Wednesday, May 19, 2004
 
Unwritten Mandate to the Airline Transport Authority

Drudge linked to this violin-soaked lamentation from the Airline Transport Authority, wherein the protagonists of their own melodrama lament fuel prices and their own inability to profitably run businesses:
    US airlines have warned that the continuing sky-high price of fuel has "all but wiped out any chance of a profitable year for the industry". [Revel in the British style, gentle readers, of placing the punctuation outside the quotation marks.]

    The comments of their trade body, the Air Transport Association (ATA), came after Continental Airlines became the latest carrier to raise ticket prices.

    To try to ease the high price of oil, the ATA called on President George W Bush to stop stockpiling the fuel.
Please, President Bush, stop thinking first of the strategic military needs of the country whom you've sworn to protect, and start thinking of the bottom lines of one of the most heavily-subsidized and ineptly-run industries. Do it for the children!--namely those poor waifish children of airline executives and their lobbyists, who can scarcely afford a summer abroad with the high ticket Pprices on their free rides.

Here's the ATA's president giving what passes for "strategic thinking" in the airline industry:
    "We agree that the strategic reserve is an investment in the nation's future," said ATA president and chief executive James May.

    "However, any investor will tell you that you buy low, sell high. Unfortunately the government is doing just the opposite."
The strategic reserve is not an investment. Not even a hedge. It's a vital necessity to keeping our military functioning should the flow of just-in-time petroleum stop or slow. The government is not buying oil to make a profit. It's not buying at the best time. It's buying when it can, which is now.

Unfortunately, that's not what's best for James May. Too bad, James May.

Also, did anyone else notice the weird tesseract in the BBC's story?

Second paragraph:
    The comments of their trade body, the Air Transport Association (ATA), came after Continental Airlines became the latest carrier to raise ticket prices.
Last paragraph:
    Continental's price rises were later mirrored by United and North West.
Whoa. Where am I? When am I?


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:43 PM
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