The threat of travel disruption feels imminent for anyone
heading to the airport nowadays, especially with cancellations and delays making
headlines repeatedly over the summer.
While anger about such disruptions regularly fills social media
channels, passengers have come to expect problems.
A new report from ground transport provider CMAC, based on a
survey of more than 1,000 travelers in the United Kingdom who booked round-trip
flights, found that nearly two-thirds of respondents believed that flight
disruptions have worsened. And 78% of those surveyed reported having
experienced a flight disruption themselves.
That’s not terribly surprising, given that 650 million hours of
collective passenger time was wasted in 2022 as a result of flight disruptions,
according to passenger compensation platform AirHelp. For its report, AirHelp used structured
calculation logic to determine the impact of flight disruptions based on data,
expert interviews and its internal expertise.
What is causing the
disruptions?
Per CMAC’s U.K.-focused report, respondents saw the problem
primarily as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the report said that travelers are perceiving other
causes including crew shortages, crew strikes, cost-savings and overbooking as
problems that serve as the root of flight disruptions.
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And earlier this year, the United States Department
of Transportation released a report citing weather and
operations among other factors as causes for cancellations.
Airline disruptions come
with costs
Airline disruptions might be frustrating for travelers but
there’s a tangible cost associated with the disruptions, too, according to the
AirHelp report.
In 2022, disrupted flights cost the United States up to $34
billion, Europe up to $32 billion and Australia $1.5 billion - marking an 11%
increase from 2019, though there was less traffic during that
period.
The unexpected costs make sense - think hotel stays for delayed
or canceled flights, airport food, fuel, staffing - the list goes on when
flights are off schedule, requiring unplanned expenses to be fulfilled.
Per AirHelp’s report, across the U.S., Europe and Australia, the
impact can be split into a few categories including the “cost of incremental
operations time for airlines,” “value of time lost by passengers” and
“spillover effects on other segments of the economy” plus “additional costs of
accommodating flight cancellations.”
There’s an environmental price that comes with delays and cancellations,
too.
Disrupted flights resulted in 9 million tons of additional CO2
emissions, which is equal to 1.3% of the aviation industry’s full 2022 CO2
footprint.
And with travel trending upward, challenges related to
sustainability will only increase for the travel industry, while
travelers continue to express increasing concern about environmental impacts of
travel.
Technology is helpful, but
human touch is needed
Based on CMAC’s findings, technology has made air travel easier,
but a human touch could help even more, according to the company’s CEO Peter
Slater.
“Technology has an important role to play for the travel
industry, and passengers are generally appreciative of how automation is
streamlining the experience in airports,” Slater said. “When things go wrong,
however, our research shows that nothing can replace the human touch.”
For airlines, having real people available to help passengers
can offer a “crucial competitive advantage,” he said, noting that earning
consumer confidence could come through demonstrating a clear willingness to
right situations when flights are disrupted by delays or cancellations.
Technology, instead, should be used as an enabler, not a
replacement, to help with situations like flight disruptions, he said.
Passengers are keeping
disruptions in mind
With a rise in flight disruptions, passengers are holding
grudges, according to CMAC.
The company’s report found that nearly half of survey
participants said they would be less inclined to fly with the same airline in
the future after a disrupted flight experience. Participants reported that
airlines were not very helpful when it came to arranging alternative
transportation when necessary, with 53% saying that airlines did not assist
them as needed and 61% saying that they were not supported when they needed to
book accommodations as a result of disruptions.
“It’s clear there is significant room for improvement in the
quality of the airline response to disruption events,” Slater said.