Transportation Policy, Colin Powell and Southwest Losses

crashing arrowFrom the Travel Detective Files Blog…

It was a wild week again on Wall Street.

Roller coaster doesn’t even begin to describe that ride.

As the election coverage heats up, I’m still waiting for the candidates to talk about what they’re going to do for the travel infrastructure.

Nobody is looking at that as an economic crisis, as a national economic imperative, and I wish they would.

Without it, nothing is going to work. That was the wake-up call that we had after 9/11. So whether it’s McCain or Obama, it would be nice if somebody would figure it out.

What Would Colin Powell Do?

Both McCain and Obama are flying on their own planes, provided by their respective parties, so they don’t have to worry about delays or cancellations. I always remember the first thing they asked President Clinton and Al Gore in 2001 what they missed the most about being President and Vice President—they said, Air Force One and Air Force Two. Now they had to fly commercial. Whoops.

Colin Powell tells a great story after he left the government, he had to fly to New York for a meeting on Delta shuttle, and he had to go through security.

He had to be patted down and take off his shoes. Oh my God, had he still been in office, the government would have gotten a wake-up call.

We should make all our elected officials fly commercial and then we’ll see how fast they fix that infrastructure.

Even Southwest is Reeling

southwest tailAll the airlines are issuing their third-quarter earnings and it ain’t pretty. Even though oil prices are dropping, and you can see the airlines’ stocks moving up because of it, Southwest posted its first quarterly loss in 17 years. Now that’s the indication that something is wrong out there.

This is an airline that could do no wrong, and even they couldn’t fix that one. With all of their efficiencies, their economies of scale, they’re symmetry, they still had a loss. That should wake somebody up.

But, there are silver linings out there. There are great airfare deals because capacity is down.

For example, Hawaiian hotels are operating at 35-40 percent occupancy. You can find great deals to Hawaii, Asia, and Europe between now and December.

You know what they say: When the going gets tough, the tough travel.

Especially now, as the dollar is getting stronger, more or less, than it was this summer against the British pound and the Euro. So stay tuned as we keep on that story.

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