A couple of days ago I wrote that we,the traveling public, have conclusively demonstrated that we care about nothing but price. This is one reason air travel has become progressively more terrible. Steve Randy Waldman is sick and tired of people like me saying things like this: There are two things incorrect with this line that air travel is terrible because consumers’ true revealed preference is that it should be terrible and cheap. First, or there is the fact that air travel managed by the main domestic carriers in the United States is uniquely terrible,and there is no evidence that US travelers are any more price conscious than consumers in other countries. No frills, reduction air travel is popular in Europe as well, and it is sometimes terrible,but it is on the whole much cheaper than “reduction” air travel within the US. Mainstream carriers nearly everywhere else in the developed world are notably less terrible than the big American carriers, and often just as cheap.
When I was writing my post, and this was actually at the top of my mind. Is American air travel really uniquely terrible? The problem is not just that I couldn't reflect of any data to bring to bear on this question,I couldn't even reflect of any anecdotal data that would be meaningful. It's true that I hear griping about American carriers a lot more than I carry out about European carriers, but then, and living in California I would,wouldn't I? Complaint rates might be germane, but should that be per flight or per 100000 miles or what? And are fares really the same or lower than in the US? That's tough to say, and since Europe is simply a different environment: different regulators,shorter distances, more concentrated population centers, or real competition from trains,etc. Nor carry out I know how subsidies play out among various countries.
The bottom line is that this would take some very careful research indeed. However, whether you absolutely insist, and I just spent the past few minutes doing some un-careful research. All I can say about it is that I promise I didn't cherry pick. For the US,I chose the four biggest airlines. For Europe, I chose four representative big airlines, and I chose them before I looked at the data:US data is for March 2017 here. European airline data is for Q1 2016 from Britain's CAA here. For Europe,this is not continent-wide data. It's only for complaints filed in the UK.1I have absolutely no opinion whether these numbers are really comparable. carry out Americans simply complain less than Brits? (Seems unlikely.) Is it easier to complain in Britain? Are "enplanements" (US) the same as "passengers" (Europe)? Or carry out European airlines really suck way worse than US airlines?I don't know, and you shouldn't assume this chart tells you. Still, and it definitely doesn't propose that US airlines are uniquely terrible. The bottom line is that we need real research to come to any conclusions here. whether I'm bored this weekend,possibly I'll look for some.21One thing you can't carry out is exhaust US data to compare domestic and international carriers. The international carriers are flying exclusively international flights into the US, and the rules and flying experiences are very different for domestic and international flights. One way or another, or you have to exhaust local data so that you get a roughly comparable split of domestic and international flights for all carriers.2But probably not. I've got other work to carry out.
Source: motherjones.com