays more often than they blame the obvious culprits -- weather, increased summer air traffic, or both," says Tim Gohmann, senior vice president, Travel & Leisure, TNS North America. "Airlines have the opportunity to address the contributing factors such as overbooking and mechanical failure and win back some of the trust of consumers. Consumers, on the other hand, should approach Labor Day weekend prepared to face the same delays they have experienced throughout the summer."

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Safety, Other Issues May Arrive With New Airliner

The size of the new A380 airliner poses some potential safety challenges for U.S. airports. As a result, airports expecting A380 service may need to modify their infrastructure or impose operating restrictions, such as restrictions on runway use, on the A380 and other aircraft to ensure an acceptable level of safety, according to a new US government report.

In addition, increased separation between the A380 and other aircraft during landing and departure is also required because research data indicate that the air turbulence created by the A380’s wake is stronger than the largest aircraft in use today, says the report, issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO is the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress.

Airbus S.A.S. (Airbus), a European aircraft manufacturer, is introducing the A380, expecting it to enter service late this year. The A380 will be the largest passenger aircraft in the world, with a wingspan of about 262 feet, a tail fin reaching 80 feet high, and a maximum takeoff weight of 1.2 million pounds. The A380 has a double deck and could seat up to 853 passengers.

The impact of A380 operations on air capacity is uncertain, GAO says.

The A380 was designed, in part, to help alleviate capacity constraints faced by many large airports in the United States and around the world by accommodating more passengers and freight on each flight than any aircraft currently in use.

"However, potential operating restrictions and the increased separation requirements imposed to ensure the safety of the A380 and other aircraft at airports and during flight could reduce the number of flights that airports can accommodate," the report says. "The extent to which possible operating restrictions, increased separation, and gate utilization impact capacity would depend on the time of day, the number of A380 operations, and the volume of overall airport traffic."

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TSA Launches Airport-Wide Security Surge

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced the first in a series of airport employee security operations to increase security measures at U.S. airports. The surge operation is underway at Orlando International, TampaInternational, Miami International, Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood Internationaland Luis Munoz Marin International (San Juan, P.R.) airports.

TSA has deployed 160 transportation security officers, aviation security inspectors, federal air marshals and other personnel to increase current employee and passenger security capabilities at these five airports. TSA began randomly screening employees working in secure areas of the airport approximately one year ago at 20 airports, and broadened the program early last fall. Now, roving groups of officers screen employees on a random and unpredictable basis nationwide, the agency says.

TSA was created to boost airport and airline security following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"TSA moves in a flexible, nimble fashion to address vulnerabilities with a layered security approach," says TSA Administrator Kip Hawley. "Every employee should have a reasonable expectation that they could be screened at any time, at any access point within the footprint of the airport."

TSA will conduct additional operations in other regions in the coming weeks and months on an unannounced basis. While there is no intelligence that indicates a specific threat to aviation in Florida or Puerto Rico, this mobilization illustrates TSA's ability to quickly and unpredictably deploy assets based on risk, the agency says.

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FAA Sees Drop In Number of Air Traffic Controllers

Air traffic controllerstaffing levels have dropped for the third straight year, to a new low of 14,206, according to the most recent Federal Aviation Administration "Administrator's Fact Book."

Despite the FAA's public claims that it hired more controllers than it lost to retirement and other factors over the past year, the agency's own fact book reports that the overall total number of controllers working inits 300-plus facilities dropped from 14,227 at the end of fiscal year 2005 to 14,206 in fiscal year 2006, according to the air traffic controllers' union.

The figures are listed as being current asof Oct. 31, 2006, taking into account hiring and attrition statistics a full month into the current fiscal year.

Controller staffing totals reached as high as 15,386 as recently as September 2003. But a year later, in October 2004, the FAA reported that total had fallen to 14,736 as the long-expected controller retirement wave began to increase in size. The total fell again, to 14,227, a year later, the FAA reported.

"This is the most definitive proof yet, from the FAA's own reported figures, that the agency simply cannot get ahead of the retirement wave, no matter how many people they say they are hiring and trying to rush into thesystem," National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Patrick Forrey says. "The agency is now rapidly losing its most veteran,experienced controllers -- the people who it was counting on to train its new generation of controllers -- at a far higher rate than it expected and is continuing to force more veterans to retire early with its demoralizing, distracting and authoritarian imposed work rules."

Veteran controllers are currently retiring at a rate of more than three per day since the start of the current fiscal year: Oct. 1, 2006. This follows a 2006 fiscal year in which 734 controllers retired, eclipsing the FAA's projection to Congress by 57 percent. At the current pace, the number of fiscal year 2007 retirements will clear the FAA's projection of 643 by Memorial Day at the latest; a full four months before the end of the fiscal year. Overall, the FAA has missed its retirement projections for three straight fiscal years, by an increasing margin each year, the union says.

Controllers can retire before the mandatory age of 56 if they have metone of two criteria: Reach age 50 and have 20 years of service; or have 25 years of service at any age.

"Rather than 'staffing to traffic' as the FAA states publicly is its new mission, the agency appears to be following a new policy; 'staffing tobudget,'" Forrey says. "And the scary part is no amount of new hires the agency has made over the past two years or will make over the next 2-4 years is going to fix the current staffing problem. That's because it takes 2-4 years to train a new controller before that professional is fully certified.

"That gap, from the day a veteran controller retires to the day their replacement reaches full certification level, is where we have the most reason to worry about the agency's continued ability to maintain the margin of safety in the system by ensuring there is redundancy," he adds. "Our greatest challenge today, besides the distraction of the imposed work rules, ismaintaining the margin of safety knowing the level of redundancy has been whittled away to its bare minimum. We need more eyes watching the skies."

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