When Southwest Airlines underwent a historic meltdown during the Christmas travel season, canceling nearly 17,000 flights and stranding 2 million passengers, politicians pounced like passengers on a second bag of free peanuts. If the federal government only had more control over air travel, they shouted, we could have avoided such a terrible situation.
Yet just a few days later, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees air traffic control, caused a system-wide travel stoppage affecting all airlines, the same pols denouncing Southwest mostly went missing, like Amelia Earhart.
