Is it time to resurrect a form of the old civil aeronautics board? Given the almost daily litany of severely delayed and/or canceled flights across airlines, and the growing number of days where one or more airlines have to cancel hundreds of flights to avoid a total meltdown of their respective services, does re-instituting an agency, or a department within an agency, to regulate service make sense?
It appears that the pilot shortage, which seems to be a major contributing factor to many cancelations, isn't going away anytime soon. Airlines are either in the process, or beginning to think seriously about, instituting their own aviation academies but no matter how fast they cycle them up it will be quite a while before enough qualified candidates are in place to make up for the substantial retirements all airlines are experiencing today.
It's no secret I retired from United Airlines 2 years ago at the end of this month. Part of my retirement package was a continuation of my flight benefits. I've tried several times in the past few months to travel using those benefits and have been stymied as many times as I have been successful. The aircraft are just plain full. Not only full, but oversold in a number of cases. I'm not complaining. I appreciate the fact that's good for the airline and my fellow coworkers who are still striving to do their best everyday, even if their work days are that much more stressful.
But if you are a family trying to take a vacation, and your flight is delayed or canceled and leaves you stranded, you have to wonder how that factors into their next vacation. If you're a business person heading out for an important meet and greet and are delayed or the flight is canceled, again you have to wonder how that affects their travel decisions going forward.
It might be wise for the government to step in, since they had a hand in creating this situation, and start regulating service as the old CAB used to do. That way airlines can concentrate on serving those markets they earn the right to service well, as opposed to half ass. Put a sunset provision in any law or regulation whereby the government has to justify continuing regulation 10 or 15 years down range. If technology has increased to the point single pilot ops are feasible, or there are enough pilots in service and in the pipeline that a shortage has been alleviated, the market can deregulate again.
I'm not a fan of government regulation but this situation we find ourselves in is not going away anytime soon and needs addressing. The airlines aren't going to voluntarily reduce their service between certain marquee destinations, and it seems to be happening at the expense of smaller markets that still need service. I'm open to other ideas, but in this situation, I can't see any agreements between the airlines themselves sticking or not being seen as collusion/price fixing. Thoughts?
What's the point of an open door policy if inside the open door sits a closed mind?