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Sunday, December 30, 2007 Travel Bug Can Airports Calm the Nerves? By Joe Sharkey The New York (NY) Times Santiago Moran, a shuttle van
driver, checks flights from a hotel lobby.
AIR
travel is likely to be even more miserable in 2008 than it was this year, with
growing delays, fewer choices, higher fares, dirtier airplanes and grouchier
flight crews. Still,
always look on the bright side of life, as the Monty Python song goes. Airports
see opportunity in the growing numbers of people cooling their heels there. All
over the country, airports are remodeling terminals to improve restaurants and
to apply new retailing ideas, including vending machines that dispense high-end
items like $300 Apple
iPods. Among
other new airport offerings are wine shops with bars; pharmacies with medical
clinics; luxury nail salons; spas; free battery-charging
stations; and even stores similar to 7-Elevens for passengers to grab milk and
groceries on their way home. All are signs that airports have been spending
money on customer-service and capital improvements as domestic airlines have
been cutting costs. Even
hotels near airports see opportunities in flight delays. A company called Flyte
Systems sells hotels displays like those in airports, showing real-time flight
and gate information. And a traveler whose flight is delayed might linger in a
hotel restaurant. Those
developments are good news for passengers, who otherwise have little to
celebrate about the new year in air travel. If you hated 2007, experts say,
you’re going to loathe 2008. “There
is no fix on the horizon,” said Michael J. Boyd, an aviation industry
consultant who writes for a New York Times blog, Jet Lagged. He
and other air-travel analysts look at this year, with its record delays and
record passenger traffic in a system in which nearly every seat was sold. Then they
look at next year, with more passengers expected and airlines saying
they’ll further reduce the number of seats they fly. The
math is simple. “Unfortunately,
many industry experts are predicting airline delays to only increase,”
Greg Principato, the president of Airports Council International-North America,
told Congress recently. There
are long-range plans to modernize air-traffic control under a program called
NextGen. Mr. Boyd derides the program as “YesterdayGen,” pointing
out that it is years behind schedule and years from completion. As
a short-term fix, the federal government, with airline support, is planning
measures like limiting the number of flights during peak hours at Kennedy
International Airport in New York. “So
what we’re going to see next year is more air-service rationing, starting
at Kennedy,” Mr. Boyd said. One consequence, he said, will be reduced air
service in some small and midsize markets as airlines opt for flights
generating the most revenue. “The
issue for airlines is going to be, if you have to cut flying to Kennedy, are
you going to cut your flights from Elmira — or from Phoenix?” he
said. THIS
year, with a sharp increase in the incidence of passengers being stranded on
tarmacs for long hours, the nation’s airports gingerly entered the
aggrieved-passengers fray. Mr.
Principato said recently that airports want to work more closely with airlines
to develop “emergency contingency plans,” including procedures for
“offering assistance after an aircraft has been on the tarmac for an
agreed-upon period of time.” Because
airlines oppose any outside interference in their flight and customer-service
operations, some industry analysts said that Mr. Principato’s comments
showed the airport industry trying to distance itself from the airlines. This
dovetails with the airports’ drive to serve customers. “Airports
will put more emphasis on customer service and things like clean restrooms
because they recognize that the airlines are no longer putting a lot of
emphasis on that,” said Ira Weinstein, the president of Airport
Interviewing & Research, a marketing research firm. Patrick
Heck, deputy manager for business development at Denver International Airport,
said that passengers were “getting to airports earlier and spending more
time there, so there is a new market.” Like many other airports,
Denver’s is expanding food, retail and other terminal services. Among
its projects is a 17-acre development near the terminals with a hotel, shops,
restaurants and even a dry cleaner — geared to the crowds that wait for
passengers, as well as to the growing airport work force itself. But
there is a downside at airports, Mr. Weinstein said. In 2008, it will be harder
to find airport parking. “Parking prices are going to rise,” he
said, “because they’re a major source of airport revenue.” |
