Not enough REAL domestic competition. Far too many airports are dominated by a single carrier. Airline consolidation has been great for the bottom line not so good for customers nor workers and the localities they serve.

(Written on 20/03/2020)(Permalink)

You need to get to Econ 201. Do not mix up micro and macro economics.

(Written on 20/03/2020)(Permalink)

Not sure why this got down voted. On a normal tube aircraft one is rarely more than 6 ft off of the roll axis. With a blended wing one cold easily be 20ft off the axis. As for. windows on the last flight I was on flying north /south NYC to Caribbean most of the window shutters were down so people could watch their movies without sun glare.

(Written on 14/02/2020)(Permalink)

This event was predictable once Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago. What happens is that you end up with a small set of people interfacing with senior management and "corporate headquarters" thinking takes over and reality is slowly but surely left behind. The seeds were sown many years ago in 2001. Disasters like this are at the end of a chain of low probability events....in this case we had Boeing doing a poor job making some dubious design trade offs,plus a certification agency that was too accepting, plus Boeing minimizing the training requirement, plus the airlines going for the cheap option on aircraft specification and replacement parts , plus poor training by the airline, plus an inexperienced aircrew ...... Remove almost any one of those events and the crashes don't happen. All of the companies and organizations in that list own a part of the responsibility. However Boeing's actions started the chain and Boeing probably owns the bulk of the respon

(Written on 25/12/2019)(Permalink)

Yes lack of training .....training that Boeing said that was not necessary...."

(Written on 06/09/2019)(Permalink)

After Boeing has spent a fortune lobbying and funding politicians for that ability with the constant mantra of "small government" less regulations. Instead of blaming some amorphous "Government" we need to look in the mirror and understand that we get the government that big money pays for. What we see is a symptom of a bigger problem.....

(Written on 28/06/2019)(Permalink)

So Boeing, who deliberately hid what they were doing from the FAA, misrepresented the MCAS system etc. is not to blame but rather the blame belongs to the body that was repeatedly lied to. Sounds logical to me. Until corporate execs face serious personal jeopardy they will feel free to create an environment where the only measure of success is the value of their stock options, which is a short term view. We have seen this scenario play out repeatedly in various industries, not just here with Boeing. Once corporate headquarters were moved from where the planes were being built and designed this sort of outcome was almost enevitable. Senior management needs to keep its ear the the ground.....but it does no good if the ear to the ground is in Chicago not Washington State.

(Written on 28/06/2019)(Permalink)

So Boeing and its fellow capitalists use their economic muscle to pressure Congress to not only limit funding of the FAA etc but also push for "less government regulations" and trust the free market, elect people who are in their pocket, etc. etc...... And when it all goes wrong, as it has here, it is "the Government's" fault.

(Written on 28/06/2019)(Permalink)

And there we have a classic example of an ad hominem attack from Stuart Hostetter. When the facts are against you attack the messenger. All the world's certification bodies did not ground the plane because of poor pilot training nor to media reports. They grounded it because there is a problem.

(Written on 08/06/2019)(Permalink)

You are clearly NOT following what is being uncovered. Boeing has misled, either deliberately or not, during this whole process and as each day goes past the media, including the NYT, is exposing the problems at Boeing. In a rush to market they cut corners and people died.

(Written on 07/06/2019)(Permalink)