[scottjg]

In May, Newark airport flights were on time 49% of the time: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/ot_delay/OT_DelayCause1.asp?20...

Maybe in aggregate flights have fewer delays but every single flight I’ve taken this year has been delayed (on top of the padded flight times the article mentions). I’ve flown about half a dozen trips.

I also hate the argument that the free market should solve the pricing problem. Airlines have exclusivity on airport gates. Any frequent flier on the SFO -> EWR route knows that if you want to save money you can book an Alaska flight instead of United but Alaska has significantly fewer gates and usually gets delayed when arriving waiting for one. Flights aren’t exactly equal commodities and even if the airlines were well-run, contracts for these gates are locked in.

Pricing stats here also fail to account for business class vs economy pricing. Business class prices on tickets have skyrocketed, way outstripping purported CPI. In some cases prices have doubled or more since COVID.

[avar]

Perhaps the free market is solving the pricing/timeliness problem, but your fellow travelers value lower prices more than being on time?

    > Business class prices on
    > tickets have skyrocketed

The people with more disposable income who are subsidizing air travel for the rest of us are giving us an even larger subsidy these days? I feel just terrible about that.

[cmcaleer]

It’s not that simple. Business is representing an ever increasing % of travellers, so airlines are increasing the % of business class seating, leaving fewer seats for economy seating and therefore less availability in economy, so you might not even end up seeing the savings in your flight ticket since more economy passengers are competing with each other.

[scarface_74]

It’s not people buying first class most of the time. It’s business travelers getting reimbursed.

[mrguyorama]

>The people with more disposable income

Business class tickets are bought by companies not people. You pay for that "subsidy" through more expensive products to pay for that exec's stupid flight to a symposium where they all talk about how great they are and how important their ideas are.

[labcomputer]

> Pricing stats here also fail to account for business class vs economy pricing. Business class prices on tickets have skyrocketed, way outstripping purported CPI. In some cases prices have doubled or more since COVID.

Sure, but business class is still 100% full (and frequent fliers complain that they aren't getting upgrades, so it seems to be mostly paid).

This is like when companies complain that they can't find any good devs, but don't want to pay market rate.

[notahacker]

> I also hate the argument that the free market should solve the pricing problem.

It's odd that in his rush to point the finger at the government monopoly, he seems to have missed that a free market where customers select flights mostly on price naturally tends towards airlines operating lower cruise speeds for better operating economy, and not allowing loads of wiggle room in their schedules to make up for delays.

The idea that actually the real reason why aircraft are operating more slowly and delayed more is because there aren't enough ATCs in position doesn't pass the sniff test at all for anyone that knows the slightest thing about commercial aviation

[labcomputer]

> The idea that actually the real reason why aircraft are operating more slowly and delayed more is because there aren't enough ATCs in position doesn't pass the sniff test at all for anyone that knows the slightest thing about commercial aviation

Well... I mean, objectively, there are not enough ATCs. Staff are being scheduled 6 days a week. Towers at small airports are operating on reduced hours because there aren't enough people, and towers are some airports are being operated with less than full staff (so each person is working multiple tasks).

Whether or not the very real staff shortage is what is causing the delays is not 100% clear. My intuition is that it is, but I don't have any actual data to support that.

[Ekaros]

Lower speeds to save on fuel as closing on sound barrier has somewhat sharp increase in air resistance.

Also I think in general increasing utilization of aeroplanes increases revenues and thus makes things more profitable as money is not made while not flying. Easiest way to achieve this is to remove slack like shortening turnover times. Which then results in cascading delays as planes simply are not available at times.

[dghlsakjg]

ATC shortage delays are very common and the big ones get reported on nationally.

What happens is typically that they hold you on the ground or at the gate until they can appropriately release your flight plan.

[conductr]

> but every single flight I’ve taken this year has been delayed

My experience of past 2-3 years, even if it's only 30 minutes or so and prior to boarding, there's always a delay now

[beezlebroxxxxxx]

Every flight I have taken in the last 5 years in Canada has been delayed. They simply cannot run any of the routes on time.

[SoftTalker]

Why does Alaska schedule more flights than they have gate slots? Or is it just that anything that delays gate availability is going to impact them first?

[Izikiel43]

> Business class prices on tickets have skyrocketed, way outstripping purported CPI.

Because business class is a luxury?

[okdood64]

Why cherrypick Newark?

[scottjg]

i frequently fly in and out of newark

[thehappypm]

Why cherrypick May?

[turrican]

May also happens to be the month construction began on one of EWR’s two commonly used runways (though they do have a smaller third runway). This severely reduced the amount of traffic the airport could handle and EWR attempted to keep operating the same amount of scheduled flights as usual, it was a real mess.

[scottjg]

may is the latest data currently available.