Summer Airfare Bargains

Mike Leco — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:32:00 GMT

The current worldwide financial crisis has had a significant negative impact on all of the US air carriers. Declining numbers of vacation travelers and less business travel have left the airlines with a significant reduction in passengers and increasing revenue losses.

The coming summer travel season is normally the busy time for airlines. It is usually the time when they increase their fares. This summer will be different. Southwest Airlines, the largest discount air carrier in the USA, has published significant fare reductions through the summer travel season. Most other airlines have countered with matching fare reductions. It appears that we can expect an air-fare price war this summer.

This is great news for vacation travelers. It means that bargain air fares are currently available. You can now fly coast-to-coast from New York to Los Angeles for only $120. You can fly from New York to Orlando Florida for less than $100. Even the overseas prices have plummeted during this normally high-priced summer travel season. Air fares to Europe are nearer to $500 or $600 for a round trip instead of the normal $900 to $1000 during the summer.

USA Airline Problems

Mike Leco — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:46:00 GMT

These past few weeks have been a nightmare for many air-travel passengers in the USA. Those travel problems are likely to continue for weeks or months to come. They may remain a real travel nuisance during the entire summer travel season if some solution is not found.

It all started just a few weeks ago, when a Congressional Commitee on Air Travel Safety discovered that Southwest Airlines had been flying hundreds of potentially unsafe airlines for many months because of lapses in the safety checks conducted by the government safety inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The top bureaucrats from our Federal Aviation Administration were chastised for allowing this to happen. They in turn applied a $10 million dollar fine against Southwest Airlines for violation of those safety standards. Southwest Airlines immediately grounded hundreds of their aircraft and cancelled numerous flights.

Stung by the Congressional rebuke, the FAA immediately stepped up its safety inspection for all US Airlines. They found numerous safety violations. This week, American Airlines grounded hundreds of its aircraft and cancelled thousands of flights. Other airlines are likely to follow. These cancellations have resulted in numerous stranded passengers at airports all over the USA. They caused thousands of passengers to alter or cancel their travel plans.

This mess is really caused by typical bureaucratic bungling and political manuvering. Many of the newly discovered safety violations are miniscule technical violations of complex safety regulations. The actual danger caused by some of the violations are almost non existant. The aircraft could safely fly without comprimising safety while the airlines bring everything up to technical standards. Unfortunately, the FAA, having been stung by the congretional rebuke, is now applying every minute standard in the regulation books. The airlines are immediately grounding all aircraft until they bring them up to the exacting standards, because they do not want to risk hefty fines from the FAA.

We need a clear reasonable leader to achieve some workable compromise to this dilemna. Unfortunately, clear reasonable leaders are hard to find in our government. If they do not solve this problem soon, it may be a terrible summer for air passengers traveling in the USA.

US Travel Alerts : airlines

Summer Airfare Bargains

USA Airline Problems