I've had it. I'm sick and tired of reading time after time about large airlines who can't make money. From United to American, to Delta to US Airways the insanity must stop.
What put me over the edge you say? It was reading yesterday that both United and Delta are headed for bigger and bigger losses and are (again) seeking more union concessions, to right their slagging business.
Management's first reaction to these type of issues is to always blame the unions. I'm certainly the farthest thing from a union apologist but this is not all their doing. It's management who cuts the deals with the unions, management needs to be held accountable. The only case where this does not hold serve is United because the employees own 45% of the company. But nonetheless it is the consistently bad deals that are being cut that astound and aggravate me.
Part of my ire comes from the fact that the airlines always think they have a safety net: the government. Unfortunately, they are right and history has played this out time and again that either the feds or the state will come to the rescue of a flaying carrier.
Why do we do this? Airline travel has a built-in demand but what it doesn't have is a guaranteed supply base. This is not Europe (where time and again national "flag" carriers are propped up as a matter of civic pride). What right do these businesses have expecting the government (read: taxpayers) to come to their rescue when they make lousy business decisions.
Hawk's View: This time my view is simple, no more bailouts. The free market always can show us the way. Let the airlines know that the great slush fund is over. A federal law needs to be enacted to save us from ourselves and make it illegal to bail out the airline industry. I even have the the perfect candidate to sponsor my idea: Senator John McCain. It would give the lifelong presidential candidate plenty of TV time and cleanse us from our past sins.
No comments:
Post a Comment