29 September 2009

Prices plateau but performance improves for US airlines

Air passengers are clearly upset over record surcharges but believe it or not, there is some good news for flyers these days: the airlines have improved their customer service record.

What? Why is this happening?

"The biggest contribution you have for this is that you have fewer airplanes flying," Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst for Forrester Research Inc., told the LA Times.

Reports of mishandled baggage, including lost of damaged luggage, dropped to 2.89 per 1,000 passengers this summer or down from almost five in 1,000, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Even more significant, the overall number of complaints filed against airlines for such problems as oversold flights, cranky reservation workers and missing pets also dropped to 0.98 complaint per 100,000 passenger trips in a recent month from a 1.25 rate one year ago.

Conventional wisdom offers obvious reasons for the improved service: with fewer passengers and flights, the airlines have more time and resources to spend on customer service.

But airline representatives say other factors are also at play, such as fewer weather delays, improved flight schedules and a drop in the number of bags carried per passenger.

"It's really a compendium of factors," said David A. Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the trade group that represents most major airlines in the country.

More airlines have scheduled bigger time cushions between landings and departures, obviously making it easier for them to stay on schedule.

Harteveldt said new luggage fees added by several airlines recently have prompted travelers to check fewer bags. Airlines lose fewer bags if they have fewer to move, he said.

Airlines also credit improved technology and upgraded baggage sorting systems for the lower mishandled-baggage rates.

All this has come with a price.

In the first half of 2009, domestic carriers raked in $669 million in checked bag fees alone, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And according to a report by market research firm IdeaWorks, the global airline industry last year collected $10.25 billion in ancillary fees.

On top of that, many major airlines are adding $10 surcharges during the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

By David Wilkening