Airlines May Treat Passengers `Like Freight' to Beat Fuel Surge

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:



Airlines May Treat Passengers `Like Freight' to Beat Fuel Surge

By Michael Janofsky

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Imagine two scales at the airline ticket counter, one for your bags and one for you. The price of a ticket depends upon the weight of both.

That may not be so far-fetched.

``You listen to the airline CEOs, and nothing is beyond their imagination,'' said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. ``They have already begun to think exotically. Nothing is not under the microscope.'' He declined to discuss what any individual airline might be contemplating, including charging passengers based on weight.

With fuel costs almost tripling since 2000, now accounting for as much as 40 percent of operating expenses at some carriers, according to the ATA, airlines are cutting costs and raising revenue in ways that once were unthinkable. U.S. Airways Group Inc. has eliminated snacks. Delta Air Lines Inc. is charging $25 for telephone reservations. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines last month became the first U.S. company to charge $15 for one checked bag.

Even a cold drink may be harder to come by aloft.

Singapore Airlines Ltd., whose shares have fallen 7.5 percent this year, is ``trying to eliminate unnecessary quantities of extra water'' to save weight, Chief Executive Officer Chew Choon Seng said in an interview.

``When you hear some people talking about putting showers on their planes, that strikes me as counterintuitive,'' he said.

Logical Step

After U.S. airlines reported combined first-quarter losses of $1.7 billion and crude oil jumped to a record $133.17 a barrel on May 21, almost double from a year earlier, fares based on a passenger's weight may be a logical step, said Robert Mann, head of R.W. Mann & Co., an aviation consultant based in Port Washington, New York.

``If you look at the air-freight business, that's the way they've always done it,'' he said. ``We're getting treated like air freight when we travel by airlines, anyway.''

``Laughter aside, the airlines are just in a desperate situation,'' said David Swierenga, president of consulting firm Aeroecon in Round Rock, Texas, who dismissed weight-based ticket sales and steep price increases as unrealistic. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aJmRIapedEs0&refer=home

[Kolesar]

1. Stay home and read articles on the internet.

As if people are not freaked out enough in the airport terminal. Badged inspectors everywhere, tributes to Richard Reid in the form of shoe inspections, unlocked luggage and thieves doing the inspection. brrrr

[AndyA]

2. People will just stop flying.

How much are people willing to take? Combine high costs, long lines, bad service, stir in a little concern for safety, and you have folks that will just stop flying, unless they have to.

The airlines will cease to exist, because no one will be able to afford to fly, and what little desire may have existed will evaporate.

[MadHound]

3. This is why I will never use the airlines again,

Unless it is an absolute emergency or I'm going overseas(and I might just use a ship even then). We're being hassled and harassed at an ever increasing rate, packed in planes like they were cattle cars, having to either pay for, or go without amenities, all at an ever increasing cost to the consumer. No thanks.

[B3Nut]

4. Damn right.

You want me to pay you vast sums of money to treat me like a criminal AND a piece of meat? Forget it! Hey Rethuggies - here's your free market in action, baby! Unless it's life-or-death important, I'm staying on the ground. If I can't drive there, I'm not going.

[KG]

5. what? they're going to improve service?

[DS1]

6. If you're going to charge me extra for having a fat ass, you'd better give me a fat-assed seat!

:D

[Vickers]

12. Har!

:thumbsup:

[madrchsod]

7. unless ya need to get somewhere in a hurry

it`s cheaper to drive if you have a fuel efficient car. i figured that if my wife and i want to see our friends in florida the cost of gas for our accord would be 500..the cheapest flight-anytime and switching planes was 800

[arcadian]

14. The price doesn't go up when you add more passengers

You can actually save on the cost when you add more passengers.

[mikeytherat]

8. "May"????????

Are they not already treating people like freight? A more correct headline would be:

"Airlines to Stop Treating Passengers Like Freight, Start Treating Them Like Baggage."

mikey_the_rat

[LeftCoast]

10. Agreed!

Was just going to post much the same point!

[Canuckistanian]

9. self-delete

bad taste...

[stubtoe]

11. Oh. I thought they were going to rip out the seats, bundle us up and stack us like cordwood

in the cabin!

[MorningGlow]

13. Shhh! They'll hear you!

Ah, who'm I kidding. They've probably already got that plan in the works as well.

[alarimer]

15. Are these companies TRYING to fail?

Because if they keep treating their customers this way, they will ALL go out of business.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Ah flashback to the early days of aviation!

[alfredo]

18. A nickel a pound is what I remember as the cost to ride in a small craft.

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. Freight that loads itself and follows commands from the nice TSA folks. n/t

[alfredo]

19. Maybe they can make us stand like on subways and buses.

[Delphinus]

20. I seriously hope I don't have to fly anywhere.

This just sounds like a very unsavory way to move through the air.

But, this may be the way of the future. I saw that video of China and the subway cars, how they had police push them in ... I was appalled!