Ever wondered how your life could get worse in an airport as you connect between planes? Well guess what, it just did.

American Airlines is deliberately spacing flights closer together. The reason being economics. They are loading more and more flights into their schedule. Making tough connections more common among travelers. The peaks and valleys that airlines shunned are now being embraced. Bottom line, if you fill more seats, have more flights, make more money, and create more margins, you can succeed in an industry that is plagued by non-profitability and loss.

For the poor traveler facing inevitable delays as planes are bunched up in the air, and terminal hubs become choked, it just means that you need to put your skates on to connect between flights and terminals. Will that mean that the minimal connection time will go down? You bet.

The airlines are gambling that they can fill their planes to optimal levels, and if one or two of us are left behind, no worries, there will probably be a plane six hours later! On the other hand, the airports, if all goes well, will sell less paraphernalia to us. You can bet your life that you are going to have to abandon the Starbucks coffee and the inevitable twenty minute line. So the shops will lose what the airlines might gain and passengers will just sweat a little bit more than they used to!