Airlines outside of North America consider
environmental issues far more of a challenge than North American
airlines do, according to a survey.
Sabre Airline
Solutions, which authored the survey, said it received responses
from 197 executives and managers from 101 airlines worldwide.
Regions were grouped so there would be enough responses to make the
results statistically valid.
Airlines everywhere
considered fuel costs to be their biggest challenge, the survey
said. But the biggest difference between North American carriers
and their global counterparts came on the environment, perhaps
because airlines elsewhere, especially Europe, are facing far more
pressure over greenhouse gas emissions and global
warming.
"As long as U.S.
carriers are focused on survival and rebuilding their balance
sheets, and their regulatory climate is not pushing hard, they will
not likely embrace environmental concerns as much as European or
other regions' carriers," said Steve Hendrickson, senior strategist
for Sabre Airline Solutions.
Nearly half of
respondents said they believed developing new revenue streams was
important to their overall revenue strategy, but they also had some
doubts about the effectiveness of charging customers for items like
meals and seat selection.
In another difference
of opinion, only 15% of North American airlines thought an
inability to secure new routes would be among their top three
revenue impediments, while 30% of airlines in the rest of the world
did.
That might be because
carriers in some other countries still fly in a regulated domestic
market or face more restrictions on entry into international
routes, Hendrickson said. U.S. carriers' international service
restrictions have been lessened by the U.S. government's bilateral
agreements or eliminated by various open-skies deals.