Airline Fares Climb As Some Passengers Choose To Drive

2007-06-30 Word Count: 723 Category: Business

A recent piece in U.S. News & World Report had generally disheartening news for business people and vacationers planning to fly on business or on vacation this summer. The number of delayed flights has risen and aircraft are more crowded than ever before. The news was worse for some than for others. The piece, which ranked major airports based on a combination of the percentage of flights delayed and the average load factor for departing airplanes, proclaimed the country's worst airport to be Detroit's Wayne County Airport.

Official Department of Transportation statistics paint a frustrating picture for Motown's frequent fliers. Thirty-nine percent of flights at Detroit leave the tarmac late. Combined with an average load factor of just under seventy-seven percent - meaning that passenger flights leaving the Motor City are nearly 77 percent full - Detroit's airport offers the most misery to the largest number of people when flights are delayed.

Since I live near Detroit and make the occasional business trip to nearby Chicago or Cleveland, these statistics piqued my interest in the merits if any - of driving to these destinations. With the help of some other tips in the article, it was quite easy for me to price and then compare the cost of driving and flying to each of these cities.

The first step in the process was to check out fuelcostcalculator.com.

Maintained by the American Automobile Association (AAA), this website asks you to supply your starting point and final destination along with the make, model and year of manufacture of your car. Using MPG estimates for your particular vehicle and the average gas price for your neck of the woods, AAA's fuel cost calculator quickly computes the distance in miles, the amount of fuel needed and total price of that fuel for a typical drive from in my case - Detroit to Chicago. In my case, I learned that I could expect to use 10.58 gallons of gas for the 275-mile trip to the Windy City at at a ballpark fuel cost at just over 33 dollars (33.23). The calculator also computed the round-trip cost of the trip, in this case, 66.46.

To compare this to the cost of flying, I next pointed my Web browser to sidestep.com.

Sidestep appeals to me because it scours hundreds of airline and discounted fare websites for the best quote and then lets me book my flight directly with the airline in question instead of using a go-between like Orbitz, Travelocity or Expedia. Dealing with the airline directly and not through a third-party ticket broker, makes it easier and possibly less costly if there are additional fees to rebook if necessary.

At sidestep.com, I found an American Airlines non-stop flight that would take me from Detroit to Chicago on a Tuesday and return me the following Thursday at a total round-trip cost of 119.00 dollars. Not a bad price by any means, but still approximately twice the cost of driving. And the price didn't reflect the cost of airport parking or any extra airport charges or taxes.

Since driving is a pleasure for me, the decision to drive to Chicago on my next business trip was an easy one. My route takes me right by the Detroit airport anyway and I'd rather spend my time driving through the scenic countryside of Western Michigan than battling long lines and possible delays at the airport. In addition, it's nice to have my own car in Chicago and also nice to save on the cost of a rental.

Whether a decision like this adds up in your case depends to a large extent on your starting point and ultimate goal. Although it's still marginally less expensive for me to drive from Detroit to Los Angeles than it is to fly, for example, I'd never dream of making this long drive part of a business trip.

It's generally the shorter trips, on the order of 250 to 450 miles, where driving makes sense. See for yourself by comparing the cost of flying and the cost of driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Washington, D.C. to Boston, or Miami to Orlando using the tools available at fuelcostcalculator.com and sidestep.com.