Originally Posted by
BostonHockeyGuy
I think you have a tough hill to climb saying that the problems in the industry are caused by regulators meddling. If anything, they have been bailed out by the government. They have escaped a Passenger Bill of Rights long past when one was due. They scraped billions of debt off their balance sheets including pension liabilities all through bankruptcy and goverment generosity.
This makes little sense to me. No meddeling? How many times has UA or AA labor tried to strike, ater negotiationg for years then "cooling off" only to have the only tool at their disposal,, a strike, be interfered with by both the exec, then the legislative branches? Major airline stike??? Closest thing to that in 20 years is NW mechanics, and that was a set up by NW mgmt.
A Passenger Bill of Rights that is long past due? IS that not meddeling in the economics of the industry? Is that part of the origianl Constitution? No, free market dforces will have you flying on airlines that meet your needs, or at least avoiding the ones that let you down the most. How are new govt regulations on delays (which are mostly caused by the FAA's fialure to grow properly over the past 30 years) allowing the market forces to appy? And in the same paragraph, these senators say that they want to interfere with mergers...and they say they have de-regulatd.
No, alas, they have de-regulated certain aspects. They have regulated others even more.
Even IF there is a DL-NW, a UA-CO, an AA-TW, and a US-HP, plus 15 other niche/LCC carriers (hellow...WN is HUGE domesticly....and this is what we are talking about...domestic regulation....open skies has effectivly de-regulated intl much more than the US has de-redulated US) is (4) major carriers and tons of LCC not enough competition?
How many MAJOR products have that kind of competition? Cable? NO Comcast/ATT are the duo-opoly. Mobile Phone? ATT/Sprint/T-Mobile/Verizon plus various smaller. Power....how many companies can you choose to provide you with power? Airline travel is NOT a utility like electricity that you have a "right" to. It is a comercial industry. You won't die without it. Goods and services CAN be trucked/trained/boated. You can drive from WAS-SFO....sure it will cost you MUCH MORE than a tkt and take 20 times as long, but there are options.
I am no economist, but for you to say that airlines aren't regulated, that they are just "bailed out" and that to furthur de-regulation and free market efficiencies, you need a "psgr bill of rights" to me makes no sense.
HonestAbe nailed it on the head. Glenn Tilton is a true CEO. He wants return on investment. Period. Airlines don't do that...becuase they aren't allowed to evolve freely.