Can Airlines Handle the Increased Demand and Travel Load This Holiday Season?

When you have been a professional journalist like I have for more than three decades, you kind of get a sense that you have written certain words or phrases before.

Or at least thought them.

This is one of those times.

With Halloween just days away and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's on the horizon, I have no confidence that the airlines will be able to handle the increased demand and travel load that the holidays will bring this season.

There are just too many factors conspiring against them.

To wit:

• I don’t think the airlines have fully recovered from the pandemic yet. COVID-19 did a number on the airlines. It’s not the fault of the carriers, however. The pandemic affected virtually every business. But some businesses found they could do without or get by with less. The airlines are not one of them. It’s too large a business and too complex. Case in point: You can’t have maintenance workers and baggage handlers and flight attendants working from home.
• The pilot shortage is a huge problem. At least one person saw this coming. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian talked about this for years. Even without the pandemic, the mandatory retirement age for pilots was looming. But either the airlines were ignorant or they chalked it up to a laissez faire attitude that everything will work out in the end. It hasn’t.
• The air traffic controller shortage is just as big a problem. The number of near-misses on runways and in the air has been staggering this year. The air traffic controllers are overworked and overtired working 10-hour days and six-day weeks. It can’t continue at this base, or there is going to be a true tragedy someday. And the situation is only going to get compounded and even more hectic during the holidays.
• There is a general labor shortage in almost all aspects of the airlines. It’s like a domino effect. Rising fuel costs force airlines to make adjustments elsewhere. There are times when it’s not smooth. And the last thing you need is a bumpy airport and airplane experience.
• Finally, some airlines – and you know who we’re talking about – just aren’t technologically capable. They are prone to a meltdown and the increased number of passengers around the holidays only makes it worse.

As the old saying goes, hope for the best.

But prepare for the worst.

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