Stress In The Skies

Why the problem? Airlines blame the FAA's antiquated air-traffic-control system. "It's 1999, and we still have a 1970s system," says David Fuscus of the Air Transport Association, the trade group for the airlines. He quickly corrects himself. "I wouldn't want to imply it's all 1970s. Some of it is 1960s." This year controllers at a dozen centers began using partially updated equipment, with the expected glitches and adjustment difficulties. The FAA, which operates the system, instructed controllers to leave a cushion of as much as 60 miles between planes, compared with the mandated five miles, leaving thousands of passengers waiting for liftoff.

The airlines are complicit in delays as well. Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, for example, can accommodate as many as 180 flights per hour, if the weather is perfect. Yet during peak hours the airlines schedule 200 flights, rain or shine. Need to get in or out of Dallas-Ft. Worth at 6 p.m.? Good luck. The airport can handle 35 flights every 10 minutes; the airlines schedule 57. This means that even under ideal conditions, at least 22 planes (say, 3,000 passengers) are delayed.

Overcrowding: Flying has also gotten more uncomfortable. In 1990, the average flight was just over 60 percent full. This meant a lousy bottom line for the airlines, but lots of empty middle seats to make your own bottom more comfy. No more. Thanks to better computerized-reservation systems, and to seat fillers like Priceline.com, the average plane in 1998 was filled to 70 percent capacity; for the Sunday after Thanksgiving 1999, the "load factor" is expected to rise to 87 percent.

Seats have also gotten closer together, as airlines expand their business sections, or try to squeeze an extra row into coach. Until the 1980s, seat pitch (the distance between your seat back and the one in front of you) was typically 34 inches. Since then, many carriers have shaved that down to 31 or 32. Airlines contend that because modern seat-back cushions aren't as deep, passengers haven't really lost any legroom. "There is no industry movement to decrease seat pitch," says Fuscus of the Air Transport Association. "The seats seem tighter because there are more people on planes." But try finding a regular flier who buys this.

Food: Is it just you, or does the quality of airline food seem to have declined? Answer: it isn't just you. Since 1992 carriers have been serving progressively cheaper fare--if they serve food at all. According to the Department of Transportation, a seat on a U.S. airline in 1992, domestic or international, got you a $6.11 meal, on average. By 1998, the airlines were spending just $4.49 per meal (this is slightly up from 1997). Given the price of an airline ticket, such chiseling may seem petty. But food is one of the few areas where airlines can shave a few pennies to stay competitive on fares. Even in its best year, 1998, the industry turned only a $5 billion profit on more than $100 billion in revenues, a margin considered teensy in most U.S. industries. So shaving pennies counts. And with 614 million people in the air last year, the pennies add up. Travelers like to have it both ways: buy the cheap ticket now, complain about the food later.

Stale air: Air might seem like a free resource, especially up high. But it is not. The air outside a commercial jetliner at cruising altitude is too thin to breathe; any incoming air needs to be compressed. This process, for those of you who remember your gas laws from high-school physics, produces heat. So the air then needs to be cooled in the plane's air-conditioning system before you can breathe it. This, in turn, burns fuel, one of the rising expenses for airlines. So in the early '80s airplane manufacturers devised a cost-cutting measure, by which half of the air circulating in the cabin would come from outside, and half would be filtered and recirculated. In a more recent innovation, pilots now sometimes shut down one air-conditioning pack on underfilled flights, saving fuel but degrading the air quality. Airlines contend that, thanks to filtration systems, the recirculated air is as sanitary and salubrious as before. But the stale-seeming air can exacerbate passengers' natural sense of confinement, adding to flight stress.