Comments on: Exclusive: details on government’s new airport congestion plan http://www.elliott.org/blog/exclusive-details-on-governments-new-airport-congestion-plan/ The travel troubleshooter. Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:17:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Joe F. http://www.elliott.org/blog/exclusive-details-on-governments-new-airport-congestion-plan/comment-page-1/#comment-7916 Joe F. Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:24:18 +0000 http://www.elliott.org/blog/exclusive-details-on-governments-new-airport-congestion-plan/#comment-7916 While it sounds like a good idea, the 'airines; will not pay it, the passengers will. Pure and simple the charge will get passed on to pax as the 'Congestion Avoidance Charge." Now, if you check airfares, you ALREADY pay more to fly in the morning and evening weekdays, the carriers knowing they can ramp up the fee to grab the business people who HAVE to fly. Now the airlines will not only raise that fare a few dollars more- but will also charge the congestion fee - ripping off the business traveler even more. This will have the effect of driving ever more business travel in smaller markets into general aviation. It costs $2500 to charter our local King Air for a 2 hour flight - that gets you about 600nm away, or say, NY to Chicago. If the airline charges $1200 a person for the last minute ticket, and it takes 6 hours of a highly paid person's time to travel, plus delays and surly flight crews, plus he TSA dance, if that person brings an assistant thats $2500, plus airport parking fees, car rentals etc. If that company spent $5000 instead of $2500 for the flight, they'd save 2 hours each way. Given that the flight could leave at 8am, arrive in Chicago at 9am Chicago time, land at Midway, 20 minutes to the loop, meetings and lunch til 4pm, be wheels up at 4.30 and arrive back a the airport outside NY at 7.30p - that saves $500 in hotel roooms and another $100 in miscellaneous fees and expenses. So the total cost of that charter is only $1900 more than the airlines and it is doable in a day. Which allows our executive to sleep in his own bed that night and be ready for another day of work tomorrow, which would be lost traveling if it was the airlines. . . . or, if it was done in a day sing the airlines, its the 7am flight to O'Hare, make the 10am meeting by leaving at 5am, get the 5pm home flight back if not delayed and get home at 9-10pm. Not a relaxing day. As long as the airlines keep finding ways to provide bad servicee, raise fares and add surcharges - general avaition will continue to attract the time-sensitive and not price sensitive business traveler. While it sounds like a good idea, the ‘airines; will not pay it, the passengers will. Pure and simple the charge will get passed on to pax as the ‘Congestion Avoidance Charge.” Now, if you check airfares, you ALREADY pay more to fly in the morning and evening weekdays, the carriers knowing they can ramp up the fee to grab the business people who HAVE to fly. Now the airlines will not only raise that fare a few dollars more- but will also charge the congestion fee – ripping off the business traveler even more.

This will have the effect of driving ever more business travel in smaller markets into general aviation. It costs $2500 to charter our local King Air for a 2 hour flight – that gets you about 600nm away, or say, NY to Chicago. If the airline charges $1200 a person for the last minute ticket, and it takes 6 hours of a highly paid person’s time to travel, plus delays and surly flight crews, plus he TSA dance, if that person brings an assistant thats $2500, plus airport parking fees, car rentals etc.

If that company spent $5000 instead of $2500 for the flight, they’d save 2 hours each way. Given that the flight could leave at 8am, arrive in Chicago at 9am Chicago time, land at Midway, 20 minutes to the loop, meetings and lunch til 4pm, be wheels up at 4.30 and arrive back a the airport outside NY at 7.30p – that saves $500 in hotel roooms and another $100 in miscellaneous fees and expenses. So the total cost of that charter is only $1900 more than the airlines and it is doable in a day. Which allows our executive to sleep in his own bed that night and be ready for another day of work tomorrow, which would be lost traveling if it was the airlines. . . . or, if it was done in a day sing the airlines, its the 7am flight to O’Hare, make the 10am meeting by leaving at 5am, get the 5pm home flight back if not delayed and get home at 9-10pm. Not a relaxing day.

As long as the airlines keep finding ways to provide bad servicee, raise fares and add surcharges – general avaition will continue to attract the time-sensitive and not price sensitive business traveler.

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