The Austin Business Journal says that a new survey shows Americans are fed up with flying and have been avoiding it — and hotels and restaurants are suffering.
Air travelers, tired of inefficient security screening, flight cancellations and delays, avoided some 41 million trips over the past year and that has cost the national economy $26 billion, a survey from the Travel Industry Association reveals.
The survey, conducted by polling firms Peter D. Hart Research Associates and The Winston Group, says the lack of air travel cost airlines more than $9 billion in revenue, hotels nearly $6 billion and restaurants more than $3 billion. Federal, state and local governments also lost more than $4 billion in tax revenue because of reduced spending by travelers.
“Many travelers believe their time is not respected and it is leading them to avoid a significant number of trips,” says Allan Rivlin, a partner at Peter D. Hart Research Associates. “Inefficient security screening and flight cancellations and delays are air travelers’ top frustrations.”
Are you actually avoiding air travel because of the security hassle? Are you avoiding it at all?
Less flying costs American economy $26 billion, survey says [Bizjournals]
(Photo: flyingember )
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>> No, it would be like Alexander Bell apologizing that his phone shocked anyone who used it unconscious. <<
Yes, because the inconveniences of travel are really comparable to being shocked unconscious.
In most cases, flying beats the pants out of driving, bus or train. On the other hand, if you are willing to pay a premium to travel some other way then by all means do what makes you happy.
“Why on earth would I pay a minimum of $500 for that kind of abuse?” I fly on Southwest for $150 RT (NYC-CHI) or $200 RT (BOS-CHI) all the time. Minimum cost to drive that round trip $500 (closer to $700).
Yeah, that’s a real savings.
Maybe you guys just suck at finding good airfare.
I feel like a criminal and almost feel scared to smile or expressing any emotion outside of neutral because that could arouse suspicion. frustrated…
I don’t fly enough myself (only twice per year) but if things start sucking more, I may cut that down in half and use Amtrak for my second trip (being cheaper in price but expensive in time).
I’ve been avoiding flying as much as possible since 9/11/01. I flew on 9/11 (albeit at 3AM on a late flight that had I not made…), and that’s just on the BS security measures that don’t make us safer.
Now last year I did fly to Switzerland, which was decent because I went business class. I’m getting ready to fly to South Africa for four weeks, of which I will be flying business class again due to the miles my wife has accumulated. Monthly trips back and forth from South Africa since January makes the mileage add up rather quickly.
We live 5 hours away from a major airport. We do have a small one here were we live, but it is normally these small commuter puddle jumper flights that get delayed and canceled. So we have to think a lot before we decide to fly out of here, sometimes it is just better to drive the 5 hours to the major airport.
Oh HELL yes I’m fed up. I’ve figured out that driving 13 hours to the East Coast is, at the end of the day, cheaper (even WITH gas-prices what they are) and far, FAR more enjoyable than spending almost the same amount of time screwing around with rude fascists at the airport.
I don’t use the word “fascists” lightly. The “security theatre” has gotten so bad that my husband’s funny haircut makes being anywhere near an airport a constant ordeal. And then of course, you don’t feel even remotely safe either, because they’re not competent at doing anything besides harassing people and tacking on fees.
Honestly, I avoid flying simply because of the pure stupidity that is called the TSA.
My father is a courier who may make two to three very short flights a week. Because of the sheer number of flights he takes, as well as how often he buys the ticket 1-2 hours before the flight, he is subjected to additional screening. I could almost understand this.
However, he has a badge that lets him drive his van onto the flight deck and into customs area with no inspection whatsoever. He’ll back directly up to a plane, load a package, and drive off with nobody giving him a second glance. In his van he carries a number of things banned from being near the airplanes, including a .38 cal semi-automatic.
What’s even more sad is when -I- took a priority delivery to the airport for him while he was at the doctor’s office. They just scanned the badge, didn’t even check to make sure the faces match before I went onto the flight deck and backed up to a plane.
Sorry, correction, .380 not a .38. 0 key’s sticking.
I take the train whenever the trip is 600 miles or less, and there’s a stop within 40 miles of my destination. a 600 mile trip tends to be around ten hours, and I’d rather spend a day (working, eating, stretching, etc) on a train than four or five hours being searched and herded. Trains are quieter and better for the environment, too.
I often take a folding bike to ride from the station to wherever I’m going.
If the trip’s more than 6 hours in each direction, I’ll fly. Despite all those TSA hassles, crappy service, and delays, it’s still better than that other alternative: the mega petri dish known as Amtrak.
Amtrak via California Zephyr. It’s almost always late, but it’s comfortable with lots of room and I don’t have to drive myself.
The only time I fly is when my job requires it.
Hate the airlines, hate over-crowded airports, hate the whole systems lack of resilience to weather conditions, hate the hurry up then wait, hate the TSA and their lack of common sense, hate over-priced everything in airports, hate delays especially when you’re in an aluminum tube on the tarmac, hate lost luggage (it happens even on non-stop flights), hate surly skycaps, hate the tiny seats, hate airline and airport food, hate the number of strange fees that have been adding to the cost, and hate rental cars and agencies.
They only thing to like is that you eventually get there safely, other than that the whole system sucks badly.
@monkey33: Not any different here in Atlanta. I priced out Amtrak vs AirTran to take me to Washington DC 4 years ago, and AirTran was $60 cheaper and got me there 10 hours faster each way. Perhaps the politicians and other regulatory bureaucrats will wake up one day and get rid of the trains to nowhere and will re-focus the money into regional corridors so we can ride 180 mph trains that would make the travel times almost on par with air travel once you factor in screwing with checking baggage, security and claiming baggage on the other end.
If I’m facing more than a 1000 miles one way to drive (almost impossible to do without stopping for the night, even with two drivers) I’ll still fly, but otherwise I’ll just drive, gas prices and all.
@FrankReality: Weather delays are a fact of life and of your safety. Installing the necessary equipment required to allow the maximum number of flights in zero/zero conditions is prohibitively expensive except for a select number of airports, and even then its only installed on a runway or two because of the amount of monitoring and redundant equipment required. Also, since it is impossible for anyone to see anyone else in such conditions, it would be really, really bad to have two (or more) aircraft in such close proximity in such conditions if one of them had to maneuver suddenly. That’s why separation requirements increase as visibility decreases.
I wish there was a better solution, but until AI and computers get good enough to basically allow pilotless aircraft all held in sync by a central air traffic management system, that’s what we’re stuck with.
Airlines = vast suckhole of fucktards.
When my daddy flew from Atlanta to La Guardia around 1960, Delta would call him ahead of time and ask him how he wanted his steak done. And that was back with the common folk, not First Class. Flying was like temporarily being royalty.
We no longer fly. Don’t want to breathe the bad air, commune with ill tempered sons of unmarried parents, don’t want an anal exam to get on board, do not want my baggage examined, and I don’t care to be prevented from taking down some swine who fondles my wife in the ‘security’ line up.
Eff them all, and their progeny. 10 cents a mile or not.
The national economy did not lose $26 billion. That money just did not diaappear. It just did not go into the pockets of the airlines.
I last flew with United some 5 years ago to a small airport in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The early morning flight was canceled on my way to the airport. I had to wait for a flight 7 hours later.
On the return flight to Ohare, our plane rocked so badly from the turbulence, I thought we were going to crash.
FAIL.