Air travel is still way down compared to this time last year. But it is picking up. As it does, more airlines are interested in increasing capacity on their flights.
Southwest recently announced that it will start making middle seats available on Dec. 1. And Delta’s CEO said it’ll likely do the same sometime in early 2021.
Bridget Fetzer and her husband were planning to fly from Baltimore to San Diego in December, rent a convertible and drive up the coast to San Francisco. They had the tickets and everything.
“Then in October, my husband got an email from Southwest that said that they are no longer going to keep the middle seats empty on the flights,” she said.
That made them nervous. Fetzer had flown once, earlier in the pandemic, to Kentucky on a pretty empty plane.
“There were a lot of people that weren’t wearing their masks, or like they were pulling them down below their noses and stuff like that,” Fetzer said.
And the idea of that happening on a full flight was a deal breaker. She and her husband canceled their trip.
A lot of people do still feel safer with an empty seat next to them on a plane, said Edward Russell, who covers aviation for the travel site The Points Guy.
“The reality, though, is that can’t continue forever,” he said. “Airlines are for-profit businesses.”
Businesses that have been hemorrhaging money for months.
Southwest said its policy of blocking middle seats cost the airline roughly $20 million in September and could cost it up to $60 million in November.
“American and United from early on have not blocked middle seats and shown that people are still willing to fly them,” Russell said. “They’ve seen their passenger numbers rise.”
It’s still unclear how much keeping middle seats empty could reduce the risk of getting COVID on a plane, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt. But, he said, “the closer we are to more people for prolonged periods of time in an enclosed space, our risk goes up.”
If airlines are going to fill every seat, “that makes it all the more important that everyone on the aircraft wear their masks for as long as possible,” he said.
That’s the only way Fetzer would consider getting on a full flight: If everyone was wearing a mask — correctly — the whole time. That, or the pandemic was under control.
New COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. are on the rise. How are Americans reacting?
Johns Hopkins University reports the seven-day average of new cases hit 68,767 on Sunday — a record — eclipsing the previous record hit in late July during the second, summer wave of infection. A funny thing is happening with consumers though: Even as COVID-19 cases rise, Americans don’t appear to be shying away from stepping indoors to shop or eat or exercise. Morning Consult asked consumers how comfortable they feel going out to eat, to the shopping mall or on a vacation. And their willingness has been rising. Surveys find consumers’ attitudes vary by age and income, and by political affiliation, said Chris Jackson, who heads up polling at Ipsos.
How many people are flying? Has traveled picked up?
Flying is starting to recover to levels the airline industry hasn’t seen in months. The Transportation Security Administration announced on Oct. 19 that it’s screened more than 1 million passengers on a single day — its highest number since March 17. The TSA also screened more than 6 million passengers last week, its highest weekly volume since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While travel is improving, the TSA announcement comes amid warnings that the U.S. is in the third wave of the coronavirus. There are now more than 8 million cases in the country, with more than 219,000 deaths.
How are Americans feeling about their finances?
Nearly half of all Americans would have trouble paying for an unexpected $250 bill and a third of Americans have less income than before the pandemic, according to the latest results of our Marketplace-Edison Poll. Also, 6 in 10 Americans think that race has at least some impact on an individual’s long-term financial situation, but Black respondents are much more likely to think that race has a big impact on a person’s long-term financial situation than white or Hispanic/Latinx respondents.
Find the rest of the poll results here, which cover how Americans have been faring financially about six months into the pandemic, race and equity within the workplace and some of the key issues Trump and Biden supporters are concerned about.
As a nonprofit news organization, our future depends on listeners like you who believe in the power of public service journalism.
Your investment in Marketplace helps us remain paywall-free and ensures everyone has access to trustworthy, unbiased news and information, regardless of their ability to pay.
Donate today — in any amount — to become a Marketplace Investor. Now more than ever, your commitment makes a difference.
"middle" - Google News
November 04, 2020 at 06:20AM
https://ift.tt/32rUYUf
Flying soon? That middle seat might be occupied - Marketplace
"middle" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MY042F
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment