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Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/theclearing/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Contemplating the Crowded Skies of the Summer June 1, 2004 By JOE SHARKEY HOUSTON THE George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which some pilots wryly call the George Bush Intergalactic Airport in reference to the grandiloquence of its title, is not a bad place to contemplate the summer of 2004, as domestic air travel finally returns to pre-Sept. 11 levels. I was waiting for a connecting flight on Saturday morning when the surreal nature of air travel as it is currently constituted locked in. Bush Intercontinental, like other major airports, is visibly growing more crowded as summer approaches. According to data from OAG, the publisher of the schedules, airlines have scheduled 40,393 flights from Bush Intercontinental in June. That is 8.9 percent more flights than last June. On Saturday, departure lounges were jammed. Giggling children with small backpacks played games on the floor. Business travelers snapped cellphones shut and hustled to make a connection home for the weekend. Electric carts packed with passengers like coal mine cars at quitting time negotiated thronged corridors. The papers in the newsstands carried reports of vague threats of terrorist attacks this summer. Meanwhile, a recorded announcement, unusual in its bluntness, as far as I know, echoed at regular intervals. Eerily, a cheerful female voice kept warning that "any inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning the security process may result in your arrest." Who decides what is inappropriate? I sure hoped it wasn't somebody like the surly sumo-wrestler-size security guard who had snarled at me at the New Orleans airport a few hours earlier for presenting my boarding pass upside-down. Still, I will resist the impulse here to make jokes, but I'll hazard a few remarks, hopefully appropriate, on security and on the general outlook for air travel this summer. First, let us assume that the current state of airport security, purely from the safety standpoint, is adequate. (That is not an assumption necessarily shared by some security experts, who have been saying for years that while airport screeners studiously pat down octogenarians in wheelchairs, vast areas of airport infrastructures remain vulnerable). But security, at least from the standpoint of crowd management, is one area where business and leisure travelers alike will get a feel for the ability of our air transport system to respond acceptably to back-to-normal traffic this summer. Summer traffic always includes large numbers of people who are not experienced fliers, but even frequent business travelers often approach checkpoints uneasily, as they scramble to remove laptops from cases, shoes from feet and coins from pockets while keeping track of boarding passes and photo ID's. Sporadic delays of an hour or more have already been reported at some airports. To move things along, the Transportation Security Administration has begun deploying some screeners to assist passengers unfamiliar with the process. One chronic problem in checkpoint delays is that some otherwise law-abiding knuckleheads do not realize that there are certain things you cannot carry through a checkpoint without causing delay - like (duh) a handgun. A spokesman, Mark Hatfield, said the security agency still routinely confiscated handguns from people who evidently forget they had tucked them away in a carry-on bag. Among the contraband most often flagged at checkpoints, "the top three are scissors, knives and Mace," Mr. Hatfield said. Unfortunately, there is still no reliable way for the public to monitor airport security delays. "Passengers, airlines and airports need accurate information concerning all aspects of their travel experience. It is time for detailed airport-specific data to be collected and reported, similar to the process used by the airlines" to report flight delays, Kenneth M. Mead, inspector general of the Department of Transportation, recently told a Senate committee. Such a system might be modeled on the Web site the Federal Aviation Administration maintains for real-time airport flight-delay information (www.faa.gov). Anticipating the summer surge, airlines have been increasing flights and capacity. Domestic airline seat capacity is up 5.2 percent over last summer, according to Executive Travel Sky Guide. But the surge in traffic should be measured against another dynamic - the economic troubles of domestic airlines, especially the network carriers, whose losses are being aggravated by fuel prices that have risen 55 percent from this time last year. Many airline industry experts say they believe that the outlines of an anticipated shake-up and consolidation of the industry may become clear by the end of summer. Airlines are increasingly desperate to cut operating costs in an environment where air fares remain low and cut-throat competition allows no slack in pricing. United Airlines, a unit of UAL, imposed a $10 fuel surcharge on round-trip tickets last week, but retreated by the weekend after competitors refused to follow. In the first quarter of 2004, most domestic airlines managed to reduce their operating costs. American Airlines, a unit of AMR, cut its cost per available seat mile 16.7 percent, to 9.49 cents, compared with the 2003 first quarter. US Airways reduced that cost 2.6 percent, to 11.68 cents. That was still the highest in the industry, and a far cry from JetBlue, at 6.08 cents, down 2.9 percent. At Southwest, long the low-fare powerhouse, costs actually rose 4.3 percent, to 7.82 cents. Concerned about rising costs, Southwest last week offered buyout packages to many of its 34,000 employees, though the airline did not specify how many job reductions it was seeking. "Let's not forget that Southwest is still making money and still growing," said Alan Sbarra, a vice president of Unisys R2a Transportation Management Consultants. More seats in the air do not necessarily mean more profits, even with strong demand. With low-cost carriers applying fierce and unrelenting downward pressure on fares, even lower fares could result as the summer plays out and the battle becomes more intense. That is not good news for major carriers, who need every dime of revenue. "Once you put the flight on the schedule," Mr. Sbarra said, "you have to fill it up with whatever price you can get." On the Road appears each Tuesday. E-mail: jsharkey@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/business/01road.html?ex=1087097477&ei=1&en=2cb2182a6239e707 --------------------------------- 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! 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