Whether intentional or not, last week’s announcement by the Biden Administration of an inquiry into business practices of the commercial airline industry smells awfully like a politically motivated effort to help out Vice President Kamala Harris’ floundering campaign. Sure, it could be legit, but holding it until two weeks before election day to announce it raises some red flags.
The actual “inquiry,” as announced, seems broad but does not identify specific instances of alleged wrongdoing by the aviation industry. The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division and Transportation (DOT) “jointly announced a broad public inquiry into the state of competition in air travel” relating to “consolidation, anticompetitive conduct and a wide range of issues affecting the availability and affordability of air travel options,” including “previous airline mergers, exclusionary conduct, airport access, aircraft manufacturing, airline ticket sales, pricing and rewards practices and the experiences of aviation workers.” Alrighty, but why now?
As a more-frequent-than-I-would-like flyer, I know that, of course, air travel is time-consuming and frustrating. Still, under the circumstances they face, the struggling airlines are doing a decent job of keeping air travel as cheap and comfortable as one can reasonably expect.
Even if that weren’t the case, slapping further regulations on the airline industry and putting even more bureaucrats into the mix is a dreadful idea. If the government wants to solve major air travel problems, it could do its job by fully funding airport infrastructure and hiring more air traffic controllers. Ironically, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigiegearlier this month put out a statement on X (formerly Twitter, blah blah blah) praising the airlines for bringing down the rate of flight cancellations and concluded that “so far this year overall flight cancellations are at less than 1.5%, well below the norm in the decade prior.” It makes you wonder if he even knew while doling out this praise that his boss was about to direct his own agency to lay down an 11th-hour smack on the industry by announcing an investigation.
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Was the move, then, somehow intended to give a bump to the Harris campaign? The U.S. Travel Association-- the organization that represents the $1.3 trillion travel industry and has a major stake in making sure that air travel is affordable and attractive to consumers--suggested as much in a statement, saying that the Biden DOT announcement “is another in a long line of disappointing political stunts.” The organization pointed out that “airfares are at new lows, and air travel demand is at historic highs.” The association concluded that “rather than solve these serious, complex and long-standing problems, the Biden administration is choosing to politicize the air travel process and, in so choosing, fail the American traveler.”
Back to Buttigieg for a moment. Maybe it wasn’t an end run, and perhaps he just wasn’t paying attention. The secretary has been very busy with the Harris-Walz campaign, raising over $15 million, and he was busy with his gig as a key campaign surrogate when this all went down. Even if the whole deal is above board, it would be laughable to suggest that the Secretary is fully engaged at the helm of his DOT day job (the one we pay him for). To avoid the appearance of impropriety, he should have removed himself from the campaign trail when (if?) it became obvious major regulatory investigation was imminent on the eve of election day.
But this being the swamp, we can’t really find this surprising, can we? Of course, Buttigieg is angling for a promotion to a better cabinet position if Harris wins. Dude’s been angling his entire career, and it seems to be working out for him. You go, Pete. I guess.
Again, flying is not the most comfortable experience, yet it has proven safe and remains relatively inexpensive. DOT says airfares are down. Airlines for America put out a survey that indicated 71% of Americans are satisfied with their air travel experience. With voters getting ready to vote up and down tickets, the last thing voters want to see is unelected bureaucrats micromanaging flight times and the prices of tickets for the sake of what…appearances? To score a few political points before an election?
All I know is this: God help us all if we ever get to the point where the government starts to think it knows best how to run an airline. Last week’s little stunt sure makes it look like the Biden administration does, no matter the excuse.
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