Alternate view on airport travel chaos: The airlines aren't holding up their end of the deal

Hotair ^ | 06/28/2022 | Jazz Shaw

[grey_whiskers]

IIRC, Congress gave the airlines $50 billion of OUR money during COVID, and all they did was try to force pilots to get the jab, and buy back their own stock.

[cgbg]

First the airlines started to treat the passengers like cattle.

Then they decided to treat their pilots like cattle.

Many pilots decided to moooooove on....

[clee1]

Fvck the airlines....

I haven’t flown on an airline since before 9/11/2001, and God willing, I won’t ever fly commercial again.

[one guy in new jersey]

Many, many pilots have had their health deemingly permanently robbed frim them, and, as a result, their ability to fly, by being forced to “vexx up” or have their career taken awsy.

Then there is those who refused to vexx up. They were fired.

No wonder the industry is in the grips of a chrinic pilot shortage!

[ThunderStruck94]

I’ve made this comment a couple of times on similar posts. I am a recently retired Navy pilot with an ATP. My application to Southwest was denied for not having the jab. I didn’t bother applying anywhere else. I work in a brewery in McKinney, TX making beer now and no shot required. I am actually really happy doing a fun thing in retirement.

[Zhang Fei]

[IIRC, Congress gave the airlines $50 billion of OUR money during COVID, and all they did was try to force pilots to get the jab, and buy back their own stock.]

---

Airlines don’t fly passengers to their destinations by having employees flap their arms. Their massive debt balances due to the cost of financing airplanes had to be serviced in an environment where revenues had fallen sharply. For instance, Southwest, the best operator in the US, generated $2.5b in profit per year before the pandemic. In the two years since, it has lost a net $2b, or an average loss of a billion a year. It had to dilute existing shareholders to stay in business. Without the bailout to keep paying employees, the airlines might have been liquidated en masse. Most of them are barely keeping their heads above water. And that was before oil prices above $100.

[semimojo]

Perhaps the real lesson here is the federal government should stop handing out free cash with no strings attached even in times of crisis.

This may be good policy but it’s incoherent in the context of the rest of the article.

No aid would only mean more laid off pilots and worse airline performance.

[Alberta's Child]

That money was meant to preserve jobs and save an industry.

This is where the author is wrong. The U.S. government gave that money to the airlines so they could fulfill their contracts to pay for the new aircraft they had ordered before the pandemic.

That was a Boeing bailout, not an airline bailout.

[exnavy]

I stopped flying decades ago.

[one guy in new jersey]

There must be a fair number of people like you out there who would have constituted part of the applicant pool, or the pool of potential applicants, but whose non-vexxing ways chronically put them on the outside, looking in, due to airline policies mandating the vexxine.

Happy to hear a fellow vet has found a comfortabke place to land. ✈️

[Paladin2]

It’s the gooberment’s fault.

A: Guided Mandatory pilot jabbing.

B: Increased [Yugely] hours of experience to certify new pilots.

[C: The FAA is dead on its butt along the east coast.]

[Paladin2]

Amazing.

https://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=breweries&find_loc=McKinney%2C+TX

I have yet to look at the map to see where McKinney even is....

[mikelets456]

Stupid article. My son is a pilot and the reason for shortages is mainly government.
#1— Forced vaccines. I don’t know the exact number that quit due to it bu possibly 5%~10%
#2- Forced retirement at age 65. They just changed that to 67…but many already left
#3- FAA airmen check rides. This is a huge bottleneck. Many of my son’s friends and he himself sat around for 3-6 months waiting for one of these guys to give a final check ride.

There’s more but that’s the main stuff because many other workers quit due to vaccines, stupid other mandates,etc.

Also, my son had to delay his flight for 5 hours because an exit door was missing reflective tape. They had to wait for special FAA approved tape to arrive before taking off.

Yup, more government created BS

[Jimmy Valentine]

The TSA has worked so hard to make air travel difficult and uncomfortable. With me they’ve won. Won’t fly again ever unless I win the Lottery and can hire a Gulfstream.

[fruser1]

If they know there aren’t enough pilots, why book the flight?

Total con. Like the government itself.

[redgolum]

Because the debt needs serviced if you fly or not.

In fact a case can be made that more money is made by canceling flights.

[kearnyirish2]

The problem is that side effects of the vaccine could end a pilot’s career more quickly than in other fields; heart or vision problems would make it impossible to keep the license. A friend described many Air Force reservists refusing it for this very reason; they’d lose their full-time jobs (livelihoods) because of something required by their part-time gig.

[Kozak]

British Airways cancelled my trip to Greece for my sons wedding. Did not even try to rebook.: A year later still waiting for my money

[Paladin2]

Private Aviation is clearly the way to go in these TSA days [I loved the few times I experienced Corporate Aviation].