(Dive Travel Business News - July 19, 2010) -- Planes are running so full this summer that U.S. travelers bound for summer vacations may have to wait overnight for the next plane if they miss a flight.
Flight cancellations due to bad weather and equipment problems are compounding the seat shortage issue, creating a domino effect, putting stress on other airlines and routes, and causing missed connections to international destinations. Few options are left for summer dive travelers who've paid for a ticket but can't get to their dive destination on their original itinerary.
For the past two years, US airlines have been cutting back service, using smaller planes or cutting routes altogether in a bid to address the impact of a poor economy, rising fuel prices and fewer passengers. The U.S. airlines' belt-tightening included a 6.7 percent capacity cut in 2008 and a nearly 9 percent cut in 2009 in a scramble to better match the number of seats to a reduced number of passengers flying. As a result, load factors - the measure of how full planes are - are up. read more »
