Rick Seaney vs. Brian Sullivan…

I’m late getting to this but I only check the air travel blogs once a week or so. Fare Compare.com’s CEO Rick Seaney fisks FBN’s Brian Sullivan over the latter’s article on the airline business and who’s to blame, and throws an unexptected small elbow at Sullivan at the end. (Note to Sullivan’s editors: I’m really the last person that should be noting this but spellchecking is a good idea…”Fnid an airlines RPM”?)

Sullivan:

As we gripe about these (finally) higher ticket prices, it is the uproar over charges for drinks, peanuts and pillows is the most bizarre. When we go out to eat we pay for food, drink and tip. We pay more for snacks and drinks at the movies than we do on a flight, but for some reason we accept it at the theatre. We know that the $20 entree at our local restaurant would cost just $10 to make at home, but Americans are eating out more than ever. We can cook for ourselves, but not fly. And yet we still grumbleat the slightest extra airfare, not matter how fair.

Air travel should not be a commodity. We are dealing with a major event. The Bernoulli effect and thousands of pounds of thrust are not small potatoes. Airplanes themselves cost tens of millions of dollars and involve amazing technology. They are flown by highly trained pilots. Do you really want continued cost cuts at 35,000 feet?

Solution: Acceptance that air travel is not a social service. Airlines are corporations whose reason for being in business (more and more theoretically it seems) is to make money. As their costs go up, ticket prices must go up. And since travelers are resistant to price hikes, airlines have to start charging for drinks and pillows. Just like milk, movies and education. We need to realize that the years of nearly free rides are over. Traveling is a luxury. You will have to pay more for it. Live – and fly – with it.

Seaney:

Then there’s the argument that the airlines make the same money on passengers now as they did 20 years ago — the author quotes “revenue per passenger mile” stats from 1985 and today, to back this up. But his argument that flying is “essentially the same” then and now is, at best, a bit out of touch.

What about the explosive growth in air travel where hundreds of millions of the “non-rich” began to enjoy travel
Boeing, Airbus, GE, Embraer and Bombardier might have a bone to pick on whether aircraft and engine technology has improved in both cost and safety
In 1985 sales processing was done mostly by hand with paper tickets
In 1985 travel agents did most of the bookings and were making 5-15% commission – where are the travel agents now?
In 1985 airline call centers weren’t located in India
In 1985 the Internet was only a glint in the inventors eye (Al Gore of course)
Now one thing I will grant him — unfortunately the Air Traffic Control system is essentially the same. But, I digress.

Railing on passengers who “expect” cheap airfare and saying they should pay more and be happy is a bit simplistic — but certainly not uncommon. You hear this a lot from business travelers — you know, people whose companies pay for their tickets. The same business travelers who then fly free for vacation and other travel, thanks to the awards tickets they got from the work travel paid for by their companies…