Newsstand - NYT - "Airlines, Already Suffering, Brace for Further Woes

From the article:

“There are too many airlines and too much capacity and really no pricing power,” said Hunter Keay, an airline analyst at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. “This is as bad a crisis as the industry’s ever seen.”
...

For travelers, this means that airlines will continue to cut flights in the fall — not by eliminating service outright as they did last year but by reducing the frequency and using smaller planes on certain routes. Passengers may also see new fees.

As seems to be the frequent case, United and US Airways are mentioned as being on the critical list.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/business/14airlines.html?_r=1&hp

I used to fly TATL quite regularly on United, and have literally just returned from a trip to the US on US Airways (my second in a year). In addition, I fly British Airways quite frequently, both across the Atlantic and to the Continent.

The difference is night and day. The US FAs were just not of the same calibre as the BA FAs. The US service was a joke. The IFE was broken. They wanted £5 for a can of warm Budweiser. Etc. UA is just as bad.

They can nickel-and-dime the customers all they want, but I am truly of the opinion that it comes down to attitude. When customers are treated well, they don't feel like they are wasting their money (and they are not unhappy about handing it over) and the vicious spiral downwards is stopped. The treatment of customers by these two airlines in particular is just abysmal and, to be frank, I wouldn't miss them if they disappeared.

US Airways should drop out of the International market and just focus on the North America and maybe some of the Caribbean. If they just continue to do a half baked job at International, people will just stop flying with them and the effects will spiral down until US figures out what they are going to do. Especially true if they are focusing on being a LCC.

Sad to say this, as I was a US Airways fan 10+ years ago.

Who wants to participate in the nonsense that is TSA-required harassment of passengers at their international departure city to the USA + the ICE experience of being treated like a criminal if you are not a US citizen + TSA harassment if one has a connecting flight and/or on the return?

No wonder people are saying "No Thanks!" in addition to the crappy global economic conditions. :td:

Airlines, you only have yourselves to blame for not standing up to the US and UK governments and telling them to take their "security" measures and shove them where the sun don't shine.

I have to agree that the TSA is part of the problem and the the nickel and diming by the US carriers is another part of the problem.

I'm amazed at how much of a difference it seems to make to fly a non-US carrier. If I'm on a TATL flight in economy, United wants to charge for alcohol, but Lufthansa provides it complementary. I flew on Air Canada to Montreal and their plane had tv's in the seat backs, but on my return flight on United, in the same model of plane, there was nothing. It just seems like I'm treated better by the crew on a non-US carrier too.

Another example of differences in service between a US and non-US carrier: I was on a 50 minute flight on LH Italia from MXP to FCO. LH offered a small sandwich as complimentary lunch with full comp beverage service as well. Compare that to a 50 minute flight within the US where one would be really lucky to have free peanuts aboard the flight at the very most.