Travel
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Lots of flights cancelled. Mayor Pete says airlines need to get their act together. It’s the airlines fault.
Airlines say there’s a pilot shortage, goes back to the Colgan Air disaster when FAA raised pilot minimum hours to 1,500, which makes it harder for new pilots to get hired. Airlines want FAA to raise the mandatory retirement age again, to 67, so they can fly with the pilots they have while waiting for new pilots to be trained.
Pilots say it’s inflation eroding pay, crappy scheduling and the vaccine mandate. Lost a bunch of pilots because of it, can’t hire new ones because they won’t take the vaxx.
Bernie Saunders says Congress gave airlines a bailout during the Covid crisis the Democrats created, which makes the airlines beholden to Democrats for their existence, so now he wants to fine airlines $55,000 per passenger for cancelled flights to punish airlines for failing to find enough pilots who possess the required number of hours and also have the mandated vaccine.
Pile up enough restrictions and you can kill any industry.
I was planning to someday retire to Florida. Guess we’ll be driving there on the racist roads, assuming the Lesko Brandon administration doesn’t ban interstate travel. That and quartering soldiers in private homes are about the only Constitutional rights they haven’t violated yet.
Joe Doakes
America had it so good, through the Reagan/Gingrich boom of the 1990s.
Someone just had to screw it up.
July 18th, 2022 at 5:31 am
A friend of mine that has been in the travel industry for over 25 years, told me that for at least one major airline, the staffing shortage relates directly to the death jab requirement. Allegedly, the pilots and crews that don’t want to take it, are staging “sick outs”. They also have the support of the people that took the jab, but support the right of those that haven’t taken it, not to do so.
July 18th, 2022 at 7:08 am
The same thing that happened to airline staffing has happened across the economy, but retailers experiencing spot closures doesn’t get the airplay that canceled flights get.
Covid has revealed an incredible amount of incompetence at the top and throughout all of our major institutions.
No one, for example, can explain the purpose of Biden’s vax mandate without using circular logic.
And it is a typical Biden policy. There is no measurable benefit, even if it does “work,” yet it harms specific, identifiable people.
July 18th, 2022 at 9:28 am
Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian said the carrier had not seen any signs of waning demand for travel despite soaring inflation and that he was relaxed about the impact of a possible recession.
He isn’t worried for the company because he has already cut staff and flights down and can survive if things go bad.
He isn’t worried for himself because he will always collect a big pay packet and bigger bonus, whether the airline does well or badly and without any regard to whether he did a good job or not.
July 18th, 2022 at 9:56 am
Discretionary air travel in the current year is an IQ test. Just observe the goings-on at the gates for proof.
July 18th, 2022 at 12:36 pm
If you can’t find the pilots to fly the planes, you don’t need as many attendants, mechanics, etc. But I’ll bet you good money that almost no managers were cut.
Depending on where you’re going in Florida, the driving is competitive with flying. Taking a flight to anywhere that’s less than a 12 hour drive isn’t something I will willingly do. And if involves a transfer in Atlanta, that time extends significantly.
July 18th, 2022 at 2:21 pm
I’m trying to find a list of Biden Admin appointees and what skills and experience they bring that would justify the appointment. I suspect they are mostly political appointees for the most part with little or no experience for the job. Butt-Giggity in particular…what the hell is any skill he may have to be appointed to Sec of Transportation?