While no longer unexpected, the "cost" of air travel disruptions continues to rise

The threat of travel disruption feels imminent for anyone heading to the airport nowadays, especially with cancellations and delays making headlines repeatedly over the summer. 

While anger about such disruptions regularly fills social media channels, passengers have come to expect problems.

A new report from ground transport provider CMAC, based on a survey of more than 1,000 travelers in the United Kingdom who booked round-trip flights, found that nearly two-thirds of respondents believed that flight disruptions have worsened. And 78% of those surveyed reported having experienced a flight disruption themselves. 

That’s not terribly surprising, given that 650 million hours of collective passenger time was wasted in 2022 as a result of flight disruptions, according to passenger compensation platform AirHelp. For its report, AirHelp used structured calculation logic to determine the impact of flight disruptions based on data, expert interviews and its internal expertise.

What is causing the disruptions?

Per CMAC’s U.K.-focused report, respondents saw the problem primarily as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the report said that travelers are perceiving other causes including crew shortages, crew strikes, cost-savings and overbooking as problems that serve as the root of flight disruptions.

And earlier this year, the United States Department of Transportation released a report citing weather and operations among other factors as causes for cancellations. 

Airline disruptions come with costs

Airline disruptions might be frustrating for travelers but there’s a tangible cost associated with the disruptions, too, according to the AirHelp report.  

In 2022, disrupted flights cost the United States up to $34 billion, Europe up to $32 billion and Australia $1.5 billion - marking an 11% increase from 2019, though there was less traffic during that period.  

The unexpected costs make sense - think hotel stays for delayed or canceled flights, airport food, fuel, staffing - the list goes on when flights are off schedule, requiring unplanned expenses to be fulfilled. 

Per AirHelp’s report, across the U.S., Europe and Australia, the impact can be split into a few categories including the “cost of incremental operations time for airlines,” “value of time lost by passengers” and “spillover effects on other segments of the economy” plus “additional costs of accommodating flight cancellations.”

There’s an environmental price that comes with delays and cancellations, too. 

Disrupted flights resulted in 9 million tons of additional CO2 emissions, which is equal to 1.3% of the aviation industry’s full 2022 CO2 footprint. 

And with travel trending upward, challenges related to sustainability will only increase for the travel industry, while travelers continue to express increasing concern about environmental impacts of travel. 

Technology is helpful, but human touch is needed 

Based on CMAC’s findings, technology has made air travel easier, but a human touch could help even more, according to the company’s CEO Peter Slater. 

“Technology has an important role to play for the travel industry, and passengers are generally appreciative of how automation is streamlining the experience in airports,” Slater said. “When things go wrong, however, our research shows that nothing can replace the human touch.” 

For airlines, having real people available to help passengers can offer a “crucial competitive advantage,” he said, noting that earning consumer confidence could come through demonstrating a clear willingness to right situations when flights are disrupted by delays or cancellations. 

Technology, instead, should be used as an enabler, not a replacement, to help with situations like flight disruptions, he said.  

Passengers are keeping disruptions in mind 

With a rise in flight disruptions, passengers are holding grudges, according to CMAC.  

The company’s report found that nearly half of survey participants said they would be less inclined to fly with the same airline in the future after a disrupted flight experience. Participants reported that airlines were not very helpful when it came to arranging alternative transportation when necessary, with 53% saying that airlines did not assist them as needed and 61% saying that they were not supported when they needed to book accommodations as a result of disruptions. 

“It’s clear there is significant room for improvement in the quality of the airline response to disruption events,” Slater said.