Flying the Unfriendly Skies
by Rev. Peter E. Bauer
My first airline flight was when I was a first year student at Princeton Theological Seminary. I was flying home for Christmas break. My itinerary had me flying out of Philadelphia to Chicago and then on to Portland, Oregon. Some friends of mine from school drove me to the Philadelphia International Airport. I checked in and finally boarded my flight. It was all so new. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I can’t say that I was very anxious, just expectant about what was going to happen next.
The plane sped down the runway and the liftoff took place and the plane climbed to a cruising altitude on its way to Chicago. I remember gripping the arms of my seat, praying a little, and felt the plane leave the ground. I then looked outside the window and saw all of the billowy clouds below evoking this angelic scene. At this point, a flight attendant came by and brought me some coffee. She sat with me for a few minutes as I marveled about the scene of the clouds and the landscape below. Those days really depicted for me that flying was a welcoming friendly experience.
Alas, that is not the case right now with the airline industry. The recent reports regarding various carriers and their treatment of airline passengers (i.e., dragging them off of a plane and causing bodily injury, snatching a stroller out of the hands of a young mother traveling alone with her child, kicking a family off of a Trans-Ocean flight in order to allow some other people who were waiting to occupy their seats) does not speak of a hospitable environment. Instead, the atmosphere described is akin to a Wild West movie where the local citizens are terrorized by the vigilantes.
What has caused the airline industry to become the “badlands” of travel? I think it would be fair to say that airline service began to diminish when deregulation was established. Once you had flight attendants cutting slices of roast beef for passengers in first class. Now you are fortunate if you get peanuts and Biscotti cookies on trans-continental flights. Seating has also become more of a scare resource. Gone are spacious seats in economy or coach class, and now you have what one passenger recently referred to accommodations that convey “we’re a bunch of tuna crammed into a can.” (From an NPR segment, “Have the ‘miserable’ airlines finally reached a tipping point?”)
Also, planes are getting older and are being kept flying routes longer. About fifteen years ago, I was on a long flight from Chicago to Honolulu. I remember I got up to walk and stretch my legs on this 747, and I noticed a plaque on the bulkhead that recognized this plane as being 30 years old. That’s not a comforting thought to have while you are flying over the vast Pacific Ocean.
A few years ago, I was waiting to board a flight, and the announcement was made that the plane would be departing late because a seat broke and got unhinged from the floor. The delay was to allow the seat to be repaired and to be re-bolted to the floor of the airplane. When I boarded the plane, I discovered that it was “my” seat; I remember that I wrote the airline in question and informed them about this incident. They sent me back a travel voucher.
So what is the prescription for this problem? Clearly, I would argue that the data calls for a massive infrastructure program improving airports here in the United States, expanding and adding runways, adding more flights, more flight crews, more air traffic control staff, and more non-stops. All of this could provide improvement to the overtaxed flying environment that currently exists.
We are already seeing evidence that some carriers are listening and are increasing financial compensation when passengers are bumped from flights due to over-booking. Whether this will be a permanent change versus a temporary measure remains to be seen.
What needs to change, however, is the incivility that we are witnessing with airline passengers along with unsympathetic airline staff who feel that they can, on occasion, hold passengers hostage to their agenda. There will those people who will continue to feel tentative about flying and will be legitimately concerned that their trauma may not be so much due to the mode of flying but rather to the unbridled aggressive behavior experienced by the airline carrier. The connection between earth and sky will be severed and of course the anxiety will be heightened for people experiencing this loss of control…
The skies need to become friendly again.
May it be so.
