If you fly regularly at all, you know that air travel no longer has anything to do with glamour, comfort or even fun. If you were pressed to describe the experience, you probably use words like over-priced, noisy, crowded and rude. But there seems to be hope at hand; the Transportation Department is on the problem, and has put together a panel of influential people (they've put together a representative group with people to speak for the airlines, the consumers, the visionaries, the policymakers ) to try to find a way to turn things around for air travel. Certainly, they've put together panels before; but this time it looks like they mean business. And their first order of business - making sure that the airlines are forced to hire and maintain a competitive maintenance staff for their aircraft; the kind of impact airliners have on the environment is going to be looked into, and airlines that are forced to resort to every cost-cutting measure to defend their bottom line, are going to get a little help with their finances too. Reporters and journalists were allowed to watch and ask questions of the panel; it provided everyone with a real idea of what the future of air travel was meant to be. The smaller low-cost carriers like Southwest and JetBlue, are seen to be the feeder services that will fill up the planes the big boys fly internationally. If you live in a small city anywhere across the country, you can expect air travel to become more expensive; if you live in a small town, you can expect your regional airport to not have as many services, to have lots of cancellations and delays all the time because they'll only be flying small aircraft that will be shut down by any kind of storm. If you live in a small town, you can expect your area will fall by the wayside as far as air travel opportunities are concerned. International air travel doesn't better; all the big carriers have joined hands, to achieve all kinds of great coordination and efficiency; but since all the big carriers are working together, they'll make sure that the prices don't slide. There's less competition now. The one area where you have good news is when you travel from one major American city to another on the routes served by the low-cost carriers; the prices are rock-bottom now and forever. But while air travel in general is getting more expensive all around, there are other ways of travel opening up - for instance, and the government is really keen on high-speed rail travel; it is handing out billions of dollars to companies like Amtrak, to make it happen. Think maglev and bullet train. As the cost of fuel rises, and they consider putting a major petroleum safety tax on your gas (after the BP oil spill), airlines are just going to stop making money anymore. As much as they raise their fares, they barely break even. It isn't good news either that the European Union and other authorities are planning on slapping a carbon emissions tax too. Sure, going back to rail travel does seem like a step backward. But it's much cleaner, and it's nearly as quick. Mouse here for Related LinksHow to Rank Higher in Google’s New Search Engines – iHost Webhosting Websites SEO PanelDidn’t Travel This Summer? Five Trips To Take This Fall!15 Kinds of Alternative TravelIf You Are Posting To Free For All Sites You Should Not Waste Your Time
