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Try Cargo
Opinion · September 6, 2002

The nation's air carriers sure have a strange way of trying to win our business back.

With their earnings in a freefall - together, they lost an astounding $3.8 billion in the first half of this year - and customer ratings at a historic low, the ailing airlines recently decided to make flying even more unpleasant.

They cut schedules, reduced mileage benefits, imposed new ticketing fees and added onerous restrictions to non-refundable tickets - measures they say will save them money, but which have angered many passengers to the point that they never want to darken the door of an airport again.

The steps may make perfect sense for the executives charged with reversing the tailspin these air carriers find themselves locked in. But travelers are baffled. Why, they wonder, would you make an already bad experience even worse unless you want to lose every last customer?

Exactly.

Maybe that's what the airlines should be trying to do: discard the remaining passengers. Tell 'em shoo.

Try cargo instead. Get out of the business of flying people - most of these airlines weren't any good at it to begin with - and focus on airfreight. There are a lot of compelling reasons to ditch passengers. Flying parcels is more efficient, far better for the airline's public image, and highly profitable.

Cargo doesn't complain, for example. It sits in the terminal until it's ready to be loaded on to a plane. It doesn't demand additional legroom or fuss when you run out of chicken entrees. Cargo doesn't write contemptuous letters to your chief executive scolding him for running an awful airline.

Cargo cooperates. It won't berate you about a bad seat assignment, or carry too much luggage on the plane. It doesn't get into an argument with another passenger that turns into a fistfight. Cargo doesn't drink too much and get frisky with a flight attendant. It doesn't mind getting repeatedly screened by security. Cargo isn't political. It doesn't hijack an aircraft and steer it into a skyscraper.

In short, cargo is the perfect passenger.

But there are other reasons to jettison travelers completely in favor of freight: It will do wonders for the airlines' public image. Is there any more welcome a sight than a Federal Express or United Parcel Service driver at your front door? Several years ago, a major newspaper even suggested that the brown UPS uniform had a certain amount of sex appeal. It's a dramatic contrast to the de-sexed uniform of the airline flight attendant, which now inspires fear in travelers. Crewmembers are no longer there to serve, but to maintain discipline and, occasionally, push a plastic-wrapped meal on to your tray.

It is difficult to understate the level of public disenchantment with the major domestic airlines. In a recent survey of frequent travelers by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita State University, almost half said they had experienced a situation that warranted a complaint to be registered with an airline. As an industry, the parcel delivery services, including perennial underperformers like the United States Postal Service, averaged a 79 percent rating by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. By contrast, the airlines as a group managed only a 66 percent rating. Dumping passengers would give the carriers an immediate boost of 13 ratings points.

But wait! There's more. Cutting travelers loose will translate into more money for the airlines, and isn't that what these cutbacks were all about in the first place? The average profit margin for air cargo is between three and four percent. That might be one reason why almost-bankrupt United Airlines is quietly expanding its cargo operations, having recently renovated its facilities at O'Hare International Airport to the tune of $63 million.

One of the longest-running jokes among airline analysts is that the commercial carriers should just stop transporting passengers because cargo is more profitable. Now it isn't a laughing matter.

If the domestic airlines stop flying people, how will we get around? If we don't drive, take the train, or choose one of the moneymaking no-frills carriers, it would seem that we're out of luck. But that's not necessarily true. Why not allow the airlines that really know how to take care of passengers - carriers such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways and British Airways - to start servicing domestic routes?

It might be the only way to persuade a wary American public to ever fly again.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.