Let’s be clear, there is no such thing as a free market out there today. if there was it would be chaos or a monopoly. Time and time again it has been shown that unregulated markets evolve into monopolies, those monopolies are then less interested in the consumer and use an abuse phase of maximize profit to happily destroy the environment.
At the moment there are four major airlines, United, American, Delta, and South West and these four control much of the major airports, staking claims in home ports like Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, and Houston. In what way can there be any real competition so of course American can screw customers and not really take a hit since they are almost guaranteed customers due to demand.
I get a kick at those who love to insult Sec of transportation, but don’t seem to have any viable solution as to how to fix the problems. I actually think it is smart to go after airlines, but reminding passengers they have rights and protections, because that does hurt the bottom line.
I am beginning to suspect “Bob’s” comments for it was a remarkably similar post to an FAA article last week. Bob loves to say ATC delayed him on a sunny day at the departure airport, but I would have also said why ATC delayed. Have pilots stopped being curious and just don’t ask any more? Nope, it would seem they are content sitting a long time on a ramp then complaining. Was it routing? Weather in route? Weather at arrival predicted?
The S0T is right about one thing, these cancellations and delays impacts real lives. People have/had come to depend on the reliability of airlines and that trust is fading so at least he is trying to do something.