Airline Travelers ‘Need to Prepare for the Worst’

After a terrible, dreadful 2022 for airline travel, passengers should expect things to get even worse this year. So says the CEO of United Airlines:

The year 2022 was one of the most stress-inducing for consumer air travelers in recent memory. A surge in travel demand after airlines slashed resources during the pandemic caught carriers flat footed. Unable to adequately staff flights, they nevertheless continued to sell record-breaking numbers of tickets, resulting in more than one in five flights being delayed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics — the highest rate of delays since 2014.

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Airlines will soon be hobbled by a lack of adequate staffing, something United’s Kirby alluded to. On a more distant horizon are modernization and market reform efforts that analysts fear might be stymied by political obstacles.

Labor shortages?

Maybe firing people who refused to get vaccinated was not such a good idea, especially when the unvaccinated pose no threat to anyone else.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to force airline personnel to wear those useless masks for hours and hours on end. Who wants to work under those conditions? – READ MORE