Democrat Proposes to Expand Government Regulation of Airlines

A Northwest flight flew 150 miles past its destination in Minneapolis, MN.  It was discovered that the cockpit crew was using laptop computers which distracted them and led to the error.

Now the chairman of the aviation subcommittee, Senator Byron Dorgan (D), is proposing government regulation to address this issue.

Dorgan is following the common course of all who work in the legislative branch: write more laws to control more of the lives of Americans.  This is wrong, should be rejected and Dorgan should be voted out because of it.

Why is it wrong? 

1. Northwest is owned by Delta.  Delta has an existing policy that prohibits just this sort of behavior by pilots and co-pilots and has already suspended the employees.
2. Does anyone really believe that Northwest or any other airline will continue any similar practices?  If that were to happen again the consumer reaction would be severe.  Delta and Northwest have already had their brand images tarnished.  The industry is too competitive to allow a company to run shoddy service that passengers perceive as irresponsible and dangerous.

By increasing government regulation Dorgan is doing the only thing he knows how to do and it is exactly the wrong thing.  Increasing regulations always leads to increasing the costs for the consumer.  What should be done is not increase government regulation but decrease government regulation.

The consumer pressures mentioned in 2 would be even stronger if there was no regulation.  How?  The FAA regulates who can fly where, they prohibit competition.  If Northwest is one of the few carriers on that route they have more supplier power and can be lazy.  Since the FAA prohibits new entrants they existing carriers are protected from competition.  These factors make the carriers resistant to improvement because that often costs time and money.  This resistance gives the government a reason to write more laws claiming they are in the best interest of the consumer.  Regulation always raises costs to the consumer in one way or another.  Removing regulation however would increase carriers serving that route.  The switching costs for consumers is very low when it comes to picking a flight so having more choice would mean that carries would also have to provide better, safer service and lower prices to stay in business.

Again, we have a misguided effort on part of government that is completely unnecessary and will only expand government control and not be in the best interest of the consumer.  It is more of the same and it is not good.  The real solution is the same as it ever was: free markets.  The consumer will decide which airlines they and what kind of services they demand.  As is almost always the case, there is simply no place for government here.