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Friendly skies? Ha! Bumpy ride ahead
Consolidation means reductions in routes, higher fares, no more free lunch
 | Passengers seem a little concerned about extra flight costs in this image from a Mad TV video. |
Mad TV |
 | Slide show |
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Last week, "Politically Incorrect"’s Bill Maher had lots to say about the plight of airline travel in his “New Rules” segment:
“Airlines should just get it over with and start putting passengers in the cargo hold. Let’s face it, you’ve already taken away the legroom, the food, the pillows — the only thing left is to tag us, load us onto the conveyer belt and let us fight over who gets to sleep on the bag of mail.”
And Mad TV recently did a skit that’s making the rounds on the Web, featuring a flight attendant giving passengers the safety speech before takeoff: “Please make sure that your seatbelt is securely fastened. Seatbelts can be purchased for $5. To fasten, insert the metal fitting into the buckle and then pull the fitting away from you. To release, purchase a release flap for $7.”
Funny? Definitely. Ludicrous? Maybe not.
In the months and years ahead, air travelers are likely to face an even bumpier ride as the remaining large "legacy" carriers scramble to merge, as Delta and Northwest plan to do, and do everything they can to cut costs amid escalating fuel prices.
Ultimately there might be only two old-line carriers left, say analysts, reducing competition but increasing headaches for workers, passengers and eventually long-term investors.
Consolidation among the major carriers will mean layoffs, reductions in routes, continued hikes in fares and a further diminishing of travel amenities like food, drink and baggage. Yes, baggage. Many U.S. carriers have already announced plans to charge passengers up to $25 for that second valise.
“Eventually we might have to check our own bags in and put them on a conveyer belt,” predicts Tom Mobley, professor of management for Miami University's Farmer School of Business. “Who would have thought when we went to the grocery store we’d be checking out our own stuff?”
It’s all about cutting costs.
And one of the airline’s biggest costs: employees. As carriers continue to merge there are going to be major work force reductions. "That’s a foregone conclusion," says Mobley.
Mobley predicts fewer flight attendants on each flight, fewer agents at ticket counters, fewer baggage handlers and, of course, fewer corporate staff.
Among those left, rocky relations between labor and management are likely to drag down the combined companies, as they still do at US Airways, which merged with America West in 2005 but is still trying to improve employee relations.
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In the most recent proposed combination, Northwest’s pilots have said they want to derail the deal with Delta because they believe they’re losing hard-earned seniority rights. Executives of the two airlines defended the merger plan on Capitol Hill Thursday.
Since the airline industry was deregulated in the 1970s, there have been 26 mergers, mainly aimed at improving efficiency, says Guillaume deSyon, a historian of aviation and technology at Albright College in Reading, Pa.
“But mergers also mean headaches, as the cultures of merging entities clash and often fail to meld," he said. "Mergers of legacy carriers may in fact add to consumer dissatisfaction. It is a conundrum managers are aware of, but it is unclear how much weight they give it in their discussions.”
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