Let’s say you go to the dry cleaner and your shirt comes back looking and feeling like you’re wearing a piece of cardboard.
The dry cleaner says it was simply a case of too much starch, and you let it pass.
Let’s say you go to your favorite restaurant and order a steak, but the steak comes out well done instead of rare.
The owner of the restaurant apologizes and says he is sorry, but he is breaking in a new chef, and you let it pass.
It’s the same with the airlines. They are bulletproof, mostly because they don’t take their share of responsibility for any problems. And we don’t care. This past July 4 holiday weekend convinced me of that. We don’t care, because there is no alternative.
The airlines had five-figure delays and cancellations — one figure the media was using set the number of delays at 49,000. Yet the airlines enjoyed a record-setting week, including a single-day record of almost 3 million travelers, as the desire to travel and pent-up demand far outweighed any potential problems.
The airlines blamed the weather. And that’s certainly part of it. Between the oppressive heat and an inordinate amount of thunder and lightning storms, it was excessive to say the least. But just as quickly as the airlines want to blame the weather or the staffing problems at the Federal Aviation Administration, they are loathe to address their own issues.
They knew about the looming pilot shortage years before it happened.
They knew that the pandemic was going to cause the attrition of flight attendants and maintenance workers.
And yet only lately has it become a problem.
I’ve said it before, both in this column and in others, what choice do we have? Sure, we can switch airlines, but does that really solve the problem? No offense to other means of travel, but the airlines are like a monopoly. They know they have us right where they want us. And the oversight power of the FAA and the Department of Transportation are laughable.
But that Department of Justice sure knows how to block a merger, doesn’t it?
It’s time for the airlines to clean up their act and for someone to hold them accountable. But the problem is, we, as consumers, have let them get away with it.
Does anyone want a shirt that is stiff as a board and an overcooked steak?
———
