OPINION: I love travel and, in theory, I don’t mind flying at all. They bring you food, you can’t (currently) use the internet and, most of the time, there are movies to watch.

Then, I’m at the airport and one small bottle of water costs $8 and there’s nowhere to plug my phone in. Suddenly, I’m supremely grouchy and that’s before I’ve folded myself into a rock-hard seat next to someone who thinks it’s appropriate to take their shoes and socks off in public.

People complain about babies crying on planes, but I think if we were all a bit more honest, we’d be sobbing too. You’re trapped up there and forced to contemplate your own mortality between episodes of New Girl. It’s all a bit much.

Inspired by those same babies, I’ve got a self-soothing routine I enact on any flight longer than an hour or so. It starts before I even get to the airport, when I download a hundred hours of podcasts (thank god Invisibilia is back) and do a little shopping. On board, steeled and prepared, I’ll put on a fashion documentary and get to work.

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I tend to start with a sheet mask, like the Karuna Clarifying Face Mask ($14). I know I’m not the only person who tends to break out after a flight. The ginger, honey and salicylic acid on hand here will knock the balance of probability in the right direction. Do this in the bathroom and emerge looking absolutely cursed. Perfect.

Another weapon against breakouts is a spot of hand-sanitiser. I don’t tend to use this stuff in real life because I like to keep my immune system on its toes, but I don’t want to put plane bugs on my face. Dr Bronner’s Lavender Organic Hand Sanitiser ($12) smells significantly better than most and the spray format means you’re unlikely end up with half the bottle on your hands at once.

Similarly, Nivea Creme in the 60ml blue tin ($6) is ideal for flying. It’s not liquid, so the change in air pressure won’t make it go everywhere, and it’s small enough to get through security. Dry air-conditioned skin will drink this classic product.

For a luxurious burst of moisture, try Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Mist ($33) for 30ml. Purifying as well as hydrating, it’s made with orange blossom and rose.

In 1992, the U.S. witnessed the trial of John Gotti, the election of President Bill Clinton and the devastating arrival of Hurricane Andrew on the Florida coastline, causing a then-record $25 billion in damage. Further afield, it was also the year that Prince Charles initiated the world’s most-watched break-up by separating from Princess Diana.

So, it’s only natural that the creation of something as obscure as the European Union’s Internal Market for Aviation went largely unnoticed. But the deal revolutionized travel in Europe and is now getting renewed attention as the era of cheap flights it ushered in begins to fade.

Prior to its creation, European air travel was split into a series of distinct, largely captive, domestic markets, each often dominated by a single state-owned national flag carrier such as British Airways or Air France. The Internal Market rejuvenated this low-competition, high-fare environment by replacing the patchwork of national regulations with a single set of EU rules that removed restrictions on the routes, fares, and flights that airlines could operate. For the first time ever, European airlines could fly in and out of any airport they wished and charge customers any price they wanted

Travel for the masses

The result? Plummeting flight prices as the likes of Ireland’s Ryanair and the U.K.’s easyJet stepped into the newly relaxed—and massively expanded—market with a low-cost business model that eliminated all non-essential services. Its fliers got no complimentary food, no in-flight entertainment, and had no option for business-class seating. What they did get, however, was the opportunity to explore Europe in a way never deemed possible before: a family trip from Milan to Paris now costs 16 times less than in 1992—with the minimum price of a ticket falling from over €400 ($450) to about €25 ($28) today.

The once luxurious experience of air travel was essentially stripped down to the studs; once reserved for the wealthy tourist or the well-looked-after business traveler, it was now downright accessible. And Europeans hopped onboard—by the hoards.

Intra-European air travel has tripled since then, with over a billion passengers marching down jet bridges in 2017 alone. Air travel now accounts for 3.3% of all EU employment and 4.1% of the bloc’s entire GDP, according to the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG). The aviation industry supports 12.2 million jobs and accounts for $823 billion in economic activity.

No wonder Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary described the Internal Market as “the stand-out achievement of the EU” in celebration of its 25th anniversary back in 2017. Former easyJet CEO Carolyn McCall said the deal “democratized air travel for all” on the same occasion.

Budget airlines go under

Despite the soaring success of low-cost aviation in Europe over the past two decades, ominous clouds have recently started to gather. While Ryanair and easyJet account for 19% of the EU aviation market, other low-cost carriers that sought to capitalize on Europe’s wide-open market have run out of runway.

“[T]here is a very long tail of poorly performing airlines,” says Brian Pearce, chief economist of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Since August 2017, the sector has waved goodbye to a string of discount airlines, including Air Berlin, Monarch, Primera, Small Planet, Azur, Cobalt, VLM, PrivatAir and Icelandic carrier WOW, which collapsed last month.

At the same time, British low-cost carrier Flybe—which recently canceled dozens of flights amid talk of jobs cuts—is currently being rebranded as Connect Airways under a consortium involving Virgin Atlantic. The fate of Italy’s bankrupt flag carrier Alitalia hangs in the balance—as does that of Slovenia’s Adria Airways, which was recapitalized to the tune of €4 million ($4.5 million) in December after the Civil Aviation Agency of Slovenia ordered it to provide evidence of its financial stability.

So, why is the dream of accessible air travel in Europe starting to dim?

‘They just get squeezed’

“The reason you’re seeing a series of failures—which are mostly smaller airlines—reflects the fact that Europe has an awful lot of airlines,” says Pearce. “There are something like 200 airlines offering scheduled services within Europe,” he says. “If you look at the North American market, including Canada, it’s less than 100.” Eighty percent of airline seats in the U.S. and Canada are supplied by just seven airlines; in Europe, it takes 28 airlines to supply the same number, according to Pearce.

The relative success of the European air industry—which recorded a 5.7% annual increase in flight traffic across 2018—has encouraged airlines to make more and more seats available through a combination of extra flights and larger aircraft, to the point that they have now run ahead of actual passenger demand.

At the same time, carriers had to budget for higher costs in much of 2018 due to increased wages and a 20.5% rise in global fuel prices. Unlike the U.S., a number of airlines also chose to hedge their fuel contracts, meaning they continue to pay higher prices at a time when fuel costs have actually dropped 3.2% compared to the equivalent period in 2018.

The result is that ticket prices have dropped, and in a period of rising costs, this has proved to be fatal for some low-cost carriers.

“They just get squeezed because the margins are very low, and they just run out of finance in the end, says Dan Elliott, Director in Transport and Water at Frontier Economics

It is for this reason that Europe’s most flown-on airlines are those that combine broad financial shoulders with a laser-like focus on costs. Together, Ryanair, easyJet and the big-three major network airlines Lufthansa, International Consolidated Airlines (Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Vueling), and Air France-KLM accounted for 50% of all EU air travel in 2018, according to Scope Ratings.

“Ryanair will negotiate on absolutely everything and they can’t afford to sleep for a second because even a minor change in the price of airline fuel, multiplied up over the amount of output they have suddenly becomes enormous,” says aviation expert John Strickland from JLS Consulting.

Secrets for success

Yet it’s not all bleak news for Europe’s smaller low-cost carriers. On Wednesday, Hungarian newcomer Wizz Air, founded in 2004, announced that earnings in the final quarter of the year to March 31 had been in line with expectations and that net profit would be at the upper half of its previous guidance range of €270 million ($303 million) and €300 million ($336 million). Shares of Wizz Air rose by 4.8% on the news, valuing the company at about $2.9 billion. As with Ryanair and easyJet, the airline is able to handle the considerable seasonal troughs by selling winter flights for as little as $12 to drive ancillary revenue, such as bag checking, car hire, and hotel bookings.

“In some ways, the seats are becoming a catalyst to other revenues,” says Strickland. “Ryanair themselves have said that they want to become the Amazon of travel. The idea is that you go to the Ryanair website and book all sorts of things and not just flights.”

Problem is, Wizz is very much an exception to the rule. The IATA estimates that 70% of European operating profits are now being generated by the big-three long-haul network airlines, while much of the remaining 30% comes from Wizz, Ryanair and easyJet, plus medium-sized Turkish Airlines and Aeroflot.

“A significant number of smaller and medium-sized European airlines are loss-making or barely profitable,” states an IATA economics report released in January.

“If you look at the European airline industry in aggregate, it’s actually producing pretty good profits at the moment,” says chief economist Pearce. “The issue is that a large proportion of those profits are being produced by the big guys.”

Instead of protecting rights of passengers, the government has favoured the airlines.

The number of domestic air passengers, which stands at about 125 lakhs is likely to double by 2025 growing at double digits annually. Instead of protecting rights and service to passengers, the government has favoured the airlines.Between 2008 to 2010 the airlines regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) framed few rules for air passenger facilitation under the Civil Aviation Requirement rules. The Air Passengers Charter (APC) announced by the Ministry of Civil Aviation just before the announcement of General Elections is mainly an adaptation of these rules while modifying some of them. In this, APC Ministry has concentrated mainly on five areas of passenger grievances:-

(i) Delay in departure of flights (ii) Compensation on flight cancellation (iii) Compensation on denial of boarding due to over booking (iv) Refund policy on cancellation of booking (v) Compensation on lost and damaged check-in baggage for domestic and international fliers .

It has also provided gateways in the form of force majeure clauses to exempt airlines from paying compensation specified. It has also provided for escalation of grievance redressal through Air Sewa App.

DELAY OF FLIGHTS

The following categories of checked in on time passengers who will suffer delays in their respective flights will be provided hospitality service like free of charge refreshment and meal by the airlines.

(i) When flights are delayed and the passengers have already checked in on time  and delay is 2 hrs or more and having block journey period of 2hr 30 min are eligible for hospitality service like   refreshment and meal free of charge. Bulk of domestic flights are not covered.

(ii) The passengers whose flight is delayed 3hrs or more and having journey block time of more than 2hrs 30 minute and up to 5hrs are eligible for hospitality service. Only long distance flights like those from Delhi to Trivandrum are covered.

(iii) Other passengers not belonging to the above two categories and delay is 4hrs or more are eligible for hospitality service. Passengers should be offered with refreshment and meals free of charge.

(iv) If the delay is expected to be 6 hrs or more, airlines should offer an option of either an alternate flight within this period or full refund of ticket. Airlines shall arrange alternate flight within 6 hours of scheduled departure of the  original flight or refund full fare to the passengers. No
compensation for delay has been prescribed.

(v) Passengers having departure time between 20:00 pm and 03:00 am and delay of more than 6 hrs, airlines shall arrange free hotel accommodation .

The charter has distinguished journey block time as (i) below 2-30 hrs and (ii)  above 2-30 hrs which
account for a small no of flights. No passenger will be provided any hospitality
service if the delay is less than 2 hrs .

FLIGHT CANCELLATION

The cases where flights have been cancelled and intimated/not intimated to the passenger before 2 weeks and up to 24hrs of scheduled departure of the flight are dealt here .

APC has provided compensation in several stages as in the line of CAR Rules 3 Series M part IV dated 6 August 2010 revision on 14 January 2011. The compensation provided are as
follows :

Case I: If passengers are well informed 2 weeks before and up to 24hr of the scheduled departure of the flight–passenger can opt for alternate flight or refund full fare with no compensation.

Case II: If the passengers are not informed as per the above, the airlines shall either provide alternate flight as acceptable to the passengers or refund full fare with compensation. Compensation are computed as follows (i) for passengers having block flight time up to 1 hr Rs. 5000 or travel fare (BF + FC) whichever is less (ii) for passengers having block flight time more than 1 hr and up to 2hrs compensation will be Rs. 7500 or travel fare (BF+FC) whichever is less. (iii) for passengers having block flight time more than 2 hrs , compensation will be Rs. 10000 or fare value (BF+FC) which ever is less. Passengers are requested to be alert in providing their  contact number, email id etc while booking their flight.

COMPENSATION ON DENIAL OF BOARDING

Generally the airlines are at present over-booking about 20% of the total capacity of the flight in order to compensate loss owing to the last moment cancellation of booking and unexpected ‘No Show’ instances. If the flight is over-booked and the left out passengers have confirmed tickets, they should be dealt with in the following manner:

(i) Arranging alternate flight within one hour of scheduled departure of original flight– no compensation is to be provided.

(ii) Failing to provide an alternate flight within one hour and able to arrange within 24 hrs of booked scheduled departure flight a compensation of 200% of (BF+FC) subject to the maximum Rs. 10000 is to be provided.

(iii) If alternate flight is arranged after 24 hrs, a compensation of 400% of (BF+FC) subject to the maximum Rs. 20000 is to be provided.

(iv) If no alternate flight is opted by the passengers, full fare refund and compensation of 400% of (BF+FC) subject to the maximum of Rs. 20000 is to be provided.

Refund policy on cancellation of booked ticket

Airlines are charging cancellation fee according to their will. The refund policy of cancelled tickets of different airlines is still in shadow. In some cases the cancellation charges are more than 50% of the full fare of the ticket. Air Sewa has given guidelines that cancellation charges in any case must not be greater than the sum of basic fare and fuel charges. Perhaps, the cancellation  charges may be collected  equal to the sum of basic fare and fuel surcharges. Moreover, if tickets are purchased through agents, they also charge their own handling  and cancellation fees. This issue has not been addressed. In this Charter, differentall aspects of refund  have not been addressed effectively. An in-depth clarification on this issue is required. Previously, some passenger association have raised the voice against airlines refund policy and suggested that cancellation charges will not be more than 1% of total air fare irrespective of time limit.

Compensation on lost or damage of checked in baggage

(i) For International flight, compensation is limited to  SDR 1131.

(ii) For Domestic flight, compensation is limited to Rs. 20000.

Previously compensation was granted on the basis of weight of the lost baggage at Rs 450-500/kg .

Force majeure clause has been mentioned by which an airline can escape and avoid paying compensation to the passengers when flights are cancelled or delayed. Who will verify what is the cause canacellation or delay due to  technical fault, ATC regulation and control, weather disruption etc. for which no compensation are to be paid? The Minsitry has been more sympathetic to airlines than that of
passengers.

The APC is welcome but it has not paid attention to several areas where passengers are practically deprived of their legitimate claim : A few such problems are described below:

(i) No showcases: Those standing in check-in ‘Q’ are denied boarding with a false claim that the check-in period is over and they are marked as ‘No Show’. Such passengers who are denied refund also.

(ii) Refund of cancelled tickets : The refund policy of cancelled tickets of different airlines are opaque, and a passenger is at mercy of the airline. In some cases the cancellation charges are more than 50% of the full fare of the ticket. Air Sewa has given a guideline that cancellation charges in any case must not be greater than the sum of basic fare and fuel charges. Perhaps, the cancellation charges may be collected equal to the sum of basic fare and fuel surcharges . Moreover, if tickets are purchased through agents , they are also charging  their own handling  and cancellation fees. An in-depth clarification on this issue is required .

(iii) Proper grievance redressal agency: There is no mention about any centralised passengers grievance redressal agency empowered by law, where affected passengers can lodge their complaints for relief. There was a long pending demand of passengers for creation of air passenger ombudsman  but there is no sign of fulfillment of this demand. Much has been left undone and we can hope that the new government after general elections can address the deficiencies in this Charter.

Prof Sri Ram Khanna is managing editor of Consumer Voice and former Dean and head of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics. Consumer Voice is a voluntary consumer organisation that does comparative testing of consumer products in laboratories to educate the consumer: www.consumer-voice.org

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A grassroots movement calling for Kiwis to stay firmly on the ground is taking flight.

It’s asking everyday travellers to keep out of the skies in a bid to protect the environment.

Auckland physicist Professor Shaun Hendy decided to give up air travel for a year to limit his carbon footprint.

“It was adding up the carbon emissions that I was responsible for,” he told Newshub. “I was about three times the average Kiwi as an academic travelling to conferences.”

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He documented his travels along the way, from stormy drama on the Cook Strait ferry to a bus trip through Bulls on his way home from Wellington.

“Lovely trip, it does take a day so you’ve got to commit to it.”

The cost of flying is going down, but the cost to the environment is becoming much clearer.

If you fly the 496km between Auckland and Wellington, you emit around 150kg of carbon dioxide equivalent. A medium-sized car making the same journey emits about a third less, while a bus, train and electric car all have significantly lower emissions – just under 55kg between all three of them.

Air travel is vital to the country’s trade, investment and tourism, and new technology is making it more efficient. But there’s no disputing the boom in air travel is having an impact on climate.

“Per kilometre, flying in a plane puts out more carbon dioxide than pretty much every other form of travel,” Victoria University climate scientist James Renwick said.

Stats NZ data shows New Zealand residents took more than 3 million flights in 2018. One Auckland passenger flew 639,000km – the equivalent of 15 circuits around the Earth.

But if you’re not ready to swap the skies for the roads yet, there are some alternatives.

Both Air New Zealand and Jetstar have a carbon buyback scheme in which travellers pay a small fee to offset the emissions generated by their ticket.

Aviation commentator Irene King said it’s a positive step, but the airlines and manufacturers need to make greener planes.

“It’s supply and demand, and we know the fuel prices will go up, and so there’s massive incentive toward greater engine efficiency.”

If the movement takes off, flying from one location to the other could soon be as frowned upon as using plastic bags.

Newshub.