Airport Employees Prepare to Deal with Stressed-out Travelers

Peak travel time is already here. And as expected travelers would have to face some delays, fuller  flights and packed airports. In such a situation, stranded traveler’s main target will be the poor airport  employees, who have to face their wrath and resentment. The employees at the Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark are undergoing a special a crash course to deal with such stressful moments.

‘Pressure causes people to behave in a certain manner’, says Belfon, a 27-year-old customer service representative for US Airways. And as the anger cools down, people didn’t believe that they actually acted that way. And later they apologize for their misbehavior. And this stress is even higher at the peak travel times including Thanksgiving and Christmas. To help employees cope, Newark Liberty is offering a customer service program called “Resiliency Edge”.

The program was designed by Tom Murphy, an experience aviation trainer and head of the Human Resiliency Institute in Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education. About two dozen people got a first look at his presentation Wednesday on the concourse inside Terminal B and around 500 other employees are scheduled to undergo this 90-minute training program.

More Flight Cuts Hurting the Airports and Hotels

With recent flights cuts and more airlines reducing the domestic flights to cut losses from the high jet fuel prices, the airports and hotels nationwide are suffering huge loses. Stewart International Airport north of New York City has put itself on sale because of the widespread fallout of the airlines’ service cutbacks. According to experts, this misery is expected to hurt others in the travel industry: hotels, rental cars, convention centers, websites that book travel and others. According to OAG-Official Airline Guide, this month, the domestic airline capacity measured by the number of seats on flights will reduce by 7% as compared to last September.

In such a scenario, the hotels are coming with some really profitable policies for the travelers. Many hotels are discounting nightly rates and throwing in other incentives such as free gas. For first time ever on Expedia, this year the hotels are offering discounts up to 50% off the normal rates. But several top leisure and convention destinations in the Lower 48 states, such as Las Vegas, are also hurt by air-service cuts because they depend so heavily on visitors flying in.

The airports are the worst hit by these recent cutbacks as their budgets depend in large part on fees that airlines pay for use of the facilities. According to the Airports Council International, an increasing number of airports are either reducing fee or offering airlines with other lucrative incentives to stay or to start service.