U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez, Senator Tom Carper, Governor John Carney and Delaware Transportation Secretary Nicole Majeski discuss how the Low/No Emissions Bus Program in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help ensure that more Americans have clean and high-quality transit options, and that workers gain the skills they need to repair, maintain and operate the transit vehicles of the future. Photo courtesy of the office of Governor John Carney. March 4, 2022.
Why Did Southwest Air Receive Billions from the Biden Administration?
The FAA’s computer failure this week exacerbated an already chaotic travel system. It resulted in the largest flight grounding since 9/11. According to the AP, the rare and alarming breakdown showed how much American air travel depends on the computer system that generates alerts called NOTAMs — or Notice to Air Missions.
About one year ago, the Federal Aviation Authority, under transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, announced that the aviation briefing known as NOTAM, or Notice to Airmen, would undergo a name change. As Chadwick Moore writes in the Spectator, NOTAMs are unclassified notices distributed from an aviation authority to all pilots. NOTAMs contain essential information regarding conditions, hazards, system concerns, or other flight operations.
NOTAM, Mayor Pete’s Department of Transportation declared, wasn’t gender inclusive and, as of December 2, 2021, it should henceforth be referred to Notice to Air Missions, not Airmen.
While Mayor Pete preoccupied his department with scrubbing the bigotry out of an acronym, it never occurred to the Biden administration’s Chief Diversity Hire that the system itself might need some tending-to. That was until this (week) when an outage caused the NOTAM system to fail and all flights in the US were grounded for several hours, something that hasn’t happened since 9/11.
Remember during Christmas, when Southwest Airlines ruined the holidays for thousands and thousands of travelers? The outdated computer system led to thousands of canceled flights.
What did Pete Buttigieg do? The transportation secretary “brazenly mocked Southwest,” reports Mr. Moore. Pete was seemingly unaware that “the Biden administration had given billions of dollars in handouts to Southwest, with no oversight.” Between the three tranches of pandemic relief, Southwest received a total of nearly $7.2 billion in federal payroll support aid.
As he wagged his finger at the airline, Mayor Pete was oblivious that his own computers might need a tune-up.
The WSJ has a viable plan. The newspaper has argued for years that Congress should transfer air-traffic control and related systems to a private entity, as Canada did in 1996.
This would provide more accountability, meaning that aging systems would get modernized faster.
Unlike airlines, the FAA doesn’t have to pay a price for its foul-ups. When problems with Southwest’s outdated scheduling software forced it to cancel thousands of flights after Christmas, Mr. Buttigieg threatened to punish the airline and insisted it fully refund passengers. When the government is at fault, airlines and travelers are out of luck.
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