Above the Fold  

What’s Going on With Air Travel This Summer? 

Pilot shortages and regional airline closures are making air travel this summer more of a roll of the dice than it seemingly ever has been. Summer travel is often plagued by cancellations and reroutes for all sorts of reasons, from weather to volume. But this year, airlines don’t have the same ability to remedy these situations as they had in the past. On average, flights are as full as they were in February 2020, right before lockdowns began to take effect. Fewer pilots and scarcity in fuel supply are making it hard for airlines to keep up with the summer demand, forcing airlines to cut their flight schedules down 15% from the schedules projected at the beginning of the year.  

The problem stems from a 70% drop in airline travel in 2020 that sent major airlines into panic mode, pushing employees to early retirement and laying off others. Now, with the industry recovering much faster than the airlines had planned, they are left scrambling to find employees to fill the voids left by the nearly nonexistent travel industry just two years ago. According to Scott Keyes, founder of the Scott’s Cheap Flights newsletter, airlines were expecting a six-year recovery period, not an 18-month recovery. This led airlines like Delta and American Airlines to shed nearly 30% of their staff to save face in 2020, including some of their older planes. 

On top of this, there is the turbulent summer weather to account for. Thunderstorms are much more common during the spring and summer months, causing flights to be delayed or rerouted. In the past, this was nothing the airlines couldn’t handle. Now, however, the airlines have less leeway than they are used to as small regional airports and airlines — both of which these rerouted flights relied on heavily in the past — are starting to shut down. This is leading to travelers being stuck in airports for hours — sometimes days — looking for ways to get to their destinations. With airlines being severely short staffed, these customers have no one to turn to for help. All of this is happening while airline ticket prices continue to rise, up 45% from this month in 2019. According to the travel app, Hopper, the average price for domestic round trip tickets this 4th of July weekend is $437. Airline representatives are assuring the public that they are doing everything they can to reduce delays and improve the customer experience, but with everything plaguing the industry, there may be little hope for an efficient summer travel season.   

Three Things 

Pensions Lever Up to Increase Returns 

Pension funds are making some risky moves to make up the money they need to pay out future retirees. As it stands now, many pensions don’t have nearly enough money to meet their needs. This is forcing some to leverage their investment portfolios for the first time in their existence. With the stock and bond markets struggling, this makes for a risky gamble. Roughly $13 billion in pension obligation bonds were sold this year, eclipsing the sales of the previous five years combined. This is the first time any of the five largest pension funds have ever used a tactic like this, and the market’s current slump will truly test the strategy, as Q2 data is set to be released later in the summer.  

Electric Vehicles Seeing Increased Prices 

We’ve gone into the ups and downs of the electric vehicle (EV) market quite a bit here recently. One trend that seems to be continuing is the rising cost of building, owning and operating EVs. Ford, Tesla and other major EV manufacturers are raising their prices to offset the sharp increase in the cost of raw materials required to produce EV batteries. Lithium, nickel and cobalt, the three main components of EV batteries, have nearly doubled in cost since before the pandemic. This has led to a 22% increase in the average cost of an EV compared to May of last year. As of right now, the average cost of an EV is $54,000, compared to $44,000 for an internal-combustion vehicle.  

Yes, Passwords Should Be Part of Your Estate Planning 

People setting up their estates for the day they pass on have a new layer to consider in our tech-centric society: passwords. When a person dies, they often leave access to all their worldly possessions to relatives and heirs. One thing often overlooked these days are the numerous passwords that grant access to accounts. Setting up digital-legacy contacts is helpful in saving heirs from having to go through difficult processes in hopes of gaining access to important information. Sometimes, this process can lead to nothing but disappointment as access can be completely barred in some cases. Apple, Google and Meta Platforms (Facebook’s parent company) are among the first tech companies to allow for digital-legacy tools that help families gain access to the accounts of departed loved ones.  

In the Know              

Amazon’s Developing a Voice-Mimicking Feature That Might Seem a Bit Dark… 

Alexa has become a major part of today’s pop culture. She can change your music, find recipes online and even turn off lights in your home. Soon, however, she will be able to imitate the voices of anyone, dead or alive. In a demonstration at re:MARS — an Amazon tech showcase — Alexa’s head scientist Rohit Prasad showed a little boy asking Alexa if grandma could finish reading him his favorite book. Alexa responded with a cheerful, “Okay!” before switching to a softer voice of the boy’s late grandmother that proceeded to read a few lines of The Wizard of Oz.  

The idea is that Alexa can help keep the memories of our loved ones alive, but the sinister uses of the feature can’t be overlooked. Voice mimicry holds the potential for many nefarious uses as the quality increases. Voice recognition can be used for security purposes, and with technology like this, there is no telling how safe this method will continue to be in the near future.