This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Explore more of Starbucks at Starbucks.com. http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp?ci=1015 \----------------------------------------------------------/ Flying Less and Enjoying It More September 9, 2003 By JOE SHARKEY HERE are some odds and ends to make note of as the business-travel season begins with the imminent end of summer: More business travelers are driving rather than flying, according to Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Well, duh, according to me. Increased driving to avoid airports and crowded airplanes has been the case for nearly two years now, after the airport experience - never a barrel of laughs to begin with - started to resemble the incoming processing center at a medium-security prison. But to date much of the evidence about this phenomenon has been anecdotal, if sagging airline traffic on short-haul routes easily matched by car can be described as anecdotal. Now Enterprise has commissioned what it calls the Short-Haul Business Travel Survey. It found that nearly 40 percent of business travelers say they are driving more often now than in past years and nearly a third say that they have increased their use of rental cars - rather than personal vehicles - for business trips of 300 miles or less, or expect to be doing so in the next year. The survey of more than 500 business travelers include also uncovered that 4 out of 10 typically ride with others, but not necessarily by choice. In fact, they're selective about whom they wish to ride with, if anybody. Nearly half said they would prefer to travel alone or with a business peer. Few want to ride with the boss (9 percent); fewer still want a subordinate in the car (5 percent); and almost no one (1 percent) wants to ride with a client or customer. Perhaps that's because two-thirds of those surveyed said they like to sing in the car. Besides a degree of musical freedom that would be discouraged on airplanes, among the reasons for driving on routes that used to be flown are: higher air fares to short-haul destinations (57 percent); airport "security hassles" (46 percent); reduced choices in flight schedules (39 percent); and company policies encouraging driving on such routes (38 percent). Christa Metcalf, the travel manager for the Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Corporation near Chicago, explained the trend. "Our product managers travel within about a five-hour driving radius" of headquarters, she said. Managers for medical instruments products frequently meet with physicians in offices or even in hospital operating rooms, which means schedules are often unpredictable. "They have the flexibility" to change plans when driving, Ms. Metcalf said. Using airlines, that flexibility "recently became difficult for us," she added. She was referring to what every travel expert I know regards as one of the true boneheaded stunts by major airlines in recent years: the crackdown they instituted last year on cheaper nonrefundable tickets that were being increasingly used by business travelers. Recently, the major airlines (except for US Airways) loosened those much-hated restrictions, which required travelers who wanted to cancel a flight to rebook the ticket for a specific new flight before the original departure date, or else lose the entire value of the ticket. "That was an issue of great concern," Ms. Metcalf said. Other car rental companies report seeing the same trend strengthening, even among travelers who fly part way and then drive. "There's no doubt about increased demand for intercity one-way rentals," said Ted Deutsch, a spokesman for the Avis and Budget car rental companies, both of which are subsidiaries of the Cendant Corporation. Generally, such rentals are for business trips, including trips made by a business traveler who flies to a major airport and then rents a car to finish a trip to another city within 300 miles or so, rather than flying. Potential fliers who take to the highway instead on short hauls are only a small part of the continuing passenger traffic problem for airlines, of course. And recently, executives at major airlines have been high-fiving each other over the fact that per-passenger revenues rose this summer. That's been widely translated in the news media as an increase in traffic, which is not the case. Passenger traffic, referred to in the industry as enplanements and defined as one passenger on one coded flight, remained down through the summer. Though there was some positive growth in per-seat revenues because airlines are flying fewer seats, passenger traffic - essentially, the number of people flying - was down all summer on most major airlines, according to the Air Transport Association. However, the rate of decline slowed this summer. In addition, in August, Continental Airlines, alone among the so-called network carriers, reported a slight increase, of 1.7 percent, in passenger traffic over August 2002. The low-fare airlines did far better, as usual. JetBlue Airways carried 59 percent more passengers; the Denver-based Frontier Airlines said it carried nearly 42 percent more passengers in August. Southwest Airlines, the giant among the low-fare carriers, reported 1.9 percent more passengers. Delta Air Lines, meanwhile, may be raising the stakes in the continuing airline food fights. Delta said yesterday that starting today, its airport Crown Room Clubs in Atlanta, Chicago and Tampa, Fla., were beginning a 30-day test of selling meals, much like the meals now being sold on airlines that have cut back food service in coach cabins. The Crown Room menus will feature items, including sandwiches and salads, from high-end takeout food services like Au Bon Pain and Wolfgang Puck. Airline clubs in airports have long offered free snacks and free drinks, including alcoholic beverages, to members. Does this mean Delta is ending the pretzels and party mix? Heavens no, a Delta spokeswoman, Catherine Stengel, hastened to explain when I called her to inquire. "The free food that we already offer - the fruits and snack mixes - will continue to be offered, along with the drinks," she said. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/09/business/09road.html?ex=1064113339&ei=1&en=6ac7018383c77ac2 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/ads/nytcirc/index.html HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company