Backlash may be grounding travel by air

Fliers go to ground due to stress, consolidation

I’m an unabashed aviation geek, a former airline employee and someone who has spent his entire adult life working in, writing about and advocating for the airline industry. But flying stopped being fun quite some time ago.

And I’m not alone. Scores of friends, family and colleagues continually express their own discontent, even when I don’t ask. Hundreds if not thousands of readers tell me the same thing. It’s the question that lies at the heart of the airline industry, yet largely goes unasked and unanswered: Are you tired of flying? And are you acting on it by taking fewer flights, or even none at all?

I hear it all the time these days, a refrain articulated by Mike Mayor, a higher-education consultant. “I fly much less,” says the former platinum member who flew “50% of the time for business, and 100% of the time for vacations.” Now he says, “I’ve never driven, trained or bicycled more in my life. For most of us, the journey matters. With the airlines the way they are, I’m not prepared to throw away 20% of my journey.”

The impact of such travelers is felt. Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition (BTC), sums it up: “You can measure lots of things, but you cannot measure the business traveler who used to travel from Philadelphia to Atlanta three times a month and has found a way to cut that back to one time a month. There is no airline measurement for trips purposefully not taken.”

Corporate cutbacks

I reached out to Mitchell and he responded by conducting a survey of business travelers, asking corporate fliers if they are flying more or less than they did half a decade ago. The results were astounding — five out of six road warriors reported they have cut back on airline travel in the last five years.

Among 120 respondents, 99 said they are taking fewer flights, down from 18.7 business trips on average in 2012 to 11.7 in 2017, a reduction of 37.4%. The chief reasons cited by that 83% who said their flying was reduced:

❚ Air travel is more difficult or stressful: 43%

❚ My job requires less travel: 29%

❚ Airline industry consolidation (e.g., fewer non-stops, reduced flight frequencies and/or hub closures): 5%

❚ Other reasons: 24%

These trends don’t indicate improvement for the airlines anytime soon: Among those who are flying less often, only 18% reported experiencing airline improvements that may lead to an increase in business travel; 82% have not.

Why some are grounded

What seems apparent is that airline discontent affects all types of travelers and all types of travel, vacationers and businesspeople alike. In fact, the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) surveyed 2,201 adults in late 2017 and found most Americans believe flying is more frustrating than five years ago.

This dovetails with the latest Consumer Reports survey of 55,000 air travelers (which I assisted in compiling); it found “for most passengers, air travel has become a constant struggle.”

Yet what’s so striking is how the airlines perceive a half-empty glass as overflowing. Last month the chief economist for the lobbying group Airlines for America stated: “Travelers are taking to the skies this spring in record numbers, thanks to persistently low fares, unsurpassed levels of investment in the product, increasing competition and unprecedented access for passengers of all regions, age groups and income levels.”

Such rosy chatter ignores lost business. Trips not taken harm workers at airports, hotels, resorts, cruise lines, car rental firms, restaurants, ground transportation networks and theme parks. Erik Hansen, USTA’s senior director of domestic policy, quantifies it: “Americans avoided 32 million trips last year because of air travel hassles, costing the U.S. economy more than $24 billion in spending.”

Choosing other modes

It can be difficult to determine if increases in other modes of transportation are mere growth, or indicate a siphoning of former passengers unhappy with airline service. Yet it’s worth noting that millions more Americans are choosing alternative modes of travel.

❚ Highways. While airlines are carrying more passengers, many of us suspect that highways seem more crowded. According to AAA, on the busiest holidays, millions more Americans have been driving in the 21st century. Between 2001 and 2017 on Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekends, 33 million more Americans took to the highways. Conversely, during the same four holidays across those 17 years, the airlines carried only 410,000 more passengers.

The worst aspects of airline service are exacerbated on those busy weekends. But data from the Federal Highway Administration confirm the holidays are no fluke. In fact, travel as measured in millions of vehicle miles over the last 25 years rose by nearly half from 2.2 trillion in 1992 to 3.2 trillion in 2017.

❚ Amtrak More Americans ride the rails, too. According to The Brookings Institution, Amtrak ridership rose 55% between 1997 and 2012. In 2017, riders took 31.7 million trips, an increase of 1.5% over 2016.

❚ Buses According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, ridership soared from 6.9 million vehicle miles in 2005 to 16.2 million in 2015. Motorcoaches now log about 751 million passenger trips annually. And buses are the only intercity transit for 14 million rural Americans not served by air or rail.

Have you been flying less and driving or riding more? Tell us why at travel@usatoday.com.

AP Airline fees and airport hassles have led more travelers to seek alternatives to flying.