Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/airplanes-scale-back-service-as-oil-prices-soar Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Despite efforts to ease the burden of soaring fuel costs by adding luggage fees and slashing flights, major airlines continue to suffer losses and predict fare hikes this fall. Tom Bearden reports on the latest woes of the airline industry. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. WOMAN: There's your seat assignment. WOMAN: Thank you. WOMAN: Have a great flight. TOM BEARDEN: It's the height of the summer travel season, and airplanes are filled to capacity with vacationers. That should be good news for the airline industry, except for one thing: Most of those passengers are flying on tickets that were purchased before the huge spike in oil prices. MICHAEL BOYD, PRESIDENT, The Boyd Group: The American airline industry is probably losing money on 80 percent of the flights they're flying. TOM BEARDEN: Airline analyst Michael Boyd says that, on average, airlines are taking in $166 on a one-way fare. MICHAEL BOYD: Of that, $139 goes to fuel, as of today. So, that leaves you with, what, $27 to pay for everything else — pay for the airplane, pay for landing fees, pay for the crew. So, they're losing probably a lot more than $60 on average. And, remember, they have sold most of the seats for the next two months, all at a loss.