Losing licenses should be for serious stuff — not for a DL pilot landing with proper clearance to land and supplying entertaining communications to the passengers eagerly awaiting landing as soon as possible.

Management gets the employees it deserves.

What’s crass is making excuses that pass the problem down the line, as the messes risk becoming not only more likely down the road but even a bigger mess for more travelers in the future.

Excuses to defend the status quo or to marginalize criticism typically rely upon facts picked to avoid facing comparisons and the reality that there are problems which can and should be fixed. The excuse-making/accepting mentality mean problems get a pass despite what it means for the next messes to come. The “oh, but we/they are different” is just cover for excuses. I don’t buy the idea that DL@JFK shouldn’t and couldn’t do better just because it’s NYC.

But if DL and the other airlines aren’t able and willing to be more proactive to minimize messes hitting travelers at JFK or wherever, then they need to be delivered a lesson by way of something like a US-equivalent to EC 261/2004.

If pilot was saying in jest, sure I agree. However there are many a pilot who this would not just be in jest/humorous. They would actually believe it, beliving it an insult (or as a challenge) to their abilities if they couldn't.

If triggering themselves like that, then they should be subject to another test to see if the job is still truly suitable for their psychological state.

I attended UND (largest aviation program in world last I knew) and I can tell you there's plenty of students I knew, that if saw (boarding to operate), i would get off the plane.

Its time to speak more crass if we believe service can be improved. Without offending anyone, possibly. Just to generalize further and to be more crass, I’d mention that upon moving from MSP to BOS well over a decade ago, I experienced a dramatic drop in the work ethics in several industries, even the most renowned of the city, at so many different levels. And the drop continued when moving to NYC. That said, NYC and BOS are not MSP and most of us willingly accept the drop in levels of service and are ok with the different work ethics in order to live and be there.

Oh, stop. Just please stop.

The day in question was one of the most challenging ever for ground crews across the country. At JFK, below-wing DL people were dealing with:

- sudden drop in temperature after a day of rain: this meant anything sitting in water (all the jetbridges, for example) was frozen in place.
- burst pipes in T4: geysers of water spewing throughout their workspace and offices requires ground crews to hustle to deal with that issue, taking time away from working flights
- thousands of bags that were needing processing because of cancellations and misconnects.

People here love to make snide comments about NYC work ethic or whatever. Fact is, it’s significantly harder to work there for many many reasons. And the line employees are trying damn hard.