Fly the Fiendish Skies

American Airlines struggled to fix its operation Monday but still canceled more than 400 flights as disruptions caused by staffing shortages at the big carrier continued for a fourth straight day.
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Flight attendants said many reached their maximum allowable hours for October during the final days of the month, leaving many flights without cabin crews. About two-thirds of American’s cancellations Sunday were due to a lack of flight attendants, with most of the rest due to pilot shortages, according to internal airline figures.

Back in the day, airlines had flight crews that were on reserve duty. They had to be available to run to the airport and go fly in case a crew member was ill or had timed out for the month. It sounds as though the airlines don't have as many reserve crews as they once did. (Probably because some MBA thought that they cost too much.)

Not that the flights are much fun once you get on them.

A federal grand jury in Seattle has indicted a man accused of punching a flight attendant in the face twice [on Christmas Eve] and trying to open the cockpit door during a flight from Hawaii to Washington state.
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The Federal Aviation Administration fined Cajimat $52,500, and Delta Airlines banned him from traveling with the company.

Federal prosecutors say interference is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Assault on an aircraft is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

That's what needs to happen. These clowns who are acting the ass and punching people on flights have to start doing some time in stir and the sentences should be widely publicized.

But while they're waiting for a decision on whether or not to charge those fuckers, it may come to pass that they are not going to be able to fly, unless they own an airplane.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that a no-fly list for violent airplane passengers should be considered. Buttigieg told CNN that a federal list should be “on the table” as the government grapples with a persistent increase in unruly behavior on airliners. “There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of treatment of flight crews in the air or any of the essential workers—from bus drivers to air crews who get people to where they need to be,” he said.

My one suggestion is that, when a flight has to be diverted because of one of those assholes, that the airline sue the idiot involved for all of the costs of the diversion.