Mayor Pete has evidently had enough. It seems the last straw was having his own flight from DC to New York canceled and so, just like the rest of us deplorables, he had to DRIVE to New York. Oh. The. Horror.

He had just met with airline execs the day prior, and I guess their conversation with Mayor Pete just wasn’t enough. Once HIS flight was canceled, he wagged his finger and issued a stern lecture. 

“That is happening to a lot of people, and that is exactly why we are paying close attention here to what can be done and how to make sure that the airlines are delivering,” Buttigieg told the Associated Press in an interview Saturday.

Buttigieg said he is pushing the airlines to stress-test their summer schedules to ensure they can operate all their planned flights with the employees they have, and to add customer service workers. That could put pressure on airlines to make additional cuts in their summer schedules.

Buttigieg said his department could take enforcement actions against airlines that fail to live up to consumer protection standards. But first, he said, he wants to see whether there are major flight disruptions over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and the rest of the summer.

Enforcement actions can results in fines, although they tend to be small. Air Canada agreed to pay a $2-million fine last year over slow refunds.

During Thursday’s virtual meeting, airline executives described steps they are taking to avoid a repeat of the Memorial Day weekend, when about 2,800 flights were canceled. “Now we’re going to see how those steps measure up,” Buttigieg said.

I feel for the airlines, I really do. When the world shutdown, so did most of the flights of all the major airlines. When flights started slowly resuming, there were multiple times when I was only one of about 15 people, including pilots and flight attendants on the plane. As more people started traveling again and planes filled up, more flights were added to the schedules with a couple of major caveats, STAFFING. 

If you don’t have enough pilots, and/or ground staff, or flight attendants, planes can’t be flown. In fact, the Covid lockdowns and the government’s messaging/demands regarding vaccines among other ancillary issues has led to a critical pilot shortage. 

On May 13, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci apologized in a YouTube video for continued flight cancellations that have been plaguing the carrier. Minicucci blamed the pilot shortage, saying “we had 63 fewer pilots than what we planned for when we built our scheduled,” which caused a “ripple effect.”

“By the time we caught this error, April and May schedules were bid on by our pilots and flight attendants, making it impossible to sufficiently adjust schedules to avoid cancellations,” he continued.

The Seattle-based carrier is just one example of airlines struggling to find enough pilots to handle the busy post-pandemic travel surge. According to Bloomberg, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and United Airlines have all cut regional flying in recent months due to the shortage, with United grounding 100 regional planes over the issue.

The airlines are trying to compensate by ramping up hiring, upping salaries, and shortening training hours. But therein lies the rub. Mayor Pete would have us believe that the airlines can just wave a magic wand and pilots will just appear. They are to wave that magic wand and suddenly that 737 that needed pilots will be staffed. I mean, a pilot who flies an MD-80 can easily fly a 737…RIGHT? WRONG. 

Even I know that pilots need different training and certifications for different planes, and I’m not a pilot! 

This summer of travel is shaping up to be a difficult one for all. 

The high fuel prices and staffing shortages from the FAA to the airlines to the airports themselves doesn’t and won’t help. 

Mayor Pete’s idea is to start with hiring more CSA’s and go from there. Which, in addition to his inability to deal with supply chain issues, it shows how ignorant he is about transportation. 

https://twitter.com/SereUsaf/status/1538554051582754817

Probably. Then again, did South Bend ever get those potholes filled? 

Mayor Pete’s grand idea also involves the federal government issuing direct orders to the airlines and expecting them to jump before asking how high. 

This is full blown #Communism talking.

The idea en elected official believes the government can force private companies to hire people is an admission of communist ideals.

@PeteButtigieg you are mistaken, this is America.https://t.co/ZU4ysLe5LC

— Daniel Hussey (@DanielHusseyJr) June 19, 2022

As Jazz Shaw over at HotAir notes, industry experts have been warning for some time now that it will take years for the pilot shortage to resolve itself. 

Just because Mayor Pete was inconvenienced the other day is absolutely no reason for him to order airlines to fly planes on time or else. 

Then again, this is a drunk on power administration with people in charge who have absolutely NO IDEA how businesses work. Mayor Pete is a prime example of the clueless wonders running the U.S. Government right now. 

Feature Photo Credit: airplane landing via Pixabay, cropped and modified