Kerr: We’re desperate to go somewhere … anywhere

This was supposed to be the summer when we could finally travel – whether visiting relatives in Columbus, Ohio, taking the family to the Outer Banks or perhaps doing something more adventurous like flying to California, Hawaii or Europe.

Unfortunately, “the economy,” something so big and complex that no one can adequately explain it, is getting in the way. However, I am not sure it’s going to stop people from traveling. We may not go as far, but we’re itching to go someplace.

For most of us, the price of gas is the first thing that comes to mind. High gas prices are putting a damper on vacation plans. A 20% or 30% increase in the price of gas would have been tolerable. But since March the price of a gallon of gas has increased by 60% and it’s still rising. You’re hard-pressed to find it for less than $5 a gallon. That’s a record for our region, and it may go higher. This makes driving my Toyota Highlander from, say, Woodbridge to Maryland, to visit relatives, an “investment” decision.

I remember when the Exxon in Lakeridge was selling gas for over a dollar. That was newsworthy back in 1979.

However, let’s get back to 2022. Trying to accommodate the situation, I looked to my 2003 Honda Hybrid Civic, which is not well maintained because I had planned on getting rid of it soon. However, I had a change of heart. Even with 200,000 miles on the odometer, it still gets 37 miles to the gallon.

So, feeling a renewed affection for my old car, I took it to my local Meineke and got it fixed up. The last time I filled up the Highlander it cost $120. It’s a great car, but it may be spending most of the summer in the driveway while the Civic is probably going on some trips.

Still, $5 a gallon is putting a lot of people off the idea of long-distance driving. The situation is likely to make shorter trips, to Virginia Beach for example, more attractive.

Of course, several of my friends, who booked airline tickets months ago, plan to fly to their destinations. Good for them. But this, too, is fraught with potential economic problems. The labor shortage has the airlines in crisis mode.

Unfortunately, many of the airlines, knowing they were facing this situation, scheduled flights anyway, no doubt hoping against hope they could find pilots and co-pilots. It wasn’t responsible behavior. According to independent estimates, the airline industry is shy thousands of pilots. The pandemic forced many older pilots into retirement, and airlines laid off many other pilots. And now they can’t seem to hire enough new ones.

Flight cancellations this summer have numbered in the hundreds (sometimes thousands) each weekend. It’s not going to be an easy summer for airline passengers, but some people, determined to take that trip, are going to hazard it anyway. That’s what I did last week. And yes, there were delays aplenty, but I made it.

However, as expensive as it may be to drive, and as haphazard as airline travel can be, after years of “stay-cations” (what an awful word) a lot of people are going to throw caution to the wind – stretch their credit cards for car trips or hope for the best when they go to the airport. So, while they may scale back a bit, 2022 will still likely see my neighbors going someplace.

David Kerr is an adjunct professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and has worked on Capitol Hill and for various federal agencies for many years.