The New York Times ran an op-ed on Friday by William J. McGee full of bizarre nonsense, arguing that it’s time to re-regulate the airlines, because Southwest Airlines melted down over the holidays and the FAA (government regulator!)’s antiquated NOTAM system failed for several hours this past week.
Here are some of the key arguments, each one of which is… special in its own way I guess?
- The current regulator has the authority it needs but doesn’t use it this isn’t an argument for changing what authorities the regulator has though!
Despite having the authority to investigate and fine airlines for unfair and deceptive practices, the Department of Transportation and its subsidiary the F.A.A. have deferred to the private sector for decades, and have done little to rearrange market incentives that lead to these problems.
- Airlines aren’t profitable. I guess that’s an argument to re-regulate, because people forget that a core mission of the federal government during the regulated era was to ensure that airlines were profitable. The federal government used to tell airlines where they could fly and what they could charge – not to ensure prices stayed low, but to make sure that they stayed high and there was limited competition, so incumbent airlines made money. The theory was that without profits they wouldn’t invest in safety (this turned out not to be true).
The airlines are not a consistently profitable industry, shown by their need to come hat-in-hand for a bailout at any sign of economic turbulence.
- Government air traffic control is bad because airlines lobby against programs that would require them to spend money although re-regulating airlines wouldn’t stop their lobbying, the more regulated airlines are the more they’d be lobbying regulators. He dismisses reform of air traffic control itself though, because “that doesn’t get at the problems we’ve seen in the private sector that are similar, and in many cases, worse” without giving any reason why.
In fact, air traffic control in Canada is managed by a non-profit. They separate out the regulator from the service provider (always a best practice in regulating safety!). And as a non-profit they can issue bonds to borrow for technology upgrades, they aren’t subject to the vagaries of annual congressional appropriations cycles.
Hinging the argument for re-regulation on Southwest’s lack of technology investment, when the government’s technology investments have themselves fared poorly (which is why we’re talking about issues of FAA structure and funding!) makes little sense.
And oddly, the author makes the case for the Civil Aeronautics Board – abolished by deregulation – because it limited competition and ensured airline profitability. That’s obviously bad for consumers. On the other hand, almost as an afterthought at the end he mentions “more F.A.A. funding and eliminating federal pre-emption” which are core ideas worth fleshing out rather than eliminating competition and raising fares.
The NYTimes wants to re-regulate flying to drive up ticket prices even more to save the planet from the excessive carbon emissions by the Average American Flyer. First major regulatory change might be to cancel your frequent flyer accounts.
Brought on by the same media where theres sudden urgent hype this week on gas stoves being dangerous that should ideally be banned! Next week/month, who knows many new such ideas will be come up with!
everything single aspic in our lives should be 100% controlled by the government. only the government knows what is best for us.
We just flew home from New York City to San Diego in first class on Delta. There was a problem using the bathroom. Every time a first class passenger, including my spouse and I, went to use it, a passenger from coach would beat us to it. It got so bad, in order to use it, we had to start forming a line. The flight attendant said even the pilots were having problems because it was never available. I was also told by the flight attendant, they are no longer able to stop coach passengers from using the first class bathrooms because of discrimination. I even noticed coach passenger placing their suitcase in the first class bins, as they were getting on the plane. As a result, there were several first passengers who didn’t have any room above their seats. I also noticed more and more people are abusing the system when the gate agents call up passengers who need extra help on boarding. I’m seeing younger people going on board,and the gate agents are not saying anything.
@Tom While I don’t doubt that some people abuse early boarding, you can’t judge whether someone needs it just by their age. I’m relatively young. I’ve needed it a couple of times due to injuries (one where I was injured and the other where the person I was traveling with was injured and needed my help.) Those are the only two times I’ve ever asked for it, but I did actually need it both of those times, despite being ‘younger.’
I agree that Y pax putting their bags over F or C+ (or really any row before their own if their own bins aren’t already full) is really annoying, though. And they do this in spite of the large red signs that say “Reserved for First Class” or “Reserved for Comfort+.” I don’t recall having ever seen an FA do anything about it. Having to put my bags in rows behind me because some jerk in row 28 stuck their bag over row 3 for absolutely no reason is pretty obnoxious. Of course, it’s different if you’re boarding towards the end when the overheads are mostly full and FAs are actively instructing people to put their bags wherever they can find empty space, but that’s not the case 90% or so of the time that I see Y pax sticking their bags over F or C+.
Not to pedantic, but if it’s an op-ed shouldn’t the correct headline be “Nonsense *in* the New York Times” instead of “Nonsense *from* the New York Times”? It’s not as if they’re running an editorial in which the paper is endorsing this strategy. (Similarly, there’s an op-ed in the same issue from Kellyanne Conway on how the 2024 election will play out, which is her opinion and not necessarily the opinion of the NYT’s editorial board.)
Hold your horses people. This was an opinion peace that is not.speaking for the NYT or the Government.. The industry will progress with the unforeseen occurring along the way. GOD forbids the US aviation industry regulation. It’s a commandment or something.
New York Times, once a great paper, is a dying rag that should be auctioned off to a salvage outfit.
The NYT has long ago ceased to be a reputable newspaper. Now it is just another gutter rag/propaganda outlet. NYT = “New York Tabloid” (or “New Your Trash” if you prefer).
America is getting a great deal now with its airlines. If you care about spending less, you can. If you want more comfort, you can spend more, and still not have the cost usually be excessive. The reliability is excellent (except for Southwest’s really big Xmas screw-up). Regulation would solve absolutely nothing.
BTW, the idea that the US airline industry is now not consistently profitable is wrong. They are now consistently profitable. The pandemic was a once in 100 year event where a virus swept across the world and world governments handled it extremely badly. They basically shut down the economy — and the airlines — for no good reason at all and helped no one. Pure hysteria, and insanely damaging for an industry with tens of billions of dollars of fixed costs. And then they gave the airlines billions of dollars to cover the hysteria. Had the gov’t done nothing, the airlines would have lost money for a quarter or maybe two and then been completely fine. Instead, it took 2 years..
Most of the stuff in the New York Times is nonsense.
@Tom AndersonPecus’s issues are EXACTLY why I don’t fly Delta any more (I was Diamond).
All stated when that waste of space Bastion took over.
First of all, it is from the New York Times so that tells us most of what we need to know about this. Basically, a liberal Op-ed piece that uses the standard playbook of :
The government should be in control because they are so much better at running a (fill in the blank).
Capitalists are evil and shouldn’t be allowed to make money so they shouldn’t be allowed to (fill in the blank).
If we let the government control this more it will be better.
Unfortunately, the reason the FAA has such outdated equipment and is understaffed is that the government runs it poorly regardless of any contracts or involvement from the private sector. The LAST thing we need is to go back to airline regulation.
@tomandersonpecus. I don’t know if you ever go to Vegas, but if you do , check out all the older people being wheeled on board in the origination city. Then in Vegas, check out how many of them have been miraculously healed in flight. They are practically sprinting off the plane.
I’m stunned the NYT didn’t blame Trump for the Southwest meltdown
It’s quite sad how many people posting here don’t understand the definition of “op-ed.” Did I read where Gary was going to try to upgrade the comments section or did I just imagine it?
People still read The NY Times? It is the Blackberry phone of news media. “Irrelevant” is an apt term.
Libs love Government regulation. The more the merrier. They believe government oversight is necessary in all facets of our lives