The lead story on the front page of today’s USAToday business section is headlined Fliers board faster as fewer carry on bags. The first sentence trumpets “new security rules for carry-on bags are enabling airline passengers to get on and off planes faster, helping flights leave on time.” It then quotes a number of airline spokesmen saying that boarding is anywhere from 4 to 10 minutes faster now that there are fewer carry-ons being stowed. Data quoted from FlightStats.com shows a 3.5% improvement in on-time departures, and it’s probably logical to attribute at least some portion of that to faster boarding times.

All good news so far. They even find some guy who claims to be a frequent flyer to give a supporting quote — “The new carry-on restrictions are the greatest transportation advance since the wheel”. But then, 10 paragraphs into a 15-paragraph story, the rest of the story emerges — “if more flights are operating on time, that isn’t necessarily true for luggage operations. Many passengers report longer waits or other problems with checked bags.”, “Airlines say they’re struggling to deal with the huge surge in bags”. So, people are boarding 4-10 minutes faster but are then waiting 30-45 minutes after their flight to collect their luggage. It doesn’t take complex math — 10 minutes minus 30 minutes equals a negative 20 minutes — to figure that this “greatest transportation advance” is actually moving people backwards. While the airlines may be saving time, there’re doing it on the backs of their passengers.