flying around America often sucks travel troubles continue for passengers at airports across the
country this morning flights are often delayed or canceled more than any other country our flight
got canceled again the travel chaos more than 2 000 flights have been canceled all across the
country and our airports are bad you won't find a single U.S airport in the list of top 10 best
airports around the world Los Angeles airport is ranked one of the worst in the country now
to breaking news at LAX where Terminal 1 has been evacuated in fact you'll have to go all the way
to number 18 to find an American airport on the list and it's the US where you might have to wait
several hours just to get off your plane because there might not be a gate available but nearly
19 billion dollar project to expand and improve the country's busiest airports things are trying
to change at LAX you see a lot of signs like this that are talking about the new developments here
but why is the world's biggest economy the country with some of the worst flight delays and worst
airports on the planet every few months lately there seems to be massive delays that impacts
millions of passengers last year more than 128 000 flights were canceled in the U.S in the first half
of the Year alone so what exactly is happening here well there's a shortage of a lot you've got
a shortage of airplanes a shortage of Pilots a shortage of air traffic controllers I guess the
only thing there's not a shortage of is passengers Seth Kaplan is an aviation and travel expert he
tells me the demand for flights is way way way higher than the Supply right now anybody who's
hoping for low fares soon uh is probably going to be disappointed think of all these cancellations
as a traffic jam on the freeway when too many cars are trying to get on the on-ramp cars can barely
move and that's what's happening when so many passengers are trying to fly because airlines
are booking more flights than they can physically handle or have an enough crew to be able to work
but it's not just that nearly two-thirds of all Southwest flights were canceled today over
Christmas Southwest canceled more than 16 000 flights mostly blaming a tech meltdown of its
servers when you rely on these systems and these systems go down uh certainly we see the impact
of that airlines are companies they need profits they're not like the train or bus systems that get
to prioritize the greater Public's ability to get around over money I mean flying is nice to have
not a must-have you don't need to fly to get to school or to your job so profits are the priority
how do we fly enough that we're really efficient and our costs are low but not so much that we're
not that the fares aren't too low and all that that's a game that they're always playing here
are six reasons why American airports are so bad and flights are often delayed the first is basic
economics too many people want to fly but there are not enough seats consumers want to fly safe be
on time and not have to pay too much now we're in this part of the cycle where the supply and demand
balance is well out of balance from a consumer standpoint and there's no two ways about the fact
that fares are going to be higher uh for as long as that lasts but if we bought less seats prices
wouldn't go down either because Airlines would just have less flights running and the answer
is that their unit costs also go up when they're not flying as much so the cost of carrying each
seat each mile which is just the airline measure of unit cost every industry has one that cost
goes up when they're flying less because basically they're less efficient the problem is when flying
less reduces the number of seats then you get into supply and demand economics of even fewer
seats with all this consumer demand that we're seeing which would tend to squeeze fares up so
there's no good answer in the short term number two is infrastructure airports in the US are old
and often outdated and it's a bit ironic because the American aviation industry is so ahead of say
Asian countries that our airports here are way worse while go to other countries they're often
newer modern with way better designs take Los Angeles airport for example it was never designed
to handle the number of passengers and planes that it does today it's had to keep adding more
areas for humans for playing even its security checkpoints when never designed for the kinds
of screenings that passengers would have to do after 9 11. all of this leads to long wait times
congestion and just overall crowded facilities the airports aren't exactly what they would be
if we were just starting with a clean sheet of paper today and and and starting the industry
and that's just the nature of infrastructure that is Legacy infrastructure number three is the lack
of amenities if you land in Taipei or Seoul you will see a place for showers and they provide
towels and all of this is totally free meanwhile in American airports you'd be lucky to find an
exclusive airport lounge offering you a shower many criticize U.S airports for its lack of dining
options or even entertainment yes entertainment at an airport when I visited Singapore airport
I made a whole video series about how it has relaxing loungers pools and a butterfly garden
and it even designs its terminals with carpeting to absorb sound and give a more relaxing feel and
without the right amenities this can make your journey feel long and tiring but remember this
is an industry that needs to make good profits so why would American airports dedicate space to
well butterflies the airports might say well hey we want lots of shopping opportunities because
that's lots of revenue for the airport which might in turn from the airport's perspective help keep
costs slower for Airlines so we've got the same gate at an airport that you're paying a certain
amount every month for let's say uh and you don't fly as much using that game well then the cost of
that gate serving each passenger actually goes up and you can take that logic and carry out to
everything Airlines do number four is limited airspace in Los Angeles alone there are five
airports that collectively serves well more than 100 million passengers every year I mean that's
more than the population of most countries you've been very highly constrained airports but then
you have High-Speed Rail that's very effective in Europe and and connects a lot of people in
ways that we don't really have Alternatives in the US we depend more on on Airlines here to connect
cities because of some public policy reasons less support for High-Speed Rail for example but also
it was just our geography we were much more spread out so imagine LAX airport is already so congested
and you have so many terminals Airlines and even more airports nearby you can quickly see how this
could get complicated really fast you also need what's called slots landing and takeoff slots I
mean permission to take off and land at a certain time at a given airport so it's not enough to have
the airplane in the gate and the pilots and all the rest of you also need specific permission to
take off and land and the U.S at most airports with notable exceptions you don't if you've got
an airplane pilots flight attendant to the gate you can generally come and go when you want number
five is ownership and management unlike some countries with centralized airport authorities the
US has a complex web of ownership and management structures for its airports this web can create
challenges in service quality across the different air reports that impact the overall experience see
U.S airports for the most part are publicly owned and operated by a county or a city or a state or
in some cases a Public Authority while in a place like Singapore its airport is simply owned by the
Ministry of Finance and there everything is seen holistically so if the airport can attract more
people then its economy grows because so does tourism and conferences but in a place like
the US it's just way more complicated than that with too many moving Parts while our airports
are undoubtedly bad things could be changing a number of U.S airports started to abandon the
public model and turned to private money to fund billion dollar projects in 2016 New York State and
Port Authority partnered with Delta Airlines and LaGuardia Gateway Partners to completely rebuild
the airport with LaGuardia Airport undergoing an 8 billion dollar overhaul well that is what a
groundbreaking looks like meanwhile LAX is getting a 15 billion dollar overhaul that will add an
electric train system yes right now it doesn't have a train in the airline industry in general
there's always kind of this push and pull between Airlines and airports they're kind
of thrown into this marriage together and you'll have uh airports that airlines are
think you think are were built too expensively in the Airlines and their passengers kind of
have to pay so America's airport problem and Airport delay problem kind of makes
it a victim of its own success the U.S aviation industry accounts for about five percent of the
country's total GDP people want to fly many need to fly and the economy needs you to fly too and
even if your flight is canceled well you'll just have to take the next one whenever that may be.