Air travel is the lifeblood of commerce ; cut off the lifeblood of business and eventually, the entire body of trade, investment, manufacturing, jobs, benefits, health insurance and even the tax base dies a slow death right alongside the...
Grounding the airlines, in a very real way, pointlessly cripples the entire nation and endangers all Americans.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, appearing on CNBC, warned there will absolutely be discontinuation of service to small communities, and there will be much less service to larger communities without more coronavirus relief, he stressed.
Such service cuts devastate not only the airline industry and tens of thousands of airline workers, but also the lives, businesses and livelihoods of entire communities and in some places (e.g., Hawaii) entire states. Air travel is the lifeblood of commerce in a nation whose borders span three thousand miles east to west. Cut off the lifeblood of business and eventually, the entire body of trade, investment, manufacturing, jobs, benefits, health insurance and even the tax base dies a slow death right alongside the airline business.
The emergency orders that locked down the nation in the Spring were never intended as anything other than triage, yet here we are a half a year later still holding a tourniquet tightly around the neck of the nation. The consequences for the patient are glaringly obvious: save the limb, lose the life? Seriously?
Its time to get back into the air in particular and into life general: kids cant go without education, people cant go without engagement and support, and business cant survive without air travel. Its time to stop the triage and start the rehab, before its too late: enact rational, proven, and credible safety standards to be enforced on the ground and in the airthen end the formal lockdowns and the informal thuggery of the stay home, hide under the bed social media terrorists. Resist the news media click bait of cases panic porn (6.3 million cases of the flu last year; over 300,000 traffic fatalities during the same period) and focus on the recovery and survival of the very nation, which so earnestly, vitally, and ineluctably depends on air travel.
Pass the relief package. Bring the airline workers back, keep our air travel network safe and robust, ready to connect business, commerce, trade, engagement and virtually every vital function of this nation.
Dont passively acquiesce to the heartless Mekong Delta tragedy of Ben Tre in the very heartland of America: We had to destroy the village to save it, a soldier told war correspondent Peter Arnett in the aftermath of an Army massacre.
End the lockdown. Fund the airlines. Anything less is senselessly and blindly destroying the nation. Chris Manno
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