Smart Travel: Air traveler comfort won't improve anytime soon

A move to larger planes will mean adjustment for airline personnel and passengers

Are you flying more lately and enjoying it less? If so, you're not alone, judging from the record number of consumer complaints filed recently.

Complaints to the Department of Transportation about air travel, and about U.S. airline service in particular, tripled in September 1999 (the latest complete month available at this writing) compared with September 1998.

For the year 1999, as of September, the complaints had more than doubled. It would appear that passenger service and comfort aren't going to get much better, judging by some new uses of existing aircraft and new designs of planes to be built soon.

The trusty 737, long the champion of short-haul trips, is also the champion of skin-tight seating. The plane has only one narrow aisle, and coach seating is among the snuggest in the sky, generally a full inch tighter than other aircraft. On a flight of an hour, the limited leg and shoulder room can be tolerated if not enjoyed.

Now a new generation of long-haul 737s designed to deliver passengers to destinations 3,000 miles and six hours away are being delivered.

Christened the 737-700 and 737-800, these planes continue the skimpy seating of older 737s and provide only two restrooms for 150 passengers for a long flight.

American, Continental and Delta are already using these planes on flights as long as Dallas to Anchorage and Los Angeles to Boston, both nonstop flights. Tall or heavy people, especially, are going to be uncomfortable on long flights on these aircraft.

Boeing Co. has just approved construction of two new long-haul versions of the 777 jetliners made possible by the development of special engines by General Electric.

The 777-300X and 777-200X will carry 300 to 375 passengers as many as 10,000 miles, nonstop. This plane, in its present configuration is not as roomy as the long-lived 747, and in the most efficient configuration it would be less spacious compared to existing 777s.

Finally, Airbus Industrie, a European conglomerate has announced the development of the "Flagship of the 21st Century," the A3XX with which it hopes to replace the 747. In its initial configuration, the plane will seat 555 to 656 passengers, and it will be designed for medium to long range flights.

The A3XX will feature two double-deck, wide-body cabins running the full length of the aircraft and Airbus envisions wide stairs forward and aft, and spacious entrance areas reminiscent of the atrium in today's cruise liners. There will be four engines that will be more friendly for both noise and emissions, according to Airbus. It should be noted, however, that Airbus's current models, the A330 and A340 are not noted for comfort or quietness in comparison to American-manufactured aircraft.

There is good news and bad news in these changes in the equipment that are coming in the near future. The good news is that there will be more seating availability on long-haul flights without adding more flights. Potentially, in the next 20 years, passenger traffic availability could triple.

The bad news is that the extra seats will come at the cost of passenger comfort and pleasure.

Somehow, it is particularly difficult for us to imagine the chaos involved in boarding or deboarding a plane containing 656 passengers, their carry-on luggage and checked luggage.

Today's airport terminals have a difficult time performing these functions smoothly for a 747, much less for an A3XX.

The new Airbus plane would represent three people for every one you now see in the boarding gates, in the luggage carousels and in the aisles of the planes trying to stow carry-ons. These huge planes will mean radically improving runways, concourses and terminal facilities in both major and secondary airports on a world-wide basis.

Americans have become accustomed to some discomfort, and unpleasantness associated with flying including delays, cramped seating, rudeness of airline personnel and other passengers and luggage problems.

Making small planes go farther, making existing planes hold more passengers, and building mega-planes cannot help but increase the displeasure of passengers and the crabbiness of airline crews.

Fortunately the change will be gradual, and travelers should be able to adjust to the changes in the level of service just as we are presently doing.

It will be most interesting to be around long enough to experience air travel in 2020.

(Linda and Dr. Don Overend are co-owners of Ozark World Travel, a full-service travel agency serving the Springfield area since 1976.)