The airlines must be run by morons. They fought the proposed safer travel law because it was deemed “too expensive.” Do they think people will be doing much traveling with Ebola victims on airplanes? They deserve to be boycotted.
Maybe that's what the airlines said publicly, but I'm sure there was much more to it than simply the cost of complying with the law.
The bigger issue from the airlines' perspective is that the law would have required them to basically become unpaid recordkeepers for the CDC -- and that the airlines themselves would potentially be exposed to civil liability if they failed to correctly identify "sick passengers" at the point of boarding.
I’m not convinced people would limit air travel. Right now I personally know an intelligent person who is continuing with plans for a trip to Turkey despite all the terror/ISIS implications. Even when he was told that traveling to Turkey would land him on various watch lists for life, he plans on making the trip. Incidentally, he will likely end up on various airlines and various airports that have been exposed to Ebola.
I know others who love cruising, are retired, and continue on with multiple cruises/year despite all the norovirus outbreaks.
These are successful people. Some are liberal, some are conservatives, some are RINOS. Most are in their 60s. I detect no fatalism. I think they have extreme cases of normalcy bias. Also, when travel slows down, the fares also decrease and I can vouch for the fact that many people will grab a *bargain*, regardless of risks.
The airlines will respond when they face legal suits.