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CNN Live Sunday
Airlines Hit Hard Times
Aired January 05, 2003 - 16:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: There are problems with conventional air travel here in the United States. Airlines have hit hard times with last year's losses expected to be billions of dollars. Some, like United, of course, are struggling with bankruptcy, laying off workers and closing their offices. That belt tightening is affecting virtually all travelers. CNN's Patty Davis is at Reagan National Airport with details on the problems facing passengers -- Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, if you've flown recently, I don't have to tell you that things have certainly changed. Most meals on shorter airline flights, in fact, have gone away. In fact, America West Airlines, the low-cost carrier, starting tomorrow is going to begin a test, is going to start selling meals to passengers on board some of its flights -- $5 for a steak Caesar salad, $10 for a chicken Kiev dinner. The passengers I've spoken to reactions kind of mixed on that.
Now, Northwest Airlines, a full service carrier, says that it is also studying whether or not to do the same thing. Other perks have gone away this past year as well as airlines struggle to recover from the September 11 terror attacks and the faltering economy. Northwest and American Airlines now charging for bags that weigh more than 50 pounds. You used to be able to take a 70-pound bag on and not be charged. Also, you are charged if you carry on -- not carry on, but check a third bag as luggage.
Now, also two top new use it or lose it restrictions on those nonrefundable tickets that so many people buy. And the convenience of going into a United -- a full-service place to buy your tickets is just right off the street to walk in, a ticket office, basically, that is going away. Those are all going to close down by the end of this month. United trying to save money. It is, of course, in bankruptcy.
Now, the airlines lost a cumulative $10 billion this past year. Expected to lose another $3 billion to $6 billion this year. And they say if these cut backs are a mere matter of survival. And they tell me, in fact, the lobbying group for the airlines today, that they're just giving passengers what they want. Passengers want low fares. And in fact, they're giving them low fares. They want low fares perhaps more than these perks, so they're giving them that -- Anderson.
COOPER: I'm not sure if passengers want $10 chicken Kievs that taste like rubber anyway. Patty, on a serious note, where do we stand with baggage screening? I mean, I know we passed the deadline for when all bags are supposed to be screened. How is that going?
DAVIS: Well, things went really well with that deadline. In fact, there were hardly any delays across the whole system. Today was going to be the big test. This is the weekend when most travelers are in fact coming back from Christmas, they're coming back from new year's vacation.
A little busier here at the airport today for those screeners. But as far as I can tell, and I just talked to the TSA, they're saying really no big delays in the system because of that. Most passengers will be screened. Their bags will be screened with these big bomb detection machines. That's about 90 percent of the airports will be using those. Others will be using the swab. They have the trace detection, that's the swab for residues of bombs. And yet others will be doing hand searches and using bomb-sniffing dogs. So you're not going to see the same thing at every different airport.
Now, one -- just to show you that not all TSA screeners necessarily are getting the job done, there's one that apparently fell asleep today at the Seattle-Tacoma Washington airport. The TSA telling me about 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. Another employee noticed this employee at the exit lane, asleep. And so they had to in fact get the concourses cleared at that point. That airport now -- they searched everybody, re-screened everybody there. The airport now back to normal. But that person has been put on leave. So not necessarily everything hunky-dory here at the airport. Back to you, Anderson.
COOPER: Patty Davis at Reagan National. Thanks very much, appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 5, 2003 - 16:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: There are problems with conventional air travel here in the United States. Airlines have hit hard times with last year's losses expected to be billions of dollars. Some, like United, of course, are struggling with bankruptcy, laying off workers and closing their offices. That belt tightening is affecting virtually all travelers. CNN's Patty Davis is at Reagan National Airport with details on the problems facing passengers -- Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, if you've flown recently, I don't have to tell you that things have certainly changed. Most meals on shorter airline flights, in fact, have gone away. In fact, America West Airlines, the low-cost carrier, starting tomorrow is going to begin a test, is going to start selling meals to passengers on board some of its flights -- $5 for a steak Caesar salad, $10 for a chicken Kiev dinner. The passengers I've spoken to reactions kind of mixed on that.
Now, Northwest Airlines, a full service carrier, says that it is also studying whether or not to do the same thing. Other perks have gone away this past year as well as airlines struggle to recover from the September 11 terror attacks and the faltering economy. Northwest and American Airlines now charging for bags that weigh more than 50 pounds. You used to be able to take a 70-pound bag on and not be charged. Also, you are charged if you carry on -- not carry on, but check a third bag as luggage.
Now, also two top new use it or lose it restrictions on those nonrefundable tickets that so many people buy. And the convenience of going into a United -- a full-service place to buy your tickets is just right off the street to walk in, a ticket office, basically, that is going away. Those are all going to close down by the end of this month. United trying to save money. It is, of course, in bankruptcy.
Now, the airlines lost a cumulative $10 billion this past year. Expected to lose another $3 billion to $6 billion this year. And they say if these cut backs are a mere matter of survival. And they tell me, in fact, the lobbying group for the airlines today, that they're just giving passengers what they want. Passengers want low fares. And in fact, they're giving them low fares. They want low fares perhaps more than these perks, so they're giving them that -- Anderson.
COOPER: I'm not sure if passengers want $10 chicken Kievs that taste like rubber anyway. Patty, on a serious note, where do we stand with baggage screening? I mean, I know we passed the deadline for when all bags are supposed to be screened. How is that going?
DAVIS: Well, things went really well with that deadline. In fact, there were hardly any delays across the whole system. Today was going to be the big test. This is the weekend when most travelers are in fact coming back from Christmas, they're coming back from new year's vacation.
A little busier here at the airport today for those screeners. But as far as I can tell, and I just talked to the TSA, they're saying really no big delays in the system because of that. Most passengers will be screened. Their bags will be screened with these big bomb detection machines. That's about 90 percent of the airports will be using those. Others will be using the swab. They have the trace detection, that's the swab for residues of bombs. And yet others will be doing hand searches and using bomb-sniffing dogs. So you're not going to see the same thing at every different airport.
Now, one -- just to show you that not all TSA screeners necessarily are getting the job done, there's one that apparently fell asleep today at the Seattle-Tacoma Washington airport. The TSA telling me about 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. Another employee noticed this employee at the exit lane, asleep. And so they had to in fact get the concourses cleared at that point. That airport now -- they searched everybody, re-screened everybody there. The airport now back to normal. But that person has been put on leave. So not necessarily everything hunky-dory here at the airport. Back to you, Anderson.
COOPER: Patty Davis at Reagan National. Thanks very much, appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
