[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

Much has been written here about weather delays and the resulting misery. Under the status quo, the consequences of weather delays are borne, almost entirely, by the passenger. When it comes to bad weather, it’s time for the government to take the airlines down from their pedestal. Obviously, no one should expect planes to operate when the given airport is engulfed by a blizzard or an icy runway. However these conditions always do subside. Snow is plowed and runways become free of ice. If the price of airline tickets are to be affordable to most Americans then, unfortunately, the airline passenger must accept that he is on his own during periods when runways are unusable and the weather renders flying dangerous. Under these circumstances: No hotels for the stranded passenger, no food vouchers, etc. But what happens when the storm has passed; the runways are usable, and the weather at the destination airport is clear? At this point is travel now a privilege restricted to Business, First Class, and ultra-Platnum passengers? Judging from the number of people sleeping on the airport floor, it certainly seems that way. Like the weather, the ability to precisely forcast the beginning and end of a future financial downturn is equally elusive. That is why, since the Great Depression, banks are required to maintain cash surpluses sufficient to cover hypothesized loan defaults and mass withdrawals. At the present time US-based airlines are under no such similar requirement. In theory, an airline can have two planes in its fleet, and operate both planes in regular service seven days a week. Unlike the banks, there is no requirement upon airlines to, always, have an unused plane in a hangar or have a standing arrangement, with a charter airline, to have aircraft available on short notice. Instead some passengers are left with the choice of continuing to sleep on an airport floor, for upwards of 5 to 7 days, or forgo a ticket worth a few hundred dollars and pay, still more, money for alternate transportation. As I’ve indicated, it is within the power of the airlines to make sufficient aircraft available, following a period of severe weather, so that US airports do not need to look like refugee camps for days on end. It is not unreasonable to require the airlines to have arrangements in place wherein there would be “spare” aircraft available equal in number to a given percentage of revenue passengers carried during the previous year. Will ticket prices go up? Almost certainly. However it is nothing but outright fraud to take $99 from someone; not offer a full refund; not offer a hotel voucher; and know, full well, that bad weather may result in a passenger not reaching their destination for days on end.