Letters

Greyhound with Wings

In your January 26 issue, Kevin D. Williamson (“Unholy Alliances”) charges airlines with a “cascade of incompetence” because he has apparently been routinely and unfairly inconvenienced by them. I have been a pilot for a major U.S. airline for the past 26 years. Not once has my airline “failed to get a flight crew to the airport to man scheduled routes” due to its own incompetence. I find it laughable that after he acknowledges the ridiculous practices and “shady union goons” of the TSA, the airport authorities, and the NTSB, it never occurs to Mr. Williamson that the FAA and air-traffic control are similarly staffed. Yes, I have waited for takeoff — or been rerouted through airspace for “weather” — when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. But it has never once been my decision, or the decision of my company, to burn fuel, waste time, or miss passenger connections. Mr. Williamson might want to educate himself about onerous and undecipherable flight-duty limits (imposed on airlines by the FAA) or the unintended consequences of the “Passenger’s Bill of Rights” (imposed on airlines by politicians) before he attributes flight delays to incompetent airline employees. Capitalism indeed. No one is forcing Mr. Williamson to fly. Maybe he can submit his next diatribe about wasted time from the comfort of a Greyhound bus seat. I hear they offer WiFi these days.