Jada Sayles
Recently, there have been several airline issues such as flight cancelations, delays, and the increasing shortage of qualified pilots which have sparked the concern of the public. "Already this year, the rate of flight cancellations and delays in June was higher than before the pandemic as a result of bad weather and staffing shortages.” (CNBC 2022) Many problems have arisen within commercial airline companies about these issues and their correlation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the beginning of March 2020, commercial airlines had to halt all flight traffic, which means the companies had no income. They did not know how to pay their pilots, who had been working for them for years. The company’s solution to this problem was to offer early retirement settlements with extra benefits to those pilots. This was a good plan in theory, but when cities opened back up and flight travel sparked up again, it left them with little to no pilots.
In early 2022, they realized there was a significant problem. If they only had so few pilots and a sizeable amount of people wanted to travel, they would have to sacrifice a few things. This issue started with the decrease in prices for flights anywhere in the United States and internationally. This created a boom in sales of tickets. The companies did this to bring back their revenue after 2 years of being unstable financially. As a result, the flights filled up quickly and there was a substantial increase in air travel. Some of these flights ended up being overbooked which caused people to get bumped off their flight or for the flight to be cancelled entirely.
This created double the issues for the companies, firstly they had to hire an influx of new pilots fresh out of training school. The pilots were inexperienced with flying for extended periods of time which resulted in rough flights which unnerves some passengers, “it makes me a little nervous, mostly because of flying in the air and knowing that you do not have control of what is going on” (Addison Klinger 11th grade). Since the flight attendant staff is poorly trained, passengers do not feel comfortable around them, causing bad experiences on flights. “I feel like the flight attendants could be more attentive and kinder towards passengers.” (Addison Klinger).
Due to flight cancellations, airlines have been trying to compensate for the issues they have caused. Some airlines offer refunds while others offer free flights but there are still problems that come with these “solutions,” “I feel like they would have to offer compensation and a place for me to stay because if I am flying to Tahiti and you give me a free flight to Michigan, what am I going to do with that?” (Janna Cleckley).
Although these issues are important, they do not shadow the seriousness of passenger safety. Recently there have been several passenger outbursts inflight, fear of terroristic threats made on the United States, along with the natural fear of plane crashes “I feel like I would be scared to get on a plane because it could fall out of the sky, also the terrorist threats are
terrifying, it makes me not want to fly all together.” (Areiya Forrest).
With all these issues, airline companies might not be able to recover soon from the dissatisfaction of customers and the sizeable profit margin they dug during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are some things that customer support could do to change their dissatisfaction rates. For example, “More food options, having more leg room in the plane, making first class more accessible to the working class, etc.” (Janna Cleckley). The commodities offered by airlines are most times the best part of the flight, but they do not combat the fight it takes to get onto the plane, people have challenging times getting to their terminals on time to reach their flight. Frequent flyers know how to handle busy airports by getting there a few hours early or skipping lines with TSA pre-check, however the general public must trudge through hundreds of people just to make it “I just make sure not to bump into anyone while I'm enroute to my terminal, although it is hard sometimes because the airport gets backed up a lot.” (Janna Cleckley) Through the recent years we have seen the downfall of the economy and the toll it had on all kinds of companies, now we get to see them try to recover and thrive in the next couple of years as we all move on from the effects of the pandemic.
Recently, there have been several airline issues such as flight cancelations, delays, and the increasing shortage of qualified pilots which have sparked the concern of the public. "Already this year, the rate of flight cancellations and delays in June was higher than before the pandemic as a result of bad weather and staffing shortages.” (CNBC 2022) Many problems have arisen within commercial airline companies about these issues and their correlation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the beginning of March 2020, commercial airlines had to halt all flight traffic, which means the companies had no income. They did not know how to pay their pilots, who had been working for them for years. The company’s solution to this problem was to offer early retirement settlements with extra benefits to those pilots. This was a good plan in theory, but when cities opened back up and flight travel sparked up again, it left them with little to no pilots.
In early 2022, they realized there was a significant problem. If they only had so few pilots and a sizeable amount of people wanted to travel, they would have to sacrifice a few things. This issue started with the decrease in prices for flights anywhere in the United States and internationally. This created a boom in sales of tickets. The companies did this to bring back their revenue after 2 years of being unstable financially. As a result, the flights filled up quickly and there was a substantial increase in air travel. Some of these flights ended up being overbooked which caused people to get bumped off their flight or for the flight to be cancelled entirely.
This created double the issues for the companies, firstly they had to hire an influx of new pilots fresh out of training school. The pilots were inexperienced with flying for extended periods of time which resulted in rough flights which unnerves some passengers, “it makes me a little nervous, mostly because of flying in the air and knowing that you do not have control of what is going on” (Addison Klinger 11th grade). Since the flight attendant staff is poorly trained, passengers do not feel comfortable around them, causing bad experiences on flights. “I feel like the flight attendants could be more attentive and kinder towards passengers.” (Addison Klinger).
Due to flight cancellations, airlines have been trying to compensate for the issues they have caused. Some airlines offer refunds while others offer free flights but there are still problems that come with these “solutions,” “I feel like they would have to offer compensation and a place for me to stay because if I am flying to Tahiti and you give me a free flight to Michigan, what am I going to do with that?” (Janna Cleckley).
Although these issues are important, they do not shadow the seriousness of passenger safety. Recently there have been several passenger outbursts inflight, fear of terroristic threats made on the United States, along with the natural fear of plane crashes “I feel like I would be scared to get on a plane because it could fall out of the sky, also the terrorist threats are
terrifying, it makes me not want to fly all together.” (Areiya Forrest).
With all these issues, airline companies might not be able to recover soon from the dissatisfaction of customers and the sizeable profit margin they dug during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are some things that customer support could do to change their dissatisfaction rates. For example, “More food options, having more leg room in the plane, making first class more accessible to the working class, etc.” (Janna Cleckley). The commodities offered by airlines are most times the best part of the flight, but they do not combat the fight it takes to get onto the plane, people have challenging times getting to their terminals on time to reach their flight. Frequent flyers know how to handle busy airports by getting there a few hours early or skipping lines with TSA pre-check, however the general public must trudge through hundreds of people just to make it “I just make sure not to bump into anyone while I'm enroute to my terminal, although it is hard sometimes because the airport gets backed up a lot.” (Janna Cleckley) Through the recent years we have seen the downfall of the economy and the toll it had on all kinds of companies, now we get to see them try to recover and thrive in the next couple of years as we all move on from the effects of the pandemic.