Many of us are wondering why airlines continue to fly nearly empty airplanes. It seems like they are burning cash, fuel and goodwill. Don’t they know what they’re doing? They do, says The Wall Street Journal (May 7, 2020).
Airlines scrambled in March and April to ground as many trips as they could. But they still found themselves locked into flying many trips with hardly any passengers for a number of OM reasons that show just how complex airline schedules are and how hard the choices are that OM executives must make.
Airlines have grounded 3/4 of their capacity, and it still hasn’t been enough. More than 90% of traffic has disappeared. For American, 99% of flights have been less than 20% full. Besides critical travel for funerals, medical reasons, etc., there are often operational reasons that they need to fly with 2-3 people on board.
A flight might have to go with 2 fliers because a later flight in that plane’s schedule had 60 waiting. Sometimes it isn’t the aircraft that had to get there, but the crew needed somewhere else for later flights. Some aircraft need to get to a maintenance base for overnight routine work. Overnight parking is in short supply at many airports housing grounded planes. So a jet may need to make the last trip of the day with 1-2 passengers just to get to its assigned parking space. And a few passengers might luck out because the plane has a large cargo payload–often medical supplies.
Now a growing concern is that there will be heavier loads on flights where passengers won’t be able to socially distance. Adding to the complexity is a requirement in the federal airline bailout (Cares Act) that requires airlines to maintain service to all the cities they currently serve. Finally, because of the complexity of schedules, airlines need to figure out which aircraft to put in storage while facing uncertainty over travel patterns in the pandemic.
Classroom discussion questions:
- List some of the operations issues airlines are now facing.
- What percent of your class is willing to fly in the next 4 weeks?
Interesting!