There is plenty of egg to go around for all the faces of the officials with the FAA and the airlines, after the past month’s revelations on lackadaisical compliance with “air worthiness directives”. Neither side has had a very proud month; and now we have the FAA trying to “save face” and re-instill confidence in the safety of air travel, by swinging from one extreme to the other. One day, it seems, the agency tells the airlines, “No problem, we’ll catch that inspection later…” But now, the agency has completely changed its tune: “Ground the entire fleet of MD-80’s immediately!” And stuck in the middle is you…and me. Keep reading!

I’m beginning to wonder if anyone at the FAA and the airlines has the slightest clue about the effect of all this on the passengers. Let’s do the math for yesterday, when approximately 500 American Airlines flights were cancelled. Luckily, Tuesdays are relatively slow so let’s say those flights were 80% full, and each cancelled flight averaged out to 130 seats. This means a whopping 52,000 passengers (80% of 130 x 500) ended up stranded with little or no place to go - remember, most planes are packed to the gills so there is no place to put anyone.

But it doesn’t end there. The famous “six degrees of separation” with those 52,000 passengers means that hundreds of thousands were also inconvenienced by this action (missed business meetings, delayed reunions) - whether any of this was necessary or not.

Couldn’t a couple of smart people at the FAA and/or the airlines figure out how to lessen the impact of such cancellations without comprising safety? I will never advocate convenience over safety (I fly too many miles myself each year) but surely there’s a better, smarter way of doing this.

Air travelers are already enduring enough pain and agony in the process of getting from point A to B - so I suggest that we please lay down our egos - just for a moment — and consider the passengers. After all, there were officials on both sides who apparently thought this wasn’t “that big of a deal” just 2 short months ago …