3 AIRLINES EXTEND, RAISE SURCHARGES The $10 and $20 surcharges that air travelers are paying this Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are generating so much extra money that three airlines are extending them – and increasing them up to $50 – all the way to Memorial Day. A fourth airline, US Airways, is imposing a different new surcharge equal to 5% of the fare price on all domestic flights starting May 8. Most surcharges extending into the spring range from $10 to $30. Many are in March or April, which would coincide with Easter or spring breaks. The $50 surcharge applies to tickets only on one day: Monday, Feb. 8, the day after the Super Bowl. How can airlines charge more when fewer people are traveling because of the recession? Carlos Bonilla, a consultant at AirlineForecasts.com, says that carriers have reduced the number of seats and flights available to match fewer people flying. "Now, they can charge more," Bonilla says. "It's basic economics." Most analysts don't expect all carriers to return to reasonable profitability until 2011, when they expect business travel to rebound sufficiently to cover airlines' rising operating and fuel costs. PAYING MORE FOR FLIGHTS EASES GUILT, NOT EMISSIONS In theory, the purchase of carbon offsets is supposed to cancel out the emissions generated by activities like flying or heating office buildings by directing money to programs that reduce emissions elsewhere, like tree-planting in Africa or a hydropower project in Brazil. An airline passenger might volunteer to pay $5 to $40 to offset his flight, with the price linked to distance. Offsets have played a growing role in the greening of travel because carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes are growing so quickly and there is currently no technological fix that would drastically lower them. Globally, offset programs have grown into a multimillion-dollar industry. "We're always looking at it, but so far I've decided not to do it," said Paul Dickinson, chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, a vast nonprofit consortium of companies that have pledged to report and reduce their emissions. For one thing, he said, offsetting the emissions of a flight from London to New York would probably require an extra fee of $200 to $300, far above what any airline is now charging. And some experts say that emissions from airline travel are simply so large that it may be impossible to offset them. A recent study in Britain concluded that one flight from London to Los Angeles produced more carbon dioxide per person than the average British commuter produces in a year by traveling by train, subway or car. Passenger offsets purport to cancel out carbon dioxide emissions ton for ton through investments in green projects. But critics say there is no transparency about how companies measure whether that happens. For example, many airlines offer investments in tree-planting projects because trees absorb carbon dioxide. But experts say it takes decades for trees to start fully absorbing the gas, making them a questionable offset for airplanes, which emit carbon dioxide. While acknowledging that improved, universal standards for personal airline offsets are needed, Richard Folland, a climate change and energy adviser to JP Morgan, said the offset concept had played an important role in helping to direct money to otherwise unaffordable environmental projects in poorer countries. CYNTHIA ROWLEY TO DESIGN FOR UNITED United Airlines has enlisted the help of American fashion designer Cynthia Rowley to makeover all their employee uniforms for 2011. Rowley will create new uniforms for United's diverse range of staff from the flight attendants to pilots, customer service representatives, ramp service and maintenance employees. "Travel is a huge part of my life and authentic to our brand," says Cynthia Rowley. "It's such an exciting opportunity to design for United, a company with a rich history, expansive global reach and, like myself, Chicago roots." Rowley will spend a month meeting with United employees around the world to find out what they want in their employee uniforms. Rowley has been tasked with creating new uniforms that increase functionality in more breathable and durable fabrics. "New uniforms, with an improved look and feel, are a key investment in our company and our people, who are the face of United," says John Tague, President, United Airlines. "It is one of the many investments we are making in our future. We have chosen Cynthia for her keen sense of style and for her commitment to involving our employees' important input throughout the design process." AIR-TRAFFIC TO IMPROVE A.D.S.-B. is a linchpin of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, the aviation agency's master plan for fixing the shortcomings of 21st-century air travel. The United States air traffic system normally handles about 50,000 flights per day, and in the first half of 2008, more than 25 percent were either late or canceled. The scorecard improved slightly after the economy collapsed — flights are currently down to 47,500 per day — but by 2025 the F.A.A. predicts daily air traffic will be up to 80,000 flights. The current system is struggling badly. There are many reasons for this mess. Radar is rapidly becoming a dinosaur — too slow for modern times. Air traffic controllers see a new ping from the planes on their scopes every six or seven seconds, and air traffic radars "see" for only about 150 miles. When aircraft are crossing the Gulf of Mexico on the same compass heading, they leave airports 10 minutes apart because each must be surrounded by 100 square miles of "sanitized" space to avoid accidents. This curtails service. Over busy airports, planes often circle in altitude "layers," speeding up and slowing down to get into proper landing sequence. This wastes fuel. To land, they depend on controllers who are talking to every plane in a stream of nonstop oral radio transmissions. In the tower, controllers keep track of vital details by means of plastic "flight strips" that look like tile racks in a Scrabble game. A ground controller hands the strip to a local controller, who gets the plane in the air and passes the strip to another controller. The controllers have to keep everything straight on their radar screens, in their minds and on the radio. Theirs is one of the most stressful jobs around. NextGen is supposed to fix all this. By 2025, all aircraft will be using GPS-based technology for navigation, and radar will be a backup. New technologies, like A.D.S.-B., will deliver fixes every second, and aircrews will monitor their progress on digital cockpit displays. Electronics will give controllers recommended changes in altitude, course and trajectory to ensure the most efficient and smoothest ride possible. And when a plane reaches the airport, it will use precision navigation, even in bad weather, to come straight in, like a jewel on a string of beads. The controllers will be there, but they will not be talking constantly — only when pilots need help. In the future, NextGen will provide a "data cube" that taps weather sources all over the country and delivers data that will tell aircraft and controllers what lies ahead for any flight in all three spatial dimensions and time. As the technology improves, aircraft will find it easier to land in bad weather, and at some point, the electronics will be able to place them on a safe track and bring them in quickly on several runways at the same time. The Lawyers' Travel Service |
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