Air Travel – Once a Luxury Now A Headache Just to Get Off The Ground

Traveling by air.  Used to be it meant getting on to your vacation destination in a short amount of time. That way you could make the most of it.

But due to all of the world changes, we have grown accustomed to delays.  Long lines at security checkpoints. Weather delays causes cancellations and missed connections.  It is not common place any more to get to where you want to go and to arrive on time.

Now add in the frustration of the furloughs of air traffic controllers and you now have even longer waiting times to just get on the plane.  Then if you do get away from the gate on schedule, there is no guarantee that your particular flight will depart on time.

The government warned us that the cuts were coming.  People are still scratching their heads wanting to know why the FAA decided that the controllers were to be the sacrificial lamb.  Surly there can be some other place to make the cuts.

Controllers are having to take mandatory days off every two weeks.  At least 10% of the entire controller force will be off at any given time.  That is up to 1500 workers off and out of the tower leaving other controllers to pick up the slack. The snowball effect starts here.

So with the delays comes the grumblings of passengers that are already frustrated by the higher costs, longer lines, and the lack of service once airborne.  Could it get any worse for the airline industry that is already suffering from backlash form their few remaining loyal customers?

Will all of this cause you to rethink your vacation plans?  Do you think getting behind the wheel and driving to your destination might not be such a bad idea?