Air Travel in the 21st Century

For those who continue to think that the Federal Government is the "solution" to all of our problems (see next entry), you should think about air travel.

As I told you last week, Kyla (my younger daughter) graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law on Sunday.  The graduation itself did not go too well, as the school administration relied on "computer models" (see yesterday's entry on "global warming") to move the graduation into a stuffy, hot gym from its scheduled outside location.   The predicted bad weather did NOT materialize.  But that was nothing compared to the trouble of getting there.

Kyla's mother was coming from San Jose on United Airlines (will that ariline survive?).  She encouuntered something like a two hour delay blamed on air traffic control problems.   This caused her to miss he connecting flight to Charlottesville, and have to stay overnight in D.C. (I am not totally sure why she would not have rented a car and simply driven into Charlottesville that night, but maybe she was tired and thought she would get in early the next morning anyway).  In a masterpiece of public relations, United refused to pay for the hotel, on the grounds that the missed connection had not been United's "fault".   To me, that does not compute.  Weather delays are not the "fault" of the airline, but I have consistently had airlines pay for a hotel when a weather delay has stranded me. 

Moving on.  Kyla's mother, of course, faced ANOTHER two hour (or so) delay the next morning because of "equipment" problems.

Segue to Kenda, who is Kyla's sister. She was coming from Boston (easy flight, right?  WRONG).   You know about this "crackdown" on inspection and maintenance by the FAA?  Well, it (combined with an overreation to it) is creating havoc in air travel (besides the enormous havoc it immediately created, with all of those cancelled flights).   Inspection of Kenda's plane in Boston evidently found a DENT (can't make this stuff up).  There was an HOUR delay because of having to document and investigate the "dent". 

Do you belive that there are people out there who still think that the answer to every problem is MORE Federal regulation?  I find it hard to believe.  Those people are living in a fantasy world so divorced from reality that there is no way they will ever find their way back. 

Now there is no choice but to have Federal regulation of airlines--the very definition of "interstate commerce".  But where there is a choice, the stupidity of reaching for a "Federal" soulution is obvious--unless you live in that leftist fantasy world.

 

P.S.  Again, I am perfectly aware that "federal" is not usually capitalized, or "Federal Government".  However, I capitalize those words to emphasize the way it has come to consume the whole lives of so many people, and has come to represent the central planning "solution", to so many deluded people, to every problem that we have.