How air travel doesn’t work

Does air travel in the United States soon dwindle to the point of irrelevance? These two articles show two different ways that it might happen. The first talks about the cost of air travel in a world of $4/gallon gasoline:

Saying Goodbye to Air Travel

From the article:

The airline industry has no future. The same is true for airfreight. No air carrier has a viable plan to make a profit with oil at current prices—much less in years to come as the petroleum available to world markets dwindles rapidly.

That’s not to say that jetliners will disappear overnight, but rather that the cheap flights we’ve seen in the past will soon be fading memories. In a few years jet service will be available only to the wealthy, or to the government and military…

The theory is that high prices for gas make air travel so expensive that it prices many people out of the market.

This article comes at it from the other angle - that air travel has become so uncomfortable in the U.S. that people no longer accept the pain:

The ‘creaking’ US airline industry

The article makes the U.S. air transport system sound like something from a third world country. As the author points out:

Like much of America these days, the airline industry feels tired, worn down, and old.

That is surprising in a country that often likes to think of itself as the best.

Arguably, it once was, but the airline industry - like the health system, like schools, roads - you name it, feels like it is just creaking along and leaving its passengers ever more frustrated.

See also:

Airlines’ Cuts Making Cities No-Fly Zones

From the article:

Financially strapped airlines are cutting service, and nearly 30 cities across the United States have seen their scheduled service disappear in the last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Others include New Haven, Conn.; Wilmington, Del.; Lake Havasu City, Ariz.; and Boulder City, Nev.

Over the same period, more than 400 airports, in cities large and small, have seen flight cuts. Over all, the number of scheduled flights in the United States dropped 3 percent in May, or 22,900 fewer flights than in May 2007, according to the Official Airline Guide.

[See previous Doesn’t Work]