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September 20, 2001
BY JIM THOMAS Already a shaky business in recent years, airline travel across the United States may never be totally the same following last week’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. John Bond, owner of Cortez Travel Service, said he refunded approximately 30 tickets in the past week, probably as a result of the terrorist attacks. During a more normal week, he said, he would refund two or three on his weekly report to the Airline Reporting Corp. "Right now during this crisis, we are trying to help people any way we can," he said Tuesday, a week after the tragedy. "We have even been trying to help people who purchased tickets on the Internet and did not buy from us. "If we can get through to the airlines, we are trying to find out what flights have been canceled, what flights have been rescheduled and what flights are going as scheduled. Sometimes it has been an hour-by-hour situation." While many flights were back on schedule on Monday, airlines were not offering as many flights as before the attack, and most airlines made plans to permanently reduce schedules. Continental Airlines became the first major U.S. carrier to announce cutbacks. The airline, the nation’s fifth-largest, said that not only was it cutting its flight schedule by 20 percent, but it would be furloughing 12,000 employees, more than one-fifth of its work force. US Airways announced it expects to lay off 11,000 employees and cut its nationwide service by 23 percent. American Airlines announced that it was adding flights gradually until it reaches approximately 80 percent of the schedule it flew prior to Sept. 11. An airline operating closer to this area, America West, operated most scheduled flights Sunday and will continue to ramp up service to near normal, but said it is letting go 1,200 personnel. "I have been in this business for 35 years and Lee (Sparks) has been with me for 15, but we have never seen anything like this," Bond remarked. "People are just not wanting to fly right now. "Scheduling flights for people has been a little bit slow, but I think it will pick up. I have ridden the tide so many different times. But we will stick it out again and we’ll try to help as many people as we can and try to keep our business hanging on." New security and tighter schedules not only mean troubles for the airline industry but for travel agents as well. U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has said the Bush administration will go to Congress quickly with a financial-aid package to "ensure the security, the safety and the stability of the airline industry." Half-jokingly, Bond said travel agencies across the United States may need bailing out as well. For travel agents, airline tickets are the lifeblood of the business. "Airlines have steadily cut commissions travel agencies receive over the past decade. As they have cut commissions, we’ve been forced to add service charges. If the airline industry struggles, then we struggle, too," he commented. He noted that air travelers will have to contend with beefed-up security at the airports. Therefore, he recommends airline travelers be at check-in at least three hours before their flight in Denver and one hour early in Cortez, Farmington or Durango. "Great Lakes (which flies as United Express out of Cortez) has been doing a good job. Travel from here to Denver won’t be affected by the lack of people flying. We are always booking flights to Denver and we will continue to do so, especially for the business traveler," he said. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
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