The availability of cheap fares, including cheap airplane tickets, cheap vacation packages, discount travel packages means that the number of people flying is not expected to drop any time soon. However, the potential impact of the automatic federal budget cuts is raising concerns for people traveling via air.
Several airlines are planning to expand their seat capacity this summer. Spirit has announced plans to increase its number of seats by over 15 percent. Alaska and JetBlue will be increasing their seat capacity by at least 5 percent. Delta, US Airways, and Virgin America will also be adding seats.
While it is unknown at this point is whether sequestration furloughs will reduce the number of air traffic control personnel and/or airport security at the top five to ten high volume airports, such an action could results in nationwide delays as bad as what happens when there are severe storms.
Flight delays ripple across the country since a late arriving plane in one city means that it will not reach its next destination on time and so on.
The following are recommendations as to how to proactively deal with the potential impact of federal budget cuts on airline travel, according to Rick Seaney:
Set up Google alerts on sequestration news using key words such as FAA and TSA. International flights are expected to be impacted by cuts at Customs. If you are going to be traveling internationally, set alerts to ICE or immigrations and customs, plus CBP or customs and border protection. Remember receiving timely and accurate information is important when traveling.
If your airline has an alert system to notify you of any changes, sign up for this service. Otherwise check with your airline directly before heading to the airport.
Check delay websites, such as FlightStats media page, to see if there are next day cancellations and/or airport delays.
Monitor your ticket status online every couple of weeks prior to departure. Airlines sometimes make schedules changes with little or no notice. If you are contacted regarding any changes or notice any differences on your own, that negatively will impact your travel plans, contact your airline immediately. Destinations can change and nonstop flights can turn into connecting flights.
Fly on slower days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday), which are also the cheapest days to fly, so that you are less likely to be impacted by longer security lines if some airport security officers are furloughed.
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