How to turn Americans into libertarians

As I was boarding my ATA flight back to Chicago yesterday, I was startled to see the boarding area so crowded. I then found out that the flight before mine to Chicago — which was supposed to leave six hours before mine — had been cancelled. I assumed this was because of the inclement weather ...

By Daniel W. Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

January 20, 2005, 4:27 PM

As I was boarding my ATA flight back to Chicago yesterday, I was startled to see the boarding area so crowded. I then found out that the flight before mine to Chicago -- which was supposed to leave six hours before mine -- had been cancelled. I assumed this was because of the inclement weather (it was snowing), but it turned out I was only partially correct. The flight had indeed been delayed by a few hours because of the weather. By the time it was ready to take off, however, a new problem presented itself. One of the flight attendants had been on duty by that point for more than 16 hours. Because FAA regulations stipulate that no flight attendant can work more than 16 hours straight, she was not allowed to work on that flight. This left only three flight attendants for that flight segment. That, however, bumped into another FAA regulation -- there must be one flight attendant for every 50 seats on the plane. Because this was ATA, they didn't have some vast reservoir of flight attendants twiddling their thumbs at the airport. So, the flight was cancelled. Needless to say, the following occurred:

As I was boarding my ATA flight back to Chicago yesterday, I was startled to see the boarding area so crowded. I then found out that the flight before mine to Chicago — which was supposed to leave six hours before mine — had been cancelled. I assumed this was because of the inclement weather (it was snowing), but it turned out I was only partially correct. The flight had indeed been delayed by a few hours because of the weather. By the time it was ready to take off, however, a new problem presented itself. One of the flight attendants had been on duty by that point for more than 16 hours. Because FAA regulations stipulate that no flight attendant can work more than 16 hours straight, she was not allowed to work on that flight. This left only three flight attendants for that flight segment. That, however, bumped into another FAA regulation — there must be one flight attendant for every 50 seats on the plane. Because this was ATA, they didn’t have some vast reservoir of flight attendants twiddling their thumbs at the airport. So, the flight was cancelled. Needless to say, the following occurred:

1) The passengers on that flight were less than pleased; 2) The ATA spokespeople were extremely apologetic; 3) It was difficult to hear the words “FAA regulation” said by anyone sitting in the area without an expletive modifying that particular noun.

Where oh where is the Queen of Sky when you need her?

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

Tag: Economics