An Update on Aviation overall
As you know, I consider my primary expertise to be in travel advising. I take that seriously.
In June and July, I had more clients affected by airline delays and cancellations than I didn’t. This included for my own travel for a family scuba trip to Aruba in late June, where I witnessed horrifyingly long lines at both Charlotte and Miami. When I got home, I started reaching out to Airline representatives and poring over data. I want to know if there is an end in sight for delays, cancellations and other “schedule irregularities” that are above and beyond normal amounts that come from weather and maintenance related issues.
Here are some things that I found out.
This is currently worse in Europe. I am in no way anti-union, but in the USA these issues are seemingly being handled in a free market way. After reaching out to the big legacy carriers of American, Delta and United. I have some interesting updates. The European carriers are facing delays from strikes as well as the other issues of staffing and delayed maintenance on aircraft and airlines that is affecting everyone.
I am still advocating for conservative flight schedules. This means, but is not limited to.
Keep an eye out for strikes for European Carriers and a look at airline stats after. For example, once August is past and OTP (On time Performance) data is available, i will be very curious to see if Air France’s statistics improve. Likewise, Lufthansa has just settled a strike.
Early departures where possible
Longer connection times
Avoidance of partner carriers in Europe where possible with a greater look towards alternatives such as rail
While I have been looking forward to Australian and New Zealand travel, I am disturbed by their ontime statistics given that their high season is still months off.
The Middle Eastern Carriers seem to remain safe bets.
The Asian Carriers that have been up and near to full operations for most of 2022 seem to be doing well such as Singapore and the Japanese Carriers. However the Chinese and Taiwanese carriers, that are still far from full capacity, are currently a wild card. Additionally, There remains drastically less airline capacity in Asia as there was 3 years ago, as a result, prices are largely still very high compared to pre pandemic figures.
In the United States, I fully expect to see these issues resolve by next summer and possibly even by the holidays. Worldwide, remains to be seen.
With all of that said, despite this, this appears to be a golden time to travel as countries welcome back tourists. People are happy to see us and despite the difficulties in aviation, I’ve never gotten so many glowing reviews of travel experiences as I have this summer.
Until things improve, still travel, but with some modifications. I’ve detailed all of this, but just to put it all down. Build in extra time in transit both in hours in connections and in days when it comes to big events. Pack light, consider shipping and get some air tags for your bags when you must check. If you can reach a destination in less than 6 hours without flight (via car, train, boat, etc.) do that. Look for the earliest flights of the day and if you can avoid the last connection of the day to a destination, take an an earlier one. Download the airline app(s) of the airlines you are going to fly, they could save you a terrible wait time to get rebooked. Be mindful of weather patterns, avoid the southern Airports if possible August, September and even October, Avoid the Northern Airports where possible November through March…or so and be nice to airline staff. Keep Calm and Travel on. If that’s too much, just call me when you want to travel and I got you.
I’ve done some deeper dives with the American Legacy Carriers in other blogs. Check em out.
