Congress must fix this airline mess

Got a plane ticket purchased for an important trip coming up? Got any confidence the plane will fly? Got any concerns about planes flying safely?

If there was any doubt we're near crisis with our nation's airline industry, there should be none after this week. American and Delta airlines canceled 400 flights Thursday to re-inspect wiring on their MD-80s and MD-88s. On Wednesday, American scrubbed 318 flights. Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines canceled scores of flights when it was found that 46 of their planes had not been properly inspected for fuselage cracks.

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a record-high $10.2 million fine against Southwest for allegedly flying without proper inspections.

Meanwhile, the inspections that have forced flight cancellations are inconveniencing thousands of passengers. But being stranded by airline managers who give little thought to customers and convenience is nothing new. Remember last year when JetBlue airways left passengers on board on a tarmac for 10 hours with little food and water but with overflowing toilets? Air industry problems were only underscored late last year and early this year when United canceled hundreds of flights over many days blaming the weather.

And we've all recognized since at least Sept. 11, 2001 that our airline industry is critical to our lives, our economy and our infrastructure. Still, today, we have little confidence we'll be able to make that key business trip or vacation.

And though the airline industry still has a strong record of safety, this sudden round of inspections is unnerving.

The fact that airlines now, seemingly all at once, are scrapping flights to inspect their planes with no forethought for how they might continue to provide the service they've promised to customers who have spent hundreds of dollars for fares is little comfort.

The Federal Aviation Administration needs to apply much greater pressure to the industry and its highly-paid CEOs to get their acts together now. And Congress and President Bush ought to consider this an emergency situation.

Congressman Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said his committee's investigators can take credit for uncovering that the FAA allowed Southwest to fly after missing their inspections.

Earlier this month, Oberstar said, "What is so disturbing is that many FAA inspectors have given up reporting failures by the carriers because there is such a cozy relationship between FAA management and airline management."

If this is remotely true, it is a call to action. Congress ought to convene hearings now and fix this crisis before there is a crash linked to poor maintenance or flight delays deliver a crippling blow to our economy. And while our federal legislators are at it, they ought to pass a law like the one an appeals court rejected this week that would have only applied to New York. State legislators there sought to require airlines to ensure food, water, clean air and toilets were available to passengers stuck on tarmacs. We, the paying public, expect and deserve that.

We expect and demand a safe ride on which we can rely.