Air Travel

© agahran

Its been more than a decade since the worst terrorist attack in the history of United States took place on 9/11 but air travel still remains to be a nightmare, as the airport security systems remain hopeless bureaucratic and disconnected to the woes of the passengers.
One time head of the TSA , Kip Hawley, calls it a "National Embarrassment" in a newspaper article, as he promotes his book about the inner workings of the agency. He has commented on the broken airport security system in America which has made air travel an ending nightmare for U.S. passengers and overseas visitors alike in its efforts to eliminate all risks from flying. This harsh assessment has got the nod from many victims of domestic and international air travel in most of the major airports of US.
The Sun Sentinel's edition of 18th April, 2012 however compliments TSA for its long time overdue sensible security program for travelers who are 75 years of age and older. It has become convenient for senior citizens to go through the security checks as they can now keep their shoes on. In the event of something suspicious being detected in the scanner, they can go through the scanner a second time after a pat down. Nothing grand- but it really helps smoother movements of the line and brings the aged some relief in their air travel experiences.
The nation wide opinion wave of relaxing some stringent regulations, that have made air travel a dreaded experience, is catching momentum- with more and more harrowing experiences of passengers hitting the headlines every day.

© The-Lane-Team

Air Travel has become costlier with Southwest And its subsidiary Air Tran Airways hiking up fares to offset the rising cost of jet fuel. The hike in air travel rates by these Airlines is in the nature of $4-$10 per round trip depending on the distance traversed.
This move by Southwest was followed by air fare hikes by many other airlines such as American Airlines , US Airways, Delta Air Lines ,Frontier Airlines, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways which have made air travel more expensive for the common man.

According to Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, which closely monitors fare increases, it is common for other Airlines to follow suit when companies like Southwest and JetBlue increase their air travel fares.

William Swelbar, a research engineer at MIT's International Center for Air Transportation has opined that is not unusual for Southwest to be the leader in increasing fares and the air travel industry is expected to follow the hike.

Though Southwest has remained a low fare airlines with minimum frills , yet air travel has become costlier due to the rising costs of jet fuel and this is expected to act as a catalyst in future escalations over the year as well.

As per the figures presented by the Government authorities, spot prices for jet fuel are up 12 % so far in 2012 but just 4% from a year ago but this has been enough to compel the air travel sector to hike fares.

CEO of Southwest ,Gary Kelly has added that if the jet fuel costs continue to be on the rise then the Company will be forced to reduce the number of flights to cut down costs. However she said that there was no reason to panic and the situation should be less grim by the next quarter for the air travel industry.

© joannapoe

In a relief to many senior citizens, the Transportation Security Administration recently announced that they have amended some air travel screening rules for people above the age of 75 years. This air travel concession is one amongst the several new procedures meant to speed lower-risk passengers through screening and will likely mean fewer pat-downs for older travellers.

The change in these air travel guidelines shall be introduced at a limited number of security lanes at selected airports across the United States. The Transportation Security Administration spokesperson, Jim Fotenos stated that the criterion for the chosen airports was based on whether they had a higher percentage of travelers aged 75 and older. He further elaborated that these air travel rules would be relaxed indefinitely at the airports with the intention of expanding elsewhere if successful.

Four airports are going to test these new air travel procedures for treating older passengers in a more dignified way. Travelers aged 75 and older will not have to remove their shoes or light jackets to clear security at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Denver International, Orlando International and Portland International.

Late in 2010, the federal agency had made similar changes in air travel procedures for children 12 years and younger.