Airlines and Quality of Service
The latest debate on air travel concerns whether a person should recline his or her seat if it inconveniences the long-legged person behind them. Further, should the person behind be allowed to use the Knee Defender device that blocks a seat from reclining? There have been thousands of impassioned opinions posted on the overall issue.
The most ingenious suggestion has been that the two passengers involved should stand up in the aisle and fight it out. No weapons allowed. Last person standing gets to decide what happens to the seat. This will result in a lot of injuries, but air travel has its risks. By the way, the airline would be indemnified from any lawsuits resulting.
Of course, the airline is the source of the problem. They pack the seats so closely that people are in each other’s way. They create a substantial amount of stress for an enormous number of people. It is not just the spacing of the seats. Everything the airlines do is focused on providing the minimally acceptable quality of service so that profits can be maximized.
I realize that profitable airline has often been an oxymoron. This has been due to gross inefficiencies and incompetence, both legacies of having been regulated monopolies before 1978. I know that was 36 years ago, but cultural norms and values only change very slowly – unless some external force compels change. Here is an idea that might work.
Airlines should be forced to compensate passengers for poor performance. Each passenger is paid one dollar per minute for delays in departure, taxi, landing, and gate arrival. If each of these phases were delayed by 15 minutes, each passenger would receive 60 dollars. For 200 passengers, this would amount to a $12,000 penalty. Severe delays could easily cost an airline $100,000.
Some would argue that delays are not always the airlines’ fault. That’s true, but the airlines should be very good at dealing with delays. With my scheme, I bet they would get better and better. They would also schedule flights to minimize delays. They would, of course, also price flights to hedge against potential penalties. To create some balance in pricing, the penalty could be 1% of the ticket price per minute of delay.
This idea could completely change the outlook of passengers. The pilot announces a one-hour air traffic control hold and the cabin explodes in applause. Stuck on the tarmac with no arrival gate open? More applause. People would see their tickets as potential lottery winners. They are betting that the airline will screw up, while the airline is betting they won’t.
What if an airline could not cope with this underlying uncertainty, could not perform, and failed as a business? That would be creative destruction at work. Poor performers would be weeded out, as they should be. New airlines would emerge and absorb many of the employees whose jobs disappeared with the poorly performing airline.
How does this solve the reclining seat problem? Much time is lost when loading and unloading the aircraft. Two things would make it easier – more space per passenger in general and more control of luggage. Checked luggage should be free and carry on luggage, other than an item that fits below the seat, should be something like $100 per roll-aboard. But people do not like waiting at baggage claim. They will if they are paid a dollar per minute of delay beyond 15 minutes after offloading of the aircraft.
Overall, we need an incentive scheme that highly motivates airlines to dramatically improve quality of service, while also providing passengers some respite when service degrades.
