Updating Commercial Aviation
The need for a systematic overhaul to protect the soaring industry.
The summer of 2016 was an aviation nightmare. The season began with a massive traffic jam at multiple Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoints in mid-May, ensnaring thousands of would-be travelers and forcing Congress to intervene. Just three months later, Delta Airlines’ entire booking system crashed, forcing the carrier to ground its fleet. At a glance, American aviation seemed to be limping from crisis to crisis, casting doubt on its long-term health. However, rather than symptoms of decay, these problems are simply representative growing pains. As the economy picks up speed, more and more people are booking the trips that they put off during the recession. This has combined with natural population growth and a decline in fuel prices to produce a sharp spike in demand for air travel. The TSA and Delta alike were overwhelmed by a sudden rise in demand for their services. To prevent similar debacles in the 2017 vacation season, both organizations need to expand their capacity.
In the days after the 9/11 attacks, many feared that American aviation would never fully recover, as passengers turned away from a seemingly dangerous system. However, the dip in “enplanements” (boardings by ticketed passengers) was temporary, and steady growth resumed by 2003. The financial crisis of 2008 also produced a dip in enplanements which lasted several years. Now, though, conditions have grown favorable. Median American wages grew significantly in 2015. At the same time, the boom in domestic petroleum production has driven the cost of airline fuel down. Consequently, as the 2016 summer vacation season got underway, demand for air travel spiked sharply. But many of American aviation’s key players were not ready for an influx of passengers. The TSA, which has long suffered from Congressional budget cuts, was the first victim. Screeners have a high attrition rate, and the TSA entered May 2016 with a considerable labor deficit. Despite hopes that the agency could utilize the free TSA Precheck program to cut down on screening time, airport security lines began to grow, often taking several hours to traverse. The crisis was only resolved when Congress stepped in. An emergency infusion of cash enabled the TSA to hire more than 700 new screeners (most of whom had been previously trained, but hadn’t been picked up due to the budget shortfall.) The investment paid off; even as the 2016 Independence Day weekend was marked by historically high airline passenger volume, national average wait times were held to just ten minutes.
Unfortunately, the TSA’s woes were not the last hiccup for the summer travel season. At the beginning of August, Delta Airlines’ central computer matrix in Atlanta abruptly crashed, stranding thousands of passengers in airports across the country. Once again, an aging system buckled under the pressure of a summertime flight surge. Because of the immense cost of updating a massive system, companies like Delta often neglect repairs to their information technology platforms. While the Delta system had been regularly updated for many years, it needed an overhaul. Consultants warned that a failure to address the problem would likely threaten Delta’s commerical viability. Delta is less likely, however, to suffer a relapse than the TSA. The airline company is not reliant on a perpetually gridlocked Congress for funding, and it faces more direct financial consequences if passengers choose other carriers.
After eight years of slow “economic recovery”, all signs indicate that the United States’ economy has effectively regained full speed. At first glance, this seems to be a dream come true for politicians, businesspeople and the American people. But mushrooming demand has its own problems. Systems that atrophied during the slow years of the Obama administration are unused to high volume. If organizations like the TSA want to keep up with growth, they will need to sink money into the overhead costs of doing business. Without it, our airline industry might never let our development take off.
