This Is What's Next for the Future of Air Travel

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:16)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:17)

Tracy, I flew recently on my first flight without a mask mandate.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

How was it? Was it a totally different experience?

Joe Weisenthal (0:27)

Actually, it was more different than I would have expected. I got on the plane, and I was like, oh, this is so like, something just felt like, it was like I knew the different thing, which is that no one was wearing masks. But also like, it just like felt, everything just felt like a little bit freer and different. It was very like, it was very noticeable in a way that's really hard to articulate.

Tracy Alloway (0:49)

Look, I grew up in Tokyo, and wearing masks was not a massive issue. It was just something that people did when they were sick on public transport, or in an office, or a place with lots of people. So I don't know, I have mixed feelings about it, but I'm glad you enjoyed the maskless feeling.

Joe Weisenthal (1:06)

It makes traveling with kids a lot easier to not have to like always be adjusting their ear strap on their mask or something.

Tracy Alloway (1:12)

I can see that. And obviously you can drink and eat as much as you want.

Joe Weisenthal (1:17)

Exactly right. So lots going on though in air travel, because we know that it's booming. We know that things are picking up, although I don't know about business class, or sorry, business travel, but we know travel is picking up. We know that the mask mandate is gone.

We also know that oil prices, like jet fuel costs have gone up a lot. And actually, in some places, there's even a shortage. There was a story recently that the airport in Austin actually had to cancel some flights because there literally wasn't jet fuel available.

And it sort of speaks to one of our themes that we have about the revenge of the real. It doesn't matter what the price of jet fuel is if there is simply not enough of it in a specific location.

Tracy Alloway (1:57)

Yeah, it's also sort of like a best of times, worst of times scenario for the airline industry. So lockdowns are ending, at least in the West. The mask mandates are being lifted.

People are getting out and traveling again, but at the same time, you might have higher costs. Well, you do have higher costs vis air fuel.

Joe Weisenthal (2:17)

Right, air fuel is high and inflation is high, and that obviously burdens people, but it feels like after two years, even with inflation, even with economic uncertainty of various sorts, people really want to travel, at least for leisure.

Tracy Alloway (2:32)

I would like to travel, that is true.

Joe Weisenthal (2:34)

I recommend it.

So today we're going to be speaking. So we actually had this guest on recently, I think in February, but we recorded the episode about a week before the war, before the invasion. We had to change up our schedule due to news, and then so much happened that we're like, you know what, rather than trying to find just like the right time to publish it, so much is going on. All the things we talked about, why don't we just have them back on for a fresh episode, a take to the episode, the public episode of the conversation that never got out there.

Tracy Alloway (3:12)

So this is either a signal of a return to normality or something major is gonna happen in the next week again, and we're gonna have to rerecord.

Joe Weisenthal (3:20)

Well, hopefully the public hears this conversation. I'm very excited. We're gonna bring back to the show Scott Keyes. He is the founder of the website, Scott's Cheap Flights, and he knows everything about how the airline and aviation industry works and what's going on. So, Scott, thank you for coming back on Odd Lots.

Scott Keyes (3:40)

So great to be here. Thank you both for having me.

Joe Weisenthal (3:43)

What happened with Austin? And there was, I don't know if it was just Austin, but there was something like there wasn't enough jet fuel there. Like what happened there?

Scott Keyes (3:51)

Yeah, Austin is a little bit of a special case to the Austin Bergstrom Airport because for a couple reasons. One, it is one of the fastest expanding airports in the country, one of the fastest expanding metro areas in the country.

And so the airlines and the infrastructure in place at the airport is having trouble keeping up. And so where you see that come to a head recently is with jet fuel, where unlike most major airports, which are actually directly connected to fuel pipelines, the Austin Airport is actually not connected to one. Fuel actually has to be trucked in from a pipeline and I believe about 15 miles away or so. And so with the expansion, not only of the number of planes, but with larger and larger planes, more international flights, flights to the Netherlands and elsewhere, what you're seeing is that the airport infrastructure just can't provide the fuel necessary. And airlines are having to take some pretty extraordinary steps as a result, including flying in airplanes with enough fuel to be able to fly out to their destination. They call that tankering or other sorts of mitigation tactics. Now, fortunately, this is something that is not especially widespread. Austin is a little bit of a special case.