[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

Bring-on AIR AMTRAK!

This is another example of the need for a government-supported airline which would not have profit as a motive, but only service to the public. Such an airline should be limited to using secondary airports (Example: Islip, White Plains, or Newburgh in NEW YORK to Burbank or Long Beach in CALIFORNIA). This would limit the competitive effect on the for-profit airlines. On the other hand, it’s possible the for-profit airlines might feel pressure to clean-up their act when it comes to delays—weather-related and otherwise. The, comparatively, light traffic at these airports allow them to continue operating, without delays, when a larger airport, say 30 miles away, has major delays due to the extra “spacing” of flights required by bad weather.

In return for the inconvenience of traveling through a secondary airport, families could receive, for perhaps a modest surcharge, the amenities described above. Likewise, the handicapped would be guaranteed accommodations compatable with their condition. For “people of size,” there could be two seats “blocked-out” on each flight. Hence, this government-supported airline would be directed at the IN-frequent flyer.

The US-based for-profit airlines make their money from full-fare coach tickets, first class tickets, and men and women, in business suits, with laptop in tow. Families, the handicapped, the elderly, and college students, are seen by these airlines as an unavoidable annoyance. Indeed, this “annoyance” sometimes takes the form of open hostility, on the part of gate agents and flight attendants, for no good reason. Who has NOT heard the story of the Continental Express (Express Jet Airlines) flight attendant who kicked a mother, and her 5-year old son, off the plane because the boy wouldn’t stop saying “bye, bye plane.”

For the foreseeable future, these circumstances will probably not only NOT change—it will get WORSE!