Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal Scott McCartney 202

CSPAN Washington Journal Scott McCartney July 11, 2024

Despite all the Public Health warnings and efforts to get people to stay home, air travel has hit an 8 month high this thanksgiving. Has the amount of people willing to travel surprised you . Guest not really. For a lot of people, there have been mixed signals about travel. You have an Airline Industry pushing hard on the notion that travel is safe. There are dangers to it. , a moreways the cdc definitive warning about thanksgiving travel came late in the game. We have seen a bit of a falloff in the number of people screened oftsa yesterday, down to 37 what it was last year. Over the weekend, it was 45 of last years total. There are a lot of people traveling. People really want to go, they want to be with their families or take a break. They have not gotten a clear safe. Of what is people who might not be getting on who might be an airplane, what expect at airports . It was downrday below one million people. That is still more people than you usually see. You should expect to have to airport asass in the well as the airplane. You are probably not going to be subjected to temperatures screenings. Some people wonder why that is not happening. You will go through the normal and boarding will be different. A lot of airlines are doing smaller boarding groups, more boarding from back to front. Some airlines are doing normal procedures. On the airplane, airflow is the key. Expect to wear your mask all the time. I think that there are certain parts of the journey to really Pay Attention to. I worry about people being on the jet bridge in a crowd where there is no ventilation. Where it about people bunching up together when they arrived at their destination and their is a scram to get off of the airplane as soon as possible. Has shown that boarding itself can be more of a peril because you have people in really close proximity breathing on each other. Host if you ever had a question about flying during coronavirus or about the Airline Industry in general, now would be a great time to call in. Scott mccartney with us from the wall street journal. Middle seat is his column. If you read the wall street journal, you have likely read it at some point. If you want to join the conversation, it is 202 7488000 if you have flown since the pandemic started. 202 7488001 if you are planning to fly for thanksgiving. 202 7488002 for Airline Industry employees. And if those numbers are confusing, call this one 202 7488003. That is all others. We have split the lines that way. Go ahead and join the conversation now. Scott mccartney. We have that number for airline employees. How many employees has the industry lost since this began . Guest tens of thousands. It changes all the time as airlines lay off more people. It is a lot of people. They were kept on the payroll through september because of action from congress. The industry flying about half of what would normally be, you would expect around thanksgiving. 35 orthat it was 30 or so of what would be normal. You just dont need, if you are only doing half of your business, youre only going to need half of your employees. Airline we know which is in the most precarious position right now . Ofst i would not say any them are particularly precarious right now. Airlines have loaded up on tons of cash. They have taken on debt in all kinds of ways. They have mortgage their frequent flyer program. They have gotten governmentbacked loans in some cases. Built basically a Pandemic Fund to survive as long as they can with these conditions. I think the question of real danger comes next year, if this continues, airlines are betting that a lot of travel will resume as we do get vaccines. For some, i think it is going to be a race to see if the cash is going to last long enough. Host is there a comparable moment in the history of air travel . How does what has been happening compared to the month after the 9 11 attack . Is the best comparison we have, but it is not a very good one. 9 11, the fix was a lot easier after 9 11. Cockpit doors on the airplane, tightened security, people regain confidence in air travel. 9 11 was largely a u. S. Issue. It did not affect aviation globally as much as it did u. S. Aviation. But even with 9 11, so the impact was shorter lived. Severe, but comparable in many ways to what we have seen with the pandemic, the pandemic has just lasted longer. Even with 9 11, the government put together Airline Industry Stabilization Program to prop up airlines if they can prove they needed support. Interventionral haveto airlines as we through this. Even the combination of 9 11 and later Financial Issues leading up to the Great Recession forced a lot of airlines into bankruptcy. After that we got the mergers of delta and northwest, united and continental, american and u. S. Air. You had a lot of consolidation in the industry. It really traces back. It came several years later but had a lot of its roots in the problems of 9 11. All of that is to say that there may be more upheaval in the Airline Industry financially, structurally. You may see some bankruptcies, some mergers, things like that as the financial toll continues on the industry. Host plenty of callers and those who have flown on the lines already. First, portland, oregon. Good morning. Caller hey, i wanted to congratulate you for being a wonderful host on the washington flown ford i have not quite some time. I will say that flying in is one since even 9 11 of the weirdest things as far as how our society works. Everyone is pushing, everyone is moving. In this pandemic fly in general is even worse because everybody is moving to the front. No one is allowing people to move in space and that is what and in to do in order to a broader sense, solve this problem in the pandemic. It is not about the airlines, it is about how we all react to it. Host Scott Mccartney . Guest he makes a great point. Social distancing is key. The travel experience is filled with lines and deadlines. You worry about raising this or being late for that. Missing this. Everyone runs to get on the Airline Airplane because they are worried overhead space will fill up and their baby have to be checked and that is a pain. You rush to get to the tsa line before everyone else. It is a stress field experience. Comes the relaxing rum to norms and the sc board an airplane. Where platinum pushoff, seasons travelers just sort of way to the front of the cattle call. Even when they have early boarding, so he is right. Differently when they do travel, and i think they are in many ways router then they would be in other settings socially. Host hearthstone writes in on twitter with this comment for you to react to. They served drinks and snacks during the flight, so no one had a mask on. When are they going to stop allowing food and drink on the plane . , and it stopped initially then started coming back. Its a difficult issue. I think it is a concern. When is good evidence that you are in flight, the ventilation in the cabin is quite good. Thats not to say you dont need your mask on, but it is quite good. At the same time, there are other issues. Dehydration is a major issue. You do need to stay hydrated. In that sense, people do need to water, wheninly they are on an airplane. You know, its difficult. Airlines are trying to find a andnce between service safety. To readers atd one point that people were complaining there was no service in first class. Why would you want a firstclass seat . Would want it because there is more room, right . There is more distance. Maybe it is a little bit safer. We will be leaving the washington journal discussion at this point. You can watch the rest of it online on our website, cspan. Org. We take you to a conversation on the future of the transatlantic alliance, live on cspan. Is something that i would say, is almost part of the dna fund. German marshall

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