A report from The Air Current this week says federal lawmakers are suddenly “open” to insulating the FAA from future government shutdowns. And look, that kind of foresight from Washington is refreshing, considering we’ve had more government shutdowns than presidential elections in the last twelve years.
But maybe — just maybe — their priorities are a touch off. After all, maybe access to food for those in need trumps the horror of America’s Finest being forced to wait an entire extra three minutes on Taxiway Juliet at DCA?
An unnamed insider told TAC, “I’m not sure if, politically, this will be the right time. … But industry has got to try.”
A bold statement from someone who definitely didn’t want their name attached to anything requiring oxygen — or courage.
Here’s a better message he can send back to power: Stop shutting the government down.
And if you simply cannot stop yourselves, at least stop picking winners and losers. Yes, air traffic controllers absolutely deserve to be paid for the essential work they do every day. But they’re not the only ones who got steamrolled during the government’s 43-day tantrum.
Maybe fix that before you start printing shutdown-proof FAA yard signs.
Expert of the week
Department of Transportation top dog Sean Duffy gets this week’s honor in Notice to All Morons thanks to his recent comments on bringing back civility to air travel. Duffy recently launched a campaign dubbed “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You” highlighted by a YouTube video with the production value you’d expect from the U.S. government.
In a five-second span, Duffy claims “things aren’t what they used to be,” before making a plea to viewers to take things back to — what they used to be. He then rattles off no fewer than five behaviors we’ve all seen 400 times while traveling, such as helping pregnant women with bags, thanking flight attendants and other actions that don’t require a federal initiative.
Duffy fell short of admitting he launched the campaign after being forced to fly Spirit Airlines due to a mechanical issue on his taxpayer-funded private jet, though his plea for a return to the 1950s was not misheard. After all, who wouldn’t feel nostalgic for a time that featured segregated, lead-painted schools and polio outbreaks.
Ahead of the game
Speaking of Spirit, the doomed airline was ahead of the game in November despite having declared bankruptcy twice in a year. The teenaged interns tasked with the unfortunate job of monitoring the airline’s X account may have missed the irony on its post regarding the FAA scheduling cuts.
Unfortunately there was no mention of how the airline had already cut service to 11 cities in 2025 and, on the same day as the X post, announced it had laid off 150 workers. You know what they say, Spirit. Never let a good tragedy go to waste.