More news on the Silent Spring front.
Northwest and Air Canada are cutting flights within the US, and grounding more aircraft.
Thing is, most of the airline cuts announced to date have not yet taken effect. The plane groundings and service cutbacks will occur towards the end of the year and into 2009. As of now, almost all of the flights are still rolling down the runways.
For the flying public, all that passengers are seeing just now is higher ticket prices and the nickel-and-dime stuff like charging for bagage check and paying for the sodas in coach class. A lot of people who bought tickets for summer travel back in the winter are feeling no pain, really.
Wait until people go to the likes of Orbitz and Priceline, and want to book flights in the first quarter of 2009. Good luck.
Choices of flights, connections, timetables and fares will be causing serious heartburn.
As I’ve been saying, in six months you will not recognize the US airline industry.
More info here.
Byron King
Energy and Oil
