Wed, Feb 11, 2009
15,000 Fewer Seats Available Per Day Than March 2008
A year ago, the major US airlines talked of plans to cut
capacity on rate-sensitive domestic routes, and expand their
service on profitable international routes to improve their bottom
lines. It looks the slumping global economy has forced them to
change those plans.
USA Today reports demand for international trips is in free
fall, and airlines in the US and elsewhere are now reducing the
number of flights or using smaller jets on international routes to
and from the US.
Official Airline Guide flight schedules analyzed by the paper
indicate 466,000 fewer seats will be available next month compared
to March of last year, or about 15,000 fewer per day. That
represents a 5.3 percent drop from last year, and some individual
airlines have cut a one-third of their seats to and from the
US.
International Air Transport Association economist Brian Pearce
tracks 200 airlines, and says international passenger traffic in
first-class or business-class dropped 9 percent in November on
trans-Atlantic flights, and 17 percent on trans-Pacific routes. The
timing appears to mirror the financial sector meltdown in the
US.
"Businesses are cutting costs wherever they can, and business
people are just not traveling," Pearce said. "There's no sign of
this leveling off."
Simon Talling-Smith is British Airways' top executive for the
Americas, and says the current slump looks to be longer and deeper
than the one which followed the 9/11 attacks. "This is a much more
global downturn than that one was," he said.
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