Airport delays - corporate greed meets COVID crisis

An open letter to airport whiners

Hi jet setters:

We see airport delays are making big news, and for some of you this proves that Trudeau is a fascist. We find this odd on many levels, not least of which being that at least the fascists made the trains run on time.

Plus, airport lineups are common in the US and Europe too. Over there people are putting the blame on everything from Brexit to a global conspiracy by the World Economic Forum. Why destroying the airline industry would be part of the “Great Reset” is beyond us, but we’re certain you’ll put on your tinfoil thinking caps and come up with a good answer. 

Meanwhile, the thoughts and prayers of the roughly 1 ½ million Canadians with compromised immune systems, for whom air travel runs the gamut from death-defying nightmare to utter impossibility, go out to you in your hour of suffering. 

A few things come to mind about airport delays:

All this means you believe the pandemic is over, like Mr. Ford and his mini-me Chief Medical Officer told you. We hate to break it to you, but those guys don’t rate too high on the truth-o-meter, but okay. 

So you think you can just go back to the before times because you want to go to Orlando? As the eminent Dr. Hibbert says "And hillbillies want to be called sons of the soil - but it ain't gonna happen."

So you show up at the airport without having done any checking about requirements, which means you haven’t got your shit together. Which means the ones complaining loudest are probably the same ones contributing most of the problems.

You refuse to acknowledge that airports, like any crowded indoor space only more so, are super-spreader environments. This means the airline ground staff are particularly vulnerable, and once infected must isolate. Fewer staff = long lines. And it means that flight crews are getting sick too, causing flight delays and cancelations. Canceled flights + fewer staff = longer long lines. Math isn’t so hard.

Even in the before times airlines were bumping up their profits by eliminating workers and replacing them with "time saving" machines. Which would be great if air travel was straight forward and simple (which it isn't, especially if there are delays and cancelations) and if you were all computer literate (which you aren't). In today’s circumstances they’re pretty useless.

So a big part of the problem is an already inadequate workforce now decimated by COVID. And your solution? Demand that Air Canada and other carriers hire adequate numbers of workers who, it turns out, are kind of essential? Nah! Blame the government and demand they cut the few public health requirements still in effect? Yup! 

Your solution to a problem caused by a virus is to make the spread of viruses easier. Genius. 

So go ahead and complain. Forget about the corporate greed that is the real culprit. The corporate media and airline industry are heavily invested in the pandemic being over, science and public health be damned. They are happy to give you a megaphone to shout in the wrong direction. 

And we thank you for your service.

Signed: COVID and your new pal, MonkeyPox