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I love flying! but unfortunately not a lot of positive things are coming out of the airlines. With the cost of oil rising, it doesn’t seem like its going to get any better in the near future. I am immersed in the airline world almost everyday. You see things changing all the time, and most of it isn’t good.  

One of the biggest things the airlines are freaking out right now is about gas. One of the ways to help conserve gas on the ground is limit the APU usage and hook up ground power. The APU on the aircraft provides the plane with power and air conditioning in the summer or heat in the winter. It is like a little engine in the back which supplies those two things on the ground. When ground power is hooked up to the airplane it will only provide you with power for the airplane.

In the middle of an 85 degree day after passengers got off an airplane, I walked off the airplane. The ground crew came running up to me and told me to turn off the APU so they could hook up the ground power to the aircraft as they are now instructed to do. I told him since we are only staying on the ground for a short period of time, i wasn’t turning the APU off so I can provide air for the passengers since it was hot. The ground person came back at me and told me this “Passengers buy tickets to get somewhere, not comfort.”

Unfortunately, this is what the airline industry is starting to turn towards. They are cutting costs and forgetting about why we are here. It makes me sick to see it turning towards this!

You might have a different perspective from being a passenger or you might agree. Share your story and your thoughts! I would love to hear it!

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iJohn on June 2nd 2008 in Airlines

Viewing 5 Comments

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    I am not a an of flying at all ...

    My dad is a retired Navy pilot, my mom worked at American her whole life. My sister even worked for Midway for a bit.

    Me, I really really really really dislike flying. I am flying out to Seattle in a few weeks and I am not really looking froward to the flight.

    Anyways, I really can not comment about the state of things with the airlines ... however I've never really had a problem with them. I guess as long as I make it to my destination in one piece I am good to go.
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    With the state that the airlines are in now because of the rising cost of oil, the only people who are going to be flying are the people who NEED to travel not the people who want to. Flights are going to cut many of their flights that now don't make them money because of the ever rising cost of fuel. I was reading this article called Silent Spring for Aviation and it explained its reasoning. Its a great little article to read because it seems every little aspect of our lives are being effected by this gas crisis.
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    Taken from The Onion :

    American To Charge For First Checked Bag

    American Airlines announced that they would be charging $15 for a customer's first checked bag. What new revenue streams are the other airlines implementing?

    United—$25 seatbelt rental fee for passengers who didn't bring their own

    Midwest—$35 to sit in the passenger compartment

    JetBlue—New fee structure for wait times on runway: $150 for under 2 hours, $75 for under 4 hours, etc.

    Frontier Airlines—$20 penalty if passenger is not wearing coonskin cap

    Continental—$100 reduced-fare tickets for standing-room-only passengers

    Southwest—Ten bucks to touch the captain

    Virgin—$30 fee for booking a flight with another carrier

    Delta—$50 to chip in for gas

    On a more serious note, BA here in the UK has just announced it will be increasing its fuel surcharges on June 3rd to 'as they say' offset fuel charges. This is despite a 45% rise in profits to £883M ($1.76B). As stated in the comment above, the amount of people that are able to travel by air is going to reduce, which means the airlines will make even less money, so they will have to hike prices even further. The higher the prices, the less passengers they'll get. It's a vicious circle! Where will it end I wonder. At the very least, I'm sure there will be plenty more smaller airlines going out of business.

    On a more cheerful , Happy Birthday!
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    happy birthday John :D
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    It's so weird reading this because I just did a 3 city trip with a layover and probably have had the best experience I've ever had. Everyone was really courteous and everything was ontime. It was really surprising.

    I don't think it's about gas prices either. If it were, airlines would charge by the miles not by whatever they're feeling like charging for that day.It's kinda ridiculous that for the same flight two people sitting next to each other can pay hundreds of dollars different. If it were about gas they'd not mess with the baggage charges and all these other (insignificant) random charges and just do flat rates.
 

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