Since deregulation happened in the airline industry, prices have come down such that travel by air has become a “bus with wings” kind of travel. When I started my biz travel back in the 80s (working for DEC as a Consultant), it wasn’t too bad, even if my seat was in the last row on the place.
I could open my big clunker of a laptop, got some billable work done, food was acceptable (not great, but acceptable most of the time), and the seats weren’t too bad.
A few years later, starting again to fly as a Consultant with Epicor after those few years not flying, it was a different story. The defining moment for me was not being able to read a newspaper on a 737 in one of the Economy seats as the seat in front of me was too close. Couldn’t open up my (much thinner and portable) newer laptop either when the person in front decided to move their seatback backwards those couple of inches (if the screen is pointed at your knees, your eyeballs can’t see it so why bother). The “moment” was when I had to transfer to a regional airline right after that and the turboprop had more seat room than that 737.
I’ve watched the rise of “air rage” events and I chalk it up to two things:
- The continued rise of peoples’ lack of self-control and self-restraint on airplanes and in airports. The callowness of Society, devolving to be ruder and ruder has become a “feature and not a bug”. The idea of manners, based on the Left’s policies, is being lost (they talk about “civility” and then ignore it). While I’m talking about air travel, the great example is Chicago gang warfare resulting is tens of gun crime (not violence) incidents including the now usual “weekend death report”.
- The airline industry, in a spiral to compete in that deregulated industry, keeps cutting more and more costs out of their operations. In doing so, they treat, in a lot of cases, their customers just as badly. There’s a reason why the process of loading a new set of passengers is called “cattle call”.
Combine those two thing and there’s a foundation of why more people are acting badly in flight. But this move by the Delta CEO to place people on the “Do Not Fly” list is out of line passing the buck to the Federal Government (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Delta Seeks Support of DOJ to Have Unruly Passengers Added to ‘No-Fly’ List
The CEO of Delta Air Lines is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to have passengers convicted of disruptive behavior added to a national “no-fly” list that would prevent them from future travel on any commercial air carrier.
“We are requesting you support our efforts with respect to the much-needed step of putting any person convicted of an on-board disruption on a national, comprehensive, unruly passenger ‘no-fly’ list that would bar that person from traveling on any commercial air carrier,” Delta Chief Executive Ed Basian wrote in a letter reviewed by The Epoch Times. “This action will help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft,” the CEO added. The DOJ did not immediately comment on Basian’s letter.
Right now, the “no-fly” list only includes a subset of the terrorism list watch that allows the U.S. government to prohibit persons considered a threat to civil aviation from traveling on airlines.
This shows the tendency of society in general in moving from the traditional “I’LL take care of this” or “societal norms will deal with this with shunning and shaming” or even within the Judicial system to one of pushing every solution up to the Federal Government level.
Really, the do not fly list? If one thing is truth is that once you get on it, you almost never can get off it. I used to watch this carefully when my livelihood and ability to support my family was tightly coupled in being able to get my butt into that seat. That was enough (not that I ever lost control, EVAH) to make sure that MY self-control and that MY self-restraint was always in play.
It also helps that I don’t drink alcohol ever so that “mind clouding” and loss of control was ever something I’ve had to worry about.
But to NEVER allow someone to ever fly again, for what is often a single event (yes, I’m more lenient towards Basian’s outlook in multi-event serial disruptors)? And basically call for the “flight travel kiss of death” administered by the Feds?
Hey, Basian, you’ve got LOTS of technology – how about you just take care of this problem with respect to Delta? You can put their name on YOUR “list and keep that person from flying on YOUR airline? You can forbid that person from sitting in a Delta seat forever – and that makes sense as it was YOUR airline that the event happened.
What if that person has NEVER acted up on any other carrier? Why is it that you are all in from preventing that person from commercial flights ever again? You want to punish that person everywhere for the behavior that hasn’t happened everywhere else?
Certainly seems like it. It’s sorta like the Left’s viewpoint (which, more and more, Big Corporations are adopting) that there is no mercy, there is no empathy, there is no forgiveness…
Sidenote: unless you are a BLM rioter – would you let them on your planes, Basian, after a night of arson, destruction, and personal violence in ruining peoples lives and businesses? That seems to be the only folks that get that mercy, empathy, and forgiveness, yes?
When every punishment automatically goes to Volume 11, when your ox is getting gored, is helping to lead to that coarsening of Society. See items #1 and #2 above. Thanks for adding to that.
I deliberately used a Boeing 747 for that Featured Image above even though airlines stopped using it for passenger traffic years ago. I just have warm memories riding.
True, I flew 96% on United and my frequent flier points added up so fast that I was riding “up front” in first almost 2 out of every 3 times I boarded. I will tell you that riding in that upper deck, even as it was classified as “Business class” was FAR more enjoyable than First in any other aircraft. The staff were far nicer as well as most of those invited “upstairs” were business travelers and I NEVER saw anyone act out of “an entitlement mentality” any of those time (nor in the other First / Biz Class rides as well).
More civility, more ease of travel. What a concept?
(H/T: The Epoch Times)
