Fear of flying is pushing ticket sales down in the wake of multiple crashes, airlines say
At least 15 people were hospitalized after a Delta Airlines flight crashed and flipped upside down at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Feb. 17.
New York (CNN) — Two recent plane crashes have stoked worries among flyers and prompted some to pull back on air travel plans, according to two of the airlines that had those crashes.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Tuesday morning that the fatal crash of an American Airlines flight on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January, as well as a non-fatal crash in which a Delta flight flipped upside down upon landing in Toronto last month, are likely at least partly behind the travel pullback the airlines are seeing this year.
“It caused a lot of shock among consumers,” he said at a JPMorgan Chase investors conference. Bastian did not say by how much ticket sales have slowed. On Monday the company revised its expected revenue growth for the quarter down by half in a regulatory filing.
The crashes were some of the worst aviation incidents in the past 25 years, Bastian said, and as a result “there’s a whole generation of people traveling these days that didn’t realize these things can happen,” he said.
Airport workers survey the site of a Delta Air Lines plane crash that injured at least 18 passengers at Toronto Pearson International Airport on February 18. None of the passengers or crew were killed in the crash. (Photo Credit: Katherine KY Cheng/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
That’s not the only thing driving down demand. Uncertainty about the economy and a drop in consumer confidence are also hurting, Delta said. But Bastian said the crash and worries about safety were “causal facts” in the drop-off in travel that a variety of US airlines are reporting.
“We saw a pretty immediate stall in both corporate travel and bookings,” he said. “Consumer confidence and certainty in air travel started to wane a little bit as questions of safety came in.”
American cuts revenue outlook post crash
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom also said that the crash was a major factor in reduced revenue forecasts for the quarter. But he said the airline’s focus now is “solely to take care of the families of those victims.”
American also cut its quarterly revenue outlook Tuesday, saying it now expects little change in revenue from a year ago rather than its previous guidance of a 3% to 5% increase. Isom also echoed the remarks of Bastian and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, saying that economic uncertainty among the public and businesses is a major factor feeding into that reduced outlook.
“Economic uncertainty is a big deal,” he said, before adding that the crash was also a big part of the reduced guidance.
The two crashes are not the only incidents to raise concerns about air safety. Last month, a Southwest flight that was landing at Chicago Midway Airport had to immediately take off to avoid crashing into a private jet that had improperly started across the runway.
An airline plane had a near miss with a private plane when it was landing at Chicago’s Midway Airport Tuesday morning.
The causes of the two crashes have not yet been determined. The National Transportation Safety Board is due to give its preliminary report on the Washington crash later Tuesday. It has already disclosed that a preliminary analysis of the flight data and voice recorder on board a US Army Black Hawk helicopter that hit the passenger jet indicated the helicopter’s altimeter may have been inaccurate, and the helicopter pilots may not have heard some calls from the control tower.
Political debate about the fatal crash
Remarks by President Donald Trump and cost cutting efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have made air safety a subject of heated political debate in a way previous plane crashes never were.
In remarks the day after the Washington crash, Trump blamed efforts to improve the diversity of air traffic control staff, even though there was no evidence that air traffic control caused the collision between the jet and an Army helicopter, or that diversity efforts had reduced the quality of controllers’ work.
Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, said that the current air traffic control technology is on the verge of “catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk,” and suggested that his company, SpaceX, had the technology that needed to replace a current $2 billion contract. The FAA said only that it is weighing the options for upgrading its communications technology.
But others have criticized DOGE’s efforts to cut staffing and costs at the FAA despite what everyone agrees is a shortage of air traffic controllers. According to a report in the New York Times, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy clashed with Musk about efforts by young members of his DOGE team to reduce air traffic control staffing. CNN has not confirmed that exchange at the closed door meeting.
While Musk denied efforts to fire controllers to the Times, CNN has confirmed that all controllers received emails offering them a chance to quit and be paid through September as part of a cost-cutting effort, an offer that was later withdrawn. But air traffic controllers have still been ordered to detail their accomplishments in the last week of work or face termination.
All of these debates are feeding into passengers’ nervousness about flying, according to Bastian.
“Unfortunately, as we all know, some aspects of the crash were politicized which did not help matters in terms of restoring confidence in consumer’s minds,” he said.
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