Even I get the chills when almost daily headlines proclaim increasingly dire forecasts for the airline industry.  The cruise industry is heavily dependent on air traffic and even before the fuel increase, had a hard time getting seats for all the passengers who fly to a ship’s home port to take a cruise.

In USA Today there’s “Summer Airfares Double Triple Quadruple” while a previous article, “Fliers in for Pain as Airlines Pack it In”, reports that airlines are cutting back service to popular vacation destinations because they don’t generate as much revenue.

Orlando will experience an overall 8.4% decrease in airline traffic while Honolulu will loose 22.9% of air service.  Continental Airlines has announced it will decrease flights to Fort Lauderdale by 18%.

One solution is “Homeland Cruising”, which is already a popular alternative to flying.  For example, roughly one million people took a cruise from New York’s three ports (Manhattan, Brooklyn and Cape Liberty, NJ) in 2007.  In 2008/09, three cruise lines (Royal Caribbean, NCL and Cunard Line) offer year-round cruises from New York.

But homeland cruising isn’t the answer to every problem.  Cruises from the Northeast sailing to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida must speed up a great deal to sail that distance in seven or eight days.  This burns more fuel which cruise lines, if they’re to remain profitable, must pass along to cruisers in terms of higher prices.

However, cruisers who still want depart from a port that necessitates traveling by air must also take special actions: 

*** Always buy travel insurance

*** Book your cruise and make an airline reservation far in advance to insure you can find a seat.

*** Always plan to arrive in the ship’s home port a day early in order to avoid a flight cancellation and lost luggage.

Have you altered your cruise plans based on high airfare, decreased capacity and poor scheduling?