Recent stories about airline mergers, rising airfares and safety concerns remind me of a Daily Show skit called 'Airplane.' Broadcast on April 8, this skit exposed the Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to conduct regular inspections of our nation’s air fleet. Turns out that, under the current Administration’s FAA, inspectors are pressured not to do their jobs. At the end of the segment, Jon Stewart wryly observed that if a plane crashes due to maintenance problems, “it’s just the market self-regulating.” The day after the Daily Show exposed this disturbing pattern of neglect, American Airlines was forced to cancel over a thousand flights because the planes needed to be re-inspected. It appears that ‘self-regulation’ isn’t working so well.

When we add it all up –– declining services, aging planes, increased incidences of ‘runway incursions,’ re-inspections, mergers and tbankruptcies –– the state of our nation’s aviation system appears to be in crisis. This seems like a good moment to suggest that we need a national aviation policy that takes safety and service seriously, one that uses government to put long-term public interests above the industry’s short-term interests.

All of this bad news about the state of air travel comes on the 30th anniversary of major deregulation of the airline industry. Deregulation was supposed to bring about greater competition and lower airfares. We have seen increased competition over the past 30 years, with lots of start-ups and the rapid growth of new airlines like Southwest. At the same time, we have seen record numbers of bankruptcies and layoffs. The average number of daily flights has increased, but so has congestion at major hubs. Meanwhile, the number of cities and regions being served has declined. For the most part, airfares are lower than they probably would have been under the old regulatory framework, but, with rising fuel and other costs, airfares also are starting to rise sharply. Regarding competition and fares, deregulation has been a mixed bag. But perhaps a more important measure of deregulation’s costs and benefits should be safety. On this measure, deregulation has not fared so well. And, a weaker safety record makes US airlines less competitive with international carriers.

Former airline executive Robert Crandall is an unlikely proponent of an increased role for government in our aviation industries. And yet, that is what he is calling for. In a recent op-ed Crandall argued: “Market-based approaches alone have not and will not produce the aviation system our country needs.” According the Crandall, we need a national policy that enables people to move easily from one place to another, with safe and reliable service. Such a policy also should “improve the financial performance and international competitiveness of America’s airlines.”

Investments are needed to upgrade aging infrastructure and technologies, like air traffic control systems. A recent story about increases in near-misses during take-off, called ‘runway incursions,’ underscores this need. Runway incursions can be prevented with a combination of existing and new technologies, but the FAA has delayed action on proposed warning systems, and the airlines themselves don’t want to invest in expensive new equipment, especially in this time of economic downturn and rising operating costs.

The FAA’s reported lapses in doing its job with regard to inspections is just one of many examples of this Administration’s abrogation of its fundamental responsibilities to represent and serve the public interest. Conservatives’ attacks on government’s regulatory role have had real-world consequences. For a while, it looked like the conservative strategy was working: with Bush in with White House, they have been able to back up anti-government rhetoric with willful incompetence. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy: ‘see, government doesn’t work.’ But, their incompetence (and/or pandering to big business) has caught up with them: first, Katrina, then the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the energy crisis and now, the airline safety crisis. The time is ripe for reframing the debate about the role of government. Are we ready to step up?

--Sandra Hinson