Odd...

[smackaholic]

I’m in airports pretty often and things are quiet. Traffic at BDL on Friday was down by a little better than 50%.

I’m surprised that the airlines aren’t just consolidating routes and grounding lots of planes. Planes sitting idle lose money, but not as fast as half full planes do.


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[Innocent Bystander]

https://www.flightradar24.com/UAL1450/2435f77c

With all of the talk of not having more than 50 people in one place at a time, doesn’t it strike y’all as fucked up that the sky is still FULL of fucking planes?

I pulled that up expecting to see nothing. Wrong. Still tons of flights. Considering they recirculate air in those things, you’d think they would be death traps.

That's an astute observation.

[Innocent Bystander]

Okay: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airp ... JwELwqQ5ho

So you have to FLY the routes to keep the routes. Don't you think they'd get a pass right now? I figured that there at least would be an enormous drop of bigger planes (certainly on short routes) being replaced by planes like CRJ's, but nope:
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airp ... JwELwqQ5ho

Here's a great example:
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL ... /KMCO/KATL

An hour long flight that might have 10-20 people on it, and they're still flying a 757, when a CRJ would save a fuckload of gas. This isn't doing anybody any good.

Left Seater, what is your input on this?

[Mikey]

Airlines all use HEPA filtration. No germs or viruses get “recirculated.”

[Mikey]

I, for sure, won’t be flying anywhere soon. Think I’ll start raising chickens and vegetables, and throw up a Derron-type perimeter so my only physical contact with the outside world will be wine deliveries.

I may keep my LA Times home delivery so I won’t need to go out and find TP.

[Left Seater]

My thoughts are I am not worried about getting sick while on an airplane. There are plenty of places where it is more likely you will get sick, like your local grocery store.

As for the linked articles, that is mostly garbage. The author clearly knows very little about slots and or airports/airlines/travel. Most likely he was given an assignment and tried to get thru it. The article reads like a 5th grade term paper. First off, what football team loans out players to other teams?

But slots. Slots are used at a few airports to control the number of departures in a day. An airline uses a slot pair to have an arrival and a take off. Some slots are valid for anytime during a day and other can be restricted to a 4 hour window. Airports use slots to make sure there aren't more arrivals and departures than the runway infrastructure can handle.

In the US only 3 airports are slot controlled. NYC's JFK and LaGuardia and DC's National. That's it. A few others are on a watch list, but slots and their use it or lose it is not the reason you are still seeing so many flights in the air. Further the author finally mentions deep in the article that slot restrictions have been lifted and you don't have to use them or lose them at this point.

Also, flying planes around empty would certainly waste money, but half full planes may still break even or possibly profit a bit. The biggest expenses for airlines are wages, planes and fuel. Airlines still have to pay the monthly payments on their planes regardless of if they are sitting idle or flying. The wages are going to be paid until companies and the unions can work out details of new pay scales during this time. Pilots for example are limited to 1000 hours a year. Most major airlines guarantee them 80 hours a month even if they don't fly that. So the pilots are going to be paid regardless. As for fuel, yes you need a tiny bit more for each additional passenger, but for the most part adding a bit more fuel isn't the straw that breaks the camel's back. So with so much of the costs being fixed, flying mostly empty planes isn't as silly as it sounds on first glance.

As for the bigger planes most airlines have parked them. American for example is only flying 17 routes to Asia, S America and Europe for now. All of there other routes have been suspended. These widebody jets are parked all over the place. DFW looks like a used airplane lot at the moment. Further American airlines is accelerating the retirement of their 757s and 767s due to this lack of demand. They are also returning E-190s early off of the lease deal they had.

What is also happening is airlines are asking their union members to take pay cuts or time off or early retirement. If the unions don't agree to this soon, we will see layoffs in huge numbers. Hopefully unions will do their part to help the airlines survive this.

I will say, I am not in favor of bailouts for the airline industry. So, the share price has fallen? Airlines are certainly much less valuable then they were 2 months ago. Let the shareholders take the burden of this first. Then if airlines have to enter bankruptcy, then the government can step in and help. Strange how airlines were all worked up about government subsidies for Middle Eastern Airlines and how that was unfair to US airlines, but now they want government subsidies.

[Kierland]

Hell?

[Kierland]

Fatty’s psyche might not be broken about flying, but boats and planes are 100% to blame for bringing it here. Take from that what you will.

[Left Seater]

I have flown commercially on 4 of the last 10 days. Planes are empty on some routes and packed on others.

Yes planes and boats brought it here quickly. But does anyone really want to go back to the days before planes or boats?

[Screw_Michigan]

Yes planes and boats brought it here quickly. But does anyone really want to go back to the days before planes or boats?

We need to improve intercity transportation, whether it be by bus, rail or mule. But yes, I agree with how we don't want to go back to the days before planes or boats.

What's the future of international air travel?

[mvscal]

What's the future of international air travel?

In aircraft.

[EAP]

What's the future of international air travel?

In aircraft.

HOF POST.

[Kierland]

What's the future of international air travel?

In aircraft.

After your full body scan for bombs and junk and a forehead scan and mouth swab.

Yeah Lefty, nobody cares about your false dichotomy. I was talking about the new “Health TSA” or what ever they end up calling it.

[Left Seater]

I was talking about the new “Health TSA” or what ever they end calling it.

Then say that. No where does your post allude to that.

[Kierland]

I wanted to see what other people thought before I poisoned the well so to speak.

[Screw_Michigan]

What's the future of international air travel?

In aircraft.

You're so perceptive. How's Omaha?