美国国家公共电台 NPR--The cost of hopping on a plane to get away from it all is skyrocketing

The cost of hopping¹ on a plane to get away from it all is skyrocketing

Transcript²

Flight prices are 30 to 40 percent higher than they were before the pandemic. What's behind the skyrocketing costs?

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The cost of hopping on a plane to get away from it all is skyrocketing. Vivek Pandya at Adobe³ Digital Insights has the numbers.

VIVEK PANDYA: The flight prices are up between 30 to 40% relative to where they were prepandemic.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Brett Snyder, who writes the Cranky Flier, says demand is way up. The industry blogger also says new regulatory challenges make it harder to add planes to airline fleets. All this since problems surfaced with the Boeing 737 MAX.

BRETT SNYDER: What's happened now is the FAA has really gotten much tougher. And because of that, there are airplanes that were supposed to be delivered that are still waiting in regulatory land.

MART?NEZ: Jet fuel is also more expensive. The great resignation hit airlines, too. So pilots, technicians and flight attendants are in short supply. And airlines downsized during the pandemic.

SNYDER: The airlines received a lot of money from the federal government. And as part of that, they weren't allowed to lay people off. However, they were allowed to offer early retirements⁴, buyouts, all sorts of things. And so that's what they did. And you see some airlines - Delta⁵, for example, dropped nearly a third of its workforce⁶.

MARTIN: So what can someone who's eager to fly away actually do to get there? Adobe's Pandya says plan ahead.

PANDYA: Maybe book out further in the future. Take less peak time periods so that they can have some level of flexibility⁷ by way of pricing.

MART?NEZ: And road trips are an alternative, too, although gas prices make car trips, bus tickets and train rides a pricey proposition, as well. So it sounds like a situation for a staycation.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOEY PECORARO SONG, "DEEP IN A DREAM OF YOU")

1 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 adobe   

n.泥砖，土坯，美国Adobe公司

参考例句：

• They live in an adobe house.他们住在一间土坯屋里。
• Adobe bricks must drived dried completely before are used.土坯砖块使用前一定要完全干燥。

4 retirements   

退休( retirement的名词复数 )； 退职； 退役； 退休的实例

参考例句：

• We've had two retirements in our office this year. 今年我们办公室已有二人退休。
• Those may take the form of sackings redundancies, temporary layoffs or retirements. 这些形式有开除，作为编余人员，暂时解雇或退休。

5 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

6 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

7 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。