Even under the absolute best, platonic ideal circumstances, air travel sucks. It sucks to schlep to an airport and stand in line and take off your shoes and run to the gate and sit around for an hour because you didn’t time everything correctly and then get crammed into a speeding metal tube full of recycled air and strangers at 30,000 feet. And rarely, if ever, do most people fly under the absolute best, platonic ideal circumstances — especially lately, when flights are being canceled left and right thanks to a nexus of understaffed airlines, increasingly volatile weather, and an industry still reeling from the (ongoing) coronavirus pandemic. Put simply: If you’re flying somewhere this summer, be prepared to have a pretty bad time.
There is, however, a growing chorus among Democratic lawmakers to do something to alleviate the cascading spate of abrupt flight delays and cancellations. The plan? Make the airlines pay.
