The beginning of the end?

(This is the third and last part of a look back at the beginnings of the airline age. You should read ‘Whatever happened to “the passenger’s always right”?’ and ‘ Ships out! Planes in’ first)

I believe the rot set in with the introduction of jet airliners beginning with the British built Comet and the American Boeing 707 in the mid 1950’s. This opened the door to mass air travel at much less cost and taking up much less time.

In the 1960’s we had inexpensive holiday packages to Spain and other Mediterranean hotspots. Suddenly, anybody with a week’s holiday and £ 25 to spare could jet off to the sun.

The 1970’s saw an explosion in international air travel brought about by the introduction of wide bodied airliners and a proliferation of airlines as each nation set up its own flag carrier.

As seat availability increased and fuel oil remained cheap then fares came down and the whole thing became exponential. Cheaper fares created a greater demand for seats. The greater the demand for seats, the less comfort for passengers as the airlines strove to pack as many as they could into their aircraft.

The latest chapter in the saga unfolded in the late 1990’s with the introduction of low cost/no frills airlines.

A journey in an aeroplane today has become (arguably) one of the most awful experiences that one might experience in a lifetime. The whole experience from beginning to end has become a nightmare.

Passengers passing through airports are routinely belittled, humiliated and degraded by airport security staff with little or no conception of customer relations or service who are responding, doglike to government induced terrorism paranoia .

London Heathrow security queue

Airline personnel, both on the ground and in the air, can be very rude and appear disillusioned, lacking in motivation having abandoned all pretence of enjoying their work whilst they are managed by people more interested in the bottom line of a spreadsheet than in creating and perpetuating a viable service industry with satisfied customers at the receiving end.

Increasing instances of operational delays and management foul-ups lead to rising levels of passenger frustration and fury before and during a flight.

Once in the air the environment for most passengers, trapped for many hours at a time in seats with minimum width and legroom, is not only extremely uncomfortable but downright unhealthy.

The latest we hear is that some airlines wish to sanction the use of mobile phones in flight. That, for many of us, will be the last straw.

Bigger aircraft, more flights, more passengers. The whole concept of air travel in its present form has finally spiralled to the bottom of the swamp and all the shiny new terminals and additional runways in the world will never resurrect it. The recent debacle at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 is stark testament to that.

As passengers there is little we can do to help ourselves since there are few viable alternatives to air travel and the airlines and the airport operators know that and shamelessly exploit it.

Until now, that is. With a world financial crisis looming, a sharp reduction in the availability of credit and disposable income and the soaring cost of fuel, the airlines are going to be experiencing some very lean times and sooner than they might believe.

I believe that, just as the shipping companies had to rethink, redesign and repackage their product back in the late 60’s, the air transport industry as a whole needs a radical reappraisal – airlines, airport operators and aircraft designers alike. It needs people in all levels of management who have actually worked on the front line, facing fare–paying passengers who have every right to expect a better deal for their money.

Never will there be a better time for the industry to step back, regroup and re-organise ready to start again for the benefit of all when the financial climate has recovered.

It’s time, once again, for the passenger to be ‘always right’