Delta ... just one carrier cutting back

Fuel prices could well affect the way you fly in the not too distant future. Consider this: “If the current price of jet fuel was the average for the year,” says airline industry consultant Robert Herbst, “it would collectively cost the eight largest airlines over nine billion dollars more in fuel expenses for 2011 than they paid in 2010.”

In such a scenario, something’s got to give. Even though ticket prices have risen of late, airlines know they can’t take fares too far. Having already cut personnel costs, that means the only avenue left is cutting flights.

What that means for you, and how you can cope, are compelling consumer issues just now. “Remember, airlines are flying fleets today that are obselete” in terms of fuel economy. So contends Mike Boyd, president of Colorado-based Boyd Group International, a major commercial aviation consultancy. “No airplane coming out of the factory was designed or three-dollar-a-gallon jet fuel,” he says. Today the cost of jet fuel is “well over three [dollars]. Airlines are dealing with [airplanes] that weren’t designed or today’s economics. So you’ve got to cut them some slack.”

Boyd says if you’re in a small or mid-size community you’re going to pay more to fly from that city. “The airplanes are smaller. The cost of flying those smaller airplanes is high.”

In some instances flights to smaller cities could be significantly reduced. Delta says it’s going to cut its Memphis departures by 25 percent – a full fourth. The cuts will come as smaller 50-seat CRJ regional jets and 34-seat Saab 340 propjets go away. Delta isn’t yet saying what small cities will be affected out of Memphis.

How can flyers from smaller cities deal with higher fares and fewer flights? In lots of cases it makes sense to drive to a larger nearby airport that has more competition – especially cheap flight competition. Case-in-point: if you want to fly from Huntsville, Alabama to Washington, D.C. you can fly 600 miles nonstop one-way to Reagan Washington National (exclusive of taxes and fees) for $471 on a US Airways Express regional jet. Alternately – factoring in the same departure date – you can drive the 101 miles north from Huntsville on Interstate 65 and catch a 585-mile nonstop Nashville to Baltimore/Washington flight via a Southwest 737 for $260, again not counting taxes and fees.

In mid March Delta axed nonstop Toledo flights to Minneapolis/St. Paul. That left only one airline: American Eagle. It offers Toledo flights to Chicago. The good news: “Toledo’s gateway to the world is Detroit Metropolitan Airport,” says Boyd. It’s but 60 miles away, a drive of a little over an hour.

“What we are seeing here is the [evolving] regionalization of air travel,” he maintains. “It’s going into high gear and nobody’s bothered to notice.”

Except, perhaps, ground-bound entrepreneurs. They’ve taken notice and operate reasonably-priced ground shuttles from smaller cities to larger airports so passengers can take advantage of cheap flights.

Passengers aren’t powerless in this rapidly–moving regionalization of air travel. They’ve just got to cast their travel nets a bit wider and perhaps spend a bit more time getting to the airport. Search and compare the cost of flights at www.cheapflights.com.

Story by Jerry Chandler