Summmer Air Travel Was not as Bad as Predicted.
Sept. 14, 2006. The “Summer of Hell� for air travelers that some commentators had predicted turned out not to be so bad after all for vacation travelers. Fortunately for most luxury vacation rentals owners, most of their guests travel by land. For those located where air travel is essential, the experience of air travel was not as bad as predicted.
According to a Wall Street Journal (subcription only) article by Scott McCartney, the summer of 2006 stacked ups as follows for travelers:
• Flight delays down
• Complaints up
• Lost baggage down
• Bumped passengers up
• Empty seats down
Sure there were some horror stories in the situation where flights were often overbooked, and there were no backup planes when flights were cancelled. Many passengers were bumped and others were faced with last minute cancellations I had my own horror story to report when I was stuck in the Atlanta Airport on Aug. 10, the day the news of the foiled London terrorist plot was disclosed. A business partner had to cancel an important business trip to the West Coast entirely when his flight was inexplicably cancelled.
Still, as McCartney points out, airlines were more punctual. “In June, July and August, the 10 biggest airlines got 75.7% of their flights to arrival gates within 15 minutes of schedule time, according to data compiled by FlightStats, which tracks on-time performance of airlines, airports and individual flights. That is better than 73.2% last summer�.
In addition as we pointed out in previous editions of this blog, it was possible for vacationers to avoid some of the worst hassles by booking far in advance and by traveling on days when the airlines are least likely to be crammed with weekend travelers. Moreover, overcrowded flights have already become less crowded as we head into the fall season. As a frequent traveler, I have witnessed this development starting in mid -August.
Fro the owners of luxury vacation properties in such places as the Carrilbean and the Hawaiian Islands, the recent trend in air travel is welcome news indeed. You have survived a problematic summer and should expect smoother sailing (and good occupancy rates) in the months ahead.
