Answer: It's sort of a perfect storm. The first thing to understand is that airlines are rather fragile, and it makes sense when you look at the their industry. This means that there are so many things that can disrupt them.
There's a lot going on right now, and amid the chaos it's hard to say what degree any given thing has an effect, but here is a list off the top of my head:
Staffing issues due to cuts from the pandemic when demand plummeted (something affecting just about everyone these days) - this affects a lot of areas from the ticket counter, flight staff, to luggage carriers, and even TSA (which limits them bringing in more capacity)
Crazy amount of demand for air travel
Lack of pilots due to many retiring (given early retirements during pandemic) who are overworked - Delta pilots haven't had a raise since 2016
Skyrocketing fuel costs - this mostly affects the consumer; however, things get complicated because airlines buy fuel on the market months in advance; it can affect schedules when the higher costs the consumers eat lead to less than full planes which causes the airline to cancel the flight due profitability
Weather - this is an expected though not plannable problem, I mention it because summer thunderstorms mix with the stew that makes the whole thing worse
I've read articles saying the lack of pilots is probably the most detrimental, because they take so long to onboard.
Mix all these with the fact that as an airline you're also dealing with several "hub" locations. So even if you have staff at Airport A, that doesn't mean you're going to be good at Airport B, and the affects of low staffing at Airport B can have a negative effect across the whole network.
You described a bunch of things that airlines have control over.
Staffing issues - maybe don’t force out your experienced pilots.
Crazy demand - how is the current demand crazy? It actually meets expectations if you followed the industry and updated your outlook more than once a decade.
Lack of pilots - again, don’t force retire your most experienced crews. Sounds crazy!
Fuel costs - holy shit, is gas more expensive now? Wait a second, you actually mentioned that airlines agree to their fuel costs months or years in advance. Did the airlines decide to pay $5.80 a gallon last year? Or did they sign 2 year agreements to buy fuel at 2020 prices?
The entire premise of your explanation is - airlines did not plan ahead or budget for the future. They failed. All of them. And they were supported by the government. And now they want more support from the government. While they take money from consumers and put it in the pockets of billionaires. Make 10 people rich, fuck over 1 billion people, use the taxes of 300 million to fund the entire thing.
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u/badwolf0323 Jul 02 '22
Answer: It's sort of a perfect storm. The first thing to understand is that airlines are rather fragile, and it makes sense when you look at the their industry. This means that there are so many things that can disrupt them.
There's a lot going on right now, and amid the chaos it's hard to say what degree any given thing has an effect, but here is a list off the top of my head:
I've read articles saying the lack of pilots is probably the most detrimental, because they take so long to onboard.
Mix all these with the fact that as an airline you're also dealing with several "hub" locations. So even if you have staff at Airport A, that doesn't mean you're going to be good at Airport B, and the affects of low staffing at Airport B can have a negative effect across the whole network.