To Greg's point: The value proposition for business travel has already been seriously and adversely impacted, especially on short and medium hauls. Cancel first/last flight in many markets (the trips most used by business travelers to get in a full day at destination), add time for security processing, add more for the uncertainties that many of us have experienced and seen reported, add more if you now need to retrieve a bag. The resulting loss of productivity (which is most of what airlines sell at business fare levels) is driving some of the high fare market to Part 91/Part 135 operations, fractional, subscription, etc. business jets, video-conferencing, phone, email, and to abandon many trips altogether. The only positive in the short term is the comparative lack of congestion-related delays. (Remember the "good old days" when congestion was the industry's biggest problem?) For example, we are apparently not going to get above 77% of DCA schedules prior to 9/11. Why is this? Seriously, what justification? And what justification for GA flight restrictions? What is being reported as being proposed (a.k.a. "free background and credit check with every ticket") is overly broad, overly complex, provides no meaningful benefit any time soon despite the claims of urgency (two year development/deployment timetable; lots will happen in those two years, hopefully no more 9/11s or AA63s), I won't even get into the potential for abuses that will certainly occur and is far too expensive. A few pennies per PNR (not segment, not trip, not passenger) is all that a targeted, relevant process should cost. Can we afford another process that adds $2 per trip to fares? Network airlines struggle to make a few dollars/passenger, net, in an average year. Every added dollar of airfare plus taxes plus fees simply drives more people out of the market for air travel. This proposal, as reported, ought to be marked DOA. If we want to go back to the days when air travel was only for the chosen few, this is a good start. The broader issues are a worthy topic for the next GAO inquiry, perhaps ultimately a Supreme Court case. - Bob Mann -- - R.W. Mann & Company, Inc. >> Airline Industry Analysis Port Washington, NY 11050 >> tel 516-944-0900, fax -7280 mailto:RWM@RWMann.com >> URL http://www.RWMann.com/ Greg Newbold wrote: > > Joe and List, > > We shouldn't over-react and must maintain some balance between security > and the traveling public before we kill the airlines, not to mention the > taxpayers. You can provide suppressive levels of security but then you drive > business away. I flew 90K paid miles last year before 9-11 and haven't flown > a mile since. I assure you I am only mildly concerned with terrorism, (I'm > still more conccerned about being killed in a car crash on the way to the > airport), but will not stand in a line for hours for any reason. > The balance has swung against the passenger and thus the airlines have lost > my business for the short term until the government can solve the technology > issues and speed up the process. > An interim solution? Place more security staff on site. We all know long > lines are caused by staff shortfalls rather than security requirements. An > example. If you have 100 passengers and 10 XRay machines, 100 passengers and > 10 shoe-testers, etc the line will move quite rapidly with 2 minutes per > passenger will cost the passenger a maximum wait of 20 minutes. > As the infamous Army Major said about MyTho during the VietNam war... "It > was necessary to destroy the town in order to save it" and I hope we won't > do the same to air travel. > > Greg > > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of > www.joepries.com > Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 11:36 AM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: Re: Free background check -do it! > > EXCELLENT. As an American, an American cognizant of the fact that the > possibility of an airplane being taken over and slammed into a reactor > somewhere on U.S. soil may be in the cards for us, im for whatever measures > the government sees fit- they wanna strip me to my boxers in a side room- do > it, they wanna check my shoes- do it- they wanna look into my background and > see where ive been- do it, they wanna take a sample of my toothpaste to make > sure theres no C4 in the tube- do it. You wanna give me a national identity > card to carry with me at all times- do it. People are out there trying to > kill us- us Americans- us christians, jews, blacks, lationos, chinese, > muslims- it doesnt matter- if you live in america youre game. > Bring it on, im willing to wait longer to board my flight to feel safe with > my wife and baby and fellow americans on board.