A Pilot’s Take on the State of Airline Regulation

Here are comments from a major airline pilot that I know, posted here with permission, in the wake of the predictable “there awwta be a law” hysteria following the United Airlines fiasco:

It kills me when people think that the government should step in and “do something” about the airlines, but I’d like to see one aspect of the airline industry that isn’t tied hand and foot by regulations, from the material in the seats to the fares to the licensing of the pilots, dispatchers, and mechanics to the way they produce and deliver weather information to the cockpits.  Health care regulation is nothing compared to the regulation already in place at the airlines.  Anyone who doesn’t believe that is welcome to read through my Flight Operations Manual, because every single word in there has been vetted by lawyers at [my airline] and the FAA.  That’s one manual.  They all get the same treatment.  When do you need to file a destination or takeoff alternate?  There’s a rule for that.  There’s a rule for what the weather has to be forecast to be at those alternates and for what time period, and when a second alternate has to be designated and how much more fuel has to be carried to reach it, and where that information has to be recorded.  If you take a pilot from one airline and drop him into the seat of an aircraft at another airline, with the exception of some callouts and the way some items are listed on checklists he probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.  Everything that happens, happens because the airline’s complying with FARs [regulations].

“There awwta be a law,” you say? There already IS a law…in fact, tens of thousands of them!