Planes, Profits, Peril (and Why Flying Sucks)

Why has flying become so crappy? Modern air travel has morphed into a high-altitude endurance test, cramming us into shrinking seats and nickel-and-diming us for every basic necessity. In this episode, we trace the airline industry’s descent from a regulated public utility to a monopoly-driven, irrational oligarchy in the wake of the 1978 Deregulation Act.

We look at the war against airline and airport workers, starting with the smashing of the 1981 PATCO air traffic controllers' strike. We discuss exhausted air traffic controllers and pilots struggling under massive debt, grueling work hours, and poverty wages.

By examining several crashes and close calls, we look at how profit undermines safety, and how the outsourcing and cost-cutting of maintenance is a danger to the whole flying public. We examine how government agencies like the FAA gave a free pass to airline manufacturers like Boeing in pushing through shoddy engineering, like with the 737 Max.

For the airline industry, the “magic of the market” means that profits are privatized but losses are socialized, leading to one government bailout after another. The answer to the airline cartel’s war on its workers is industrialized unions and workers' control of safety.