The Airline Industry

During my carpool to work this morning I was subject to National Public Radio and a story about how more regulation and oversight is needed of the airline industry. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) was quoted extensively. This is the gist:

The FAA and airlines are responding, in part, to heightened scrutiny by Congress, led by Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and aviation safety activist.

Congress' stance toward the airline industry has shifted from benevolence after the Sept. 11 attacks to a more combative approach after a string of passenger disruptions and recent revelations about lax oversight.

Oberstar said Wednesday that his criticism was "an effort to get them back on course, to being the gold standard in the world for aviation safety oversight and maintenance oversight, and to re-establish a safety mind-set and culture with the agency, instead of this coddling of the industry."

There has not been a crash of a big jet in the United States since an American Airlines plane broke up in flight over New York in November 2001 - a point repeatedly made by federal administrators and airline executives as proof that the air system is safe.

That attitude could be dangerous, Oberstar said. "Time passes, and 'Oh, we haven't had an accident, and now we can be cozy and play patty-cake with the airlines,'" he said, describing the attitude of the FAA.

"As soon as you do that, you lose the enforcement mind-set, and you lose the sense of the margin of safety," he said.

The premise here being that Oberstar and regulators both are more knowledgeable and have a greater vested interest in safety than the airlines. Let's think about that. If an airline has its plane crash it loses a valuable airplane, personnel, gets bad publicity and probably has its stock price negatively impacted. What reason is there to think that they aren't already dedicated to safety? What does regulation bring to the table? Getting passengers safely from point A to point B is their entire raison d'etre. If they can't do that then they suffer the ultimate penalty in business -- they cease to exist. If that isn't motivation enough, then I have a hard time believing that abiding by regulation will make the difference.