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Airline Cutbacks Ripple Across the U.S.
With the slowing economy, the logistics of flying are chaning.
USA Today
Use the interactive map to locate the changes in your area.
Airline cutbacks: About this graphic
USA TODAY analyzed domestic airline schedule data from OAG — Official Airline Guide for October 2008. The data reflects what airlines had reported to OAG regarding their October schedules as of June 9. The analysis examined domestic schedules because that’s where airlines are making the deepest cuts. It focused on October schedules because several airlines have announced bigger cutbacks in the fall.
What emerges is a very preliminary glimpse of how national airline service is being affected by the ongoing reductions in flying capacity that airlines are making in response to high fuel prices and a slow economy.
It’s preliminary because some airlines are still planning their October schedules and not all announced changes are reflected in the data. Some airports may lose more seats — or even gain more — than shown in this interactive graphic once October’s schedules are firmly in place.
Some of the cutbacks reflected in this analysis have already occurred since last October. Other cutbacks are scheduled to occur by Oct 1, 2008.
Airlines can reduce flying capacity two ways. One is to cut the number of daily flights on a route or at an airport, which results in fewer seats. The other way is to swap big planes with smaller ones that have fewer seats. That option reduces seats too but may maintain the same number of flights.
USA TODAY chose to examine changes in the number of seats because that method takes into account both kinds of capacity reductions. But readers should understand that not all airports shown to be losing seats will necessarily show the same percentage decline in flights and some may not have fewer flights at all.
This graphic will be updated periodically.
Courtesy of © 2008 YellowBrix, Inc.
