A New President and Fixing the Airlines

Mr. President, can we please go back in time for good air travel?

ByABC News
September 9, 2008, 2:44 PM

Nov. 5, 2008 — -- By the time you read this, we should have elected a new president. I don't envy him.

So much to do, not to mention having to do it in the current toxic economic environment. Which leads me -- as always -- to the airline industry and our hopes and fears for it. Here's what I've been thinking:

What a difference a year makes. From July 2007 to July 2008. If I had a wish list for our new commander-in-chief, I think I'd say, "Sir, can we take the airlines back to 2007?"

For more travel news and insights visit Rick's blog at: http://rickseaney.com

Consider this: early last year, U.S. airlines had finally awoken from their coma and were happily stringing together a few profitable quarters and putting those annoying bankruptcies in their rearview mirrors.

And passengers for the most part were happy with the price of airline tickets, with those occasional $99 coast-to-coast seats to liven things up. Checked bag fees and fuel surcharges? Why, those could only be bizarre figments of a very demented imagination.

The biggest complaint from airline financial analysts was that the airlines couldn't hike tickets high enough to suit shareholders. To address this, legacy airlines began slowly cutting back on domestic seats (fewer seats means higher prices) while adding seats to lucrative international routes.

And all was well in the air travel universe of 2007.

Until those crazy oil prices started going out of control. That was the first shoe to drop in late spring of last year.

What was once in the top two or three of the top-line expenses had suddenly zoomed to number one. Well, for everyone except the High Priest of Hedging: Southwest. All the other airline execs were scrambling through their medicine cabinets for antacids while oil shattered price records as it soared from the low $60's to nearly $150 a barrel by July 4, 2008.

And suddenly, fuel surcharges were all the rage: in July of 2007, domestic surcharges (when you could find them) averaged about $20 a ticket, but by this summer, we saw surcharges as high as $170 a return ticket. Transoceanic international flights were even worse: Fuel surcharges jumped from about $100 a ticket to $300 and even $400.