The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that airlines are now taking advantage of advanced scheduling systems to remove some of the best bargain flights and seat prices from their inventory. They use Southwest as the example of complexity in scheduling:
"No airline has a more complex schedule than Southwest. The low-cost carrier now has more daily flights than any other airline, and it runs a frenetic operation with planes hop-scotching across the country and spending only 20 or 30 minutes on the ground. With more than 500 airplanes and 60 cities to link together, there are literally billions of different ways to set the airline’s schedule.
Southwest’s November schedule was developed with an upgraded version of its in-house schedule-optimization system that reworked the airline’s entire 3,400 daily departures. The airline now flies a completely different schedule on Saturdays – in the past it just erased some flights here and there from the regular schedule on Saturdays. Now some cities like Omaha, Neb.; Salt Lake City; Oklahoma City; and Tulsa, Okla., get nonstop flights to Orlando only on Saturdays.
In January, Southwest will cut 190 flights, reducing its capacity by 6% in the slower winter travel season. That’s more schedule jockeying than the airline has ever done before. And next year, it will add Minneapolis-St. Paul to its route network without increasing its capacity. The scheduling system trimmed flights here and there and improved efficiency, freeing up airplanes to fly to and from Minneapolis."
The next step for the industry is to have different travel schedule for each day of the week. The downside for you the traveler: fewer bargain trips as the airlines maximize their revenue and optimize their resources. It appears that the powers of economics and supply/demand are starting to work against us.
USA TODAY has a very good read which highlights what to expect in the next year regarding flight schedules. It’s not pretty, especially for those of you who travel out of non-hub cities. Some tiny airports will lose the majority of their air service as smaller carriers such as Mesa Airlines fall victim to the high fuel prices (currently @$130/barrel). Regional jets, a popular choice for smaller cities and shorter routes are no longer profitable at these oil prices so many airlines are planning to ground these types of planes.
The fall-out for travelers:
- Higher fare prices as reduced competition allows airlines to raise prices on less profitable segments
- Higher travel times in the form of less non-stop flights and more required connections
- More crowded planes as people squeeze into the available flight schedules
- Less flexibility in travel times and dates, especially for vacation destinations
We may not see this immediately, but it will hit us at some point depending on where we are departing and where we are going. There’s not much we can do to prevent high oil prices, but you can minimize the impact to your travel plans by planning early.
As frequent travelers, sometimes our flight schedules are fixed so book out as far as possible. Southwest gives you an edge as there are no costs for applying unused tickets to other Southwest ticket purchases. The same cannot be said for all the other major airlines.
Plan your vacations and book early to get the dates which fit your schedule. If you wait too long, you may not have the option to get on the flight and if you do, you may be paying up the nose for the few seats remaining.
In any case, expect higher prices regardless of when you plan to fly in the future. Play it smart and don’t procrastinate. Have a good week.