Will air travel get back to normal?

[NMTraveller]

I was just wondering if air travel will ever get back to normal?  If so,  in how many years.

 

I just had my summer airlines flights rescheduled.  It would be nice to have flights that were fairly close to schedule.

[hallasm]

Only time will show. It's difficult to predict when air travel will fully return to pre-pandemic levels. Some experts predict that it may take several years for the industry to recover fully. 

Factors such as changing travel trends, more on-line meetings, shifting consumer behavior, environmental issues will likely continue to shape the industry's future.

[klfrodo]

Normal? As in the 60's? the 70's?, the 90's? 

 

If you've noticed, air travel has been evolving since the beginning of air travel. It's still evolving. I don't know what your definition of normal is but the answer your question, No, it will never return to what you consider back in the good ole days.

[fbgd]

No, Concorde won't be returning to the skies.

[Bo1953]

1 hour ago, fbgd said:

No, Concorde won't be returning to the skies.

OR at least not in its' former presentation...

 

bon voyage

[NMTraveller]

9 hours ago, klfrodo said:

Normal? As in the 60's? the 70's?, the 90's? 

 

If you've noticed, air travel has been evolving since the beginning of air travel. It's still evolving. I don't know what your definition of normal is but the answer your question, No, it will never return to what you consider back in the good ole days.

I would say normal as in pre covid.  If you have travelled lately you will note massive flight cancellations and massive flight rescheduling.  

[CruiserBruce]

Change happens. Flight schedule changes pre Covid also happened.

 

There is already a thread here about the "massive" schedule changes that really weren't so massive. Some because of staffing issues. Some because demand in some markets hasn't returned, like Asia. Some for other reasons, like, as mentioned people can Zoom as effectivelyas meet customersface to face.. 

[NMTraveller]

Well I have already had my American schedule changed at least once for this summer.  If you look at the airlines schedules they are changing them rather frequently.  I would not be surprised if they change the schedule another time or two.

 

Precovid they would change your booked flight schedule rather infrequently and it would be by 5 or 10 minutes and not hours.

 

I do think that many of the airlines issues are due to staffing.  So when will the airlines get back to some sense of normalcy and not chaos.

Edited March 8, 2023 by NMTraveller

[Globaliser]

16 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

I was just wondering if air travel will ever get back to normal?  If so,  in how many years.

 

I just had my summer airlines flights rescheduled.  It would be nice to have flights that were fairly close to schedule.

 

3 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Well I have already had my American schedule changed at least once for this summer.  If you look at the airlines schedules they are changing them rather frequently.  I would not be surprised if they change the schedule another time or two.

 

Precovid they would change your booked flight schedule rather infrequently and it would be by 5 or 10 minutes and not hours.

 

Schedule changes at this time of the year were always common. I still sometimes have a laugh with my (then) travel agent about some of the wacky things that happened during schedule change seasons back in the 1990s.

 

It's a pity that CC has moved to this new software, because otherwise it would have been so easy to link to dozens of old threads complaining about significant schedule changes that wrecked people's plans - changes that were much more than 5 or 10 minutes.

[6rugrats]

Massive flight cancellations?  What would those be?  The Southwest fiasco?  The only other “massive cancellations” I’ve noticed are for weather.  Airlines have always had schedule changes; this is nothing new.

[NMTraveller]

2 hours ago, 6rugrats said:

Airlines have always had schedule changes; this is nothing new.

Yes but not at the numbers they do now.  Every flight I have had gets changed 2 or 3 times and for hours not just 10 minutes difference.  The airlines are clearly having scheduling problems.

[FlyerTalker]

10 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Yes but not at the numbers they do now.  Every flight I have had gets changed 2 or 3 times and for hours not just 10 minutes difference.  The airlines are clearly having scheduling problems.

 

The airline's aren't having scheduling problems.  They are adjusting schedules to meet market demands and operational requirements.  YOU are viewing those changes as a problem.

 

There is a VERY simple answer for folks that don't want to have the possibility of a schedule change:  Buy your ticket a week or two before your travel.  "Schedule problems" solved.

 

Of course, at that time, pretty much all discount tickets will have been sold, so you will be paying full-fare tickets, or close to that.  Guess what?  That's the price you would pay to eliminate that situation for your travels.

 

All life is a series of trade-offs.  An old Econ professor of mine would say that life is a never-ending sequence of cost-benefit decisions.  And guess what - there are costs and there are benefits.  Each person needs to make their own choices - and accept the consequences of their decisions.

[Ludwig Von]

21 hours ago, klfrodo said:

Normal? As in the 60's? the 70's?, the 90's? 

 

We used to dress up (and behave) to fly somewhere. People would act better. So I'm all for that as a return to normal.

[NMTraveller]

45 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

The airline's aren't having scheduling problems.  They are adjusting schedules to meet market demands and operational requirements.  YOU are viewing those changes as a problem.

 

There is a VERY simple answer for folks that don't want to have the possibility of a schedule change:  Buy your ticket a week or two before your travel.  "Schedule problems" solved.

 

Of course, at that time, pretty much all discount tickets will have been sold, so you will be paying full-fare tickets, or close to that.  Guess what?  That's the price you would pay to eliminate that situation for your travels.

 

All life is a series of trade-offs.  An old Econ professor of mine would say that life is a never-ending sequence of cost-benefit decisions.  And guess what - there are costs and there are benefits.  Each person needs to make their own choices - and accept the consequences of their decisions.

When American cancels 7.5% of their flights and then moves many of the other flights around by a couple of hours, then yes I would call that a scheduling problem.  You can call it what you want but we will just be commenting on syntax.  Also I don't view it as market demands as much as I view it as hiring pilots and personnel to man the planes.

 

The other issue I see is that there are a lot fewer flights than there used to be.  If there is a delay or canceled flight it is more difficult for the airlines to adjust.  If I get rescheduled by two to three hours there is not another flight to move to on the same airline.  If my flight gets cancelled or delayed not many or any flights to move to as they are mostly full.

 

Do I now need to fly into ports two days early?  Here is an example of a flight that was cancelled,  delayed for a day, and then delayed again.  The cruiser had to fly on another airline.

 

I fail to see how this is normal?

 

Perhaps the answer is to fly a different airlines...

 

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by NMTraveller

[CruiserBruce]

Part of the reason there isn't another flight to put you on is that the other flights are full. That is one of the common myths about flying..."if I miss this flight I can catch the next one" as if there is ALWAYS available seats on "the next one". Airlines schedule their flights, both in frequency and size of plane, to run them as full as possible. 

 

To be honest, I think what you perceive as "normal"...a very vague and subjective term...is never coming back. Covid changed the world in many ways...this is collateral damage.

[FlyerTalker]

14 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Here is an example of a flight that was cancelled,  delayed for a day, and then delayed again.  The cruiser had to fly on another airline.

 

This cruiser did a number of things that, let's say, did not help their chances.  First off was just sitting back in the AA lounge, putting down cocktails.  If you end up in an IROP situation, you should be working your contingency plan.  (Oh, it also seems that they didn't have a contingency plan in the first place).  They should have been trying to move onto a different flight, if only to move them closer to their eventual destination LAX.  There were other flights out of ATL, but they sat back and waited and had enough to drink to maybe have trouble walking.  Not good for sorting out options.

 

Then, it's the time consuming hotel process.  Get offered a voucher for a room at the Doubletree -- the first thing I do is call the D'Tree to confirm that a room is being held for me.  And if not, I sure as hell aren't spending hours going to that hotel and then into midtown Atlanta.  I'll just be in the airport because that's where I can best talk advantage of quick-developing opportunities.

 

Next was waiting for an 11am departure.  There are plenty of earlier departures on AA or DL that would take you westbound towards your ship.  And then, and only after that is cancelled, do you buy a ticket on Southwest?

 

Minimal sympathy from me.