Today's Air Industry: Fuel and Labor in Air Travel

Cost and Labor in Air Travel
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Date:
Fuel and Labor in Air Travel
While the airline industry has continued to produce improved balance sheets over the recent years, there are still improvements to be made. Some of the huddles include the costs and expenses in the air industry. The main costs and expenses in the air industry are currently labor and the fuel. While the labor costs are fixed over the short term, the cost of fuel is erratic. More than two thirds of the costs of the airline industry are largely fixed (Oliver Wyman, 2017). However, the swing in cost associated with the fuel can make the difference between making profit or running into losses (Dye, 2016). Fuels costs tend to change too often and the airlines have to make sure that they stay afloat. As such, in most of the cases, it is the labor costs that are slushed. This is related to laying off some of the staff working for the airlines to reduce the expenses and match the margins set forth in their projections as they try to work around the rising costs of fuel. The labor card has been a wild one, with some of the largest employee groups signing flurry new agreements. This would explain why in the recent past, the industry has experienced some very turbulent episodes with the technical staff and more importantly with the pilots. Some of the airlines have also reported negative impacts relative to the morale of the staff (Bachman, 2017). Some of the staff had started reporting fatigue and motivation as their main challenges, relative to the working conditions. As such, labor plays a crucial role in the success of an airline as the staff define the level of satisfaction of the customers that fly with them.
Other than the element of having to lay off some of the workers in the airline business, the greater majority of the companies are then forced to find other solutio...