Slow Recovery for Airlines

Mouawad, Jad. "After Losses, Airlines Battle Back to Profit, a Fare and a Fee at a Time." New York Times 19 10 2011, B4. Print.  

After September 11, 2001, 41 airlines filed for bankruptcy. The airline industry had a hard fall and is still trying to recover from their losses. An article, It All Adds Up – Airlines Battle Back to Profit, a Fare and a Fee at a Time, in The New York Times by Jad Mouawad talks about the airline industry and its current struggles. Airlines are now cutting back on service, free meals, leg room, and so much more. Most airlines are also charging for checked baggage. But, it seems like there is a fee for everything now on airlines. The percentage of fares of revenue from passenger has gone down to 71 percent in 2010 from 88 percent in 1990. A lot of people are complaining but Delta’s chairman and chief executive, Richard H. Anderson, defends the industry by pointing out that they are not the only ones charging for special services. He mentions how rental car companies charge for GPS systems and hotels charge for Wi-Fi and other services.

Many comforts have been taken away from airline passengers due to economic downturn. I agree that airlines should be charging the fees they charge for extra services. Meals are not necessary on most flights and the people who want a meal can purchase one on the plane or before they get on and eat on the plane. Leg room has also been reduced significantly. Airlines want to fit more people in less airplanes and this is their way of doing that. If someone wants more leg room they can also pay for it. People need to fly and they will have to pay for these extra services not available for free.

What I don’t agree on is that if they are going to charge extra for things that also bring on more expenses, they should do so without rising fare costs. The fare rate should be what it needs to be and not be changed. The reason airlines are charging these extra fees is to cut back on giving certain services to the people who don’t want or don’t need the extra services. Now if a person wants something extra they can pay for it and the expense will be for that one passenger not everyone on the plane. But, the problem many people are running into is that airlines are charging these extra fees and still rising fares. They should stick to doing one thing or another and not both. I believe this goes for every industry not just airlines. If you order food to be delivered to you a fuel surcharge is for sure noted on your receipt. Again, this is fine if the fuel surcharge fluctuates with the cost of fuel but it does not. In most cases the fuel surcharge was increased with the increase of fuel and now that the fuel has gone down the surcharge has not decrease or gone away. The same thing can be said to be happening in the airline industry. Airlines have found another revenue outlet and they are not going to stop charging these fees and rising fares if not necessary.