I’m sorry. I have no sympathy for most U.S. airlines or the people who work for them! Sorry, but I don’t!

While there are, of course, exceptions, many U.S. airlines have some of the oldest fleets on the planet. I think even Vietnam’s commercial air fleet tends to be newer.

After years of cutbacks and slim downs and dips in and out of bankruptcy courts, pilots and flight attendants alike tend to be in really foul moods nowadays.

And, while they like to complain often that passengers have become unruly, I beg to differ. From what I have observed in recent months, flight crews are getting away with murder!

They no longer have to serve food on most domestic flights. They’ve often even cut back beverage service. I one time even caught three flight attendants in the back of the plane chatting and even filling out the New York Times crossword puzzle while passengers up front were waiting to be delivered precious plastic bottles of water.

In recent weeks, there have been a number of incidents where passengers deemed “unruly” by flight crew standards have practically been arrested on suspicion of terrorism.

Since when does a paying customer complaining about horrible service constitute a crime against national security?

I fear that flight attendants, many of whom are not exactly the brightest stars in the known universe, will increasingly use the fear of terrorism as an excuse to , in effect, “punish” passengers who complain about their flight experience.

Frankly, I think it is time for some of the so-called legacy airlines (United, American, Delta, to name a few) to give up the ghost and finally go out of business!

They no longer do a good job and are not likely , given the economics of modern air travel, to ever recovery anything that approaches their former glory. Newer airlines, such as Jet Blue and Virgin America, do a much better job and have employees who actually still enjoy being there. Either that, or they are just better actors!

Whatever.

The fact is, no matter what the nonsense the airlines and federal government like to spoon feed us through the media, you have a far greater chance getting hit by a comet falling through your roof and killing you than you have being the victim of a terrorist attack on a U.S. airliner.

People like the former Homeland Security Secretary who go around telling anyone who will listen that the skies are so unsafe that full body scanners need to be placed at every airport in the world, conviently forget to tell people that their private security companies represent some of the largest manufacturers of these machines.

Can you say–PROFIT MOTIVE!

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