Platypus Thoughts

That used to be an advertising slogan for United Airlines. Airlines used to boast of being not only friendly, but reliable and safe as well.

I have found airplane crews to be mostly friendly. (I especially appreciate the flight attendants who have realized that we are not listening to the spiel about seat belts and flotation devices and who make the effort to regain our attention with funny quips or even songs.) I have also found airport staff to be mostly friendly – even the poor folk who have to deal with angry customers whose planes are late due to weather, mechanical issues, or failure of the crew to show up. Or those who work in lost luggage and have to deal with passengers whose bags have traveled elsewhere. Even the ground crews, from my vantage point out the airplane porthole, seem to be doing a good job of resupplying the aircraft and handling luggage.

But air travel safety?

We’ve known for years that U.S. airline safety systems are in need of upgrading. We don’t have enough air traffic controllers and those we have are overworked and stressed. Infrastructure, radar, software and hardware, telecommunications systems need to be updated, if not replaced. We need more airline mechanics to keep our planes running safely and on schedule. And yet it’s always the airports that seem to be under construction. You know the saying, you can’t put lipstick on a pig? Well, you can of course, but it’s still a pig.

The way to modernize some things – say, a crumbling building – is to knock it down and rebuild from the ground up. But you don’t do that while the building is full of tenants. That would be tantamount to laying off airplane mechanics and off-lining the air traffic safety system while planes are still in the air.

Oh, wait … that’s just what this administration is proposing.

Fly the friendly skies? I think not.