Robert Silk
Sometimes it's worth stopping to think how ubiquitous a role airlines play in the events of our times.
When hundreds of thousands of people descend upon Washington for an inauguration or a peaceful march, many do so by plane.
When tens of thousands of people travel for American celebrations like the Super Bowl or the Final Four, many rely on airlines for easy access.
And when thousands of people traveled to Washington last week for what would end in a deadly incursion into the Capitol building, airlines got caught up in the mess.
In the 24 hours or so leading up to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, videos posted on social media, as well as public statements by airlines, documented a number of rowdy incidents involving groups of President Donald Trump supporters on their way to disrupt the formal congressional proceedings that would certify Joe Biden as president-elect.
In one incident on an American Airlines flight, passengers screamed obscenities at each other as a flyer projected an image of a Trump 2020 banner on the aircraft walls. In another, flyers on Southwest, some unmasked, chanted, "fight for Trump."
The day after the riot, disruptive behavior on a flight from Washington Dulles to Seattle, including harassment of crew members and non-compliance with mask rules, led Alaska Airlines to put 14 passengers on its flight ban list.
Fortunately, none of these incidents descended into violence. Still, they were concerning and proliferate enough to have caused flight attendant unions to issue warnings to members and the media.
"To say I am worried about our flight attendants' safety is an understatement," Julie Hedrick, president of the union that represents American flight attendants, said.
In a letter to members, Hedrick wrote that flight attendants should never have to deal with politically motivated altercations.
But unions and airlines both have reason to worry about more such altercations to come, including in the coming days, if extreme Trump supporters follow through with threats to turn their focus to the Jan. 20 inauguration. As such, unions have begun lobbying for regulatory changes that would make it easier to keep people who are displaying abusive behavior from boarding planes.
It goes without saying that the political instability, if it continues to fester in the U.S, will bring ever-more damaging ramifications for airlines -- and for the entire U.S. travel industry. Last I heard, many people don't like traveling to countries caught in the throes of political violence.
Surely with that in mind, ASTA and the U.S Travel Association were among the legions of lobby groups that issued press releases calling for unity in the wake of the Capitol riots.
Airlines for America (A4A), for one reason or another, chose not to do so, though the group did put out a release the day after the incursion thanking outgoing DOT secretary Elaine Chao for her service over the past four years.
Notably, A4A also waited until Nov. 24 to congratulate Joe Biden for his victory in the Nov. 3 election. Four years earlier, in an election that had the same electoral college margin, the group congratulated Trump one day after the vote. In other words, A4A withheld judgement for three weeks due to Trump's fictitious, destabilizing claims about election fraud.
Historically, A4A and other travel lobbies have constrained their advocacy to relatively narrow, industry-specific issues. For airlines, that has meant fights over items such as regulations or the successful push for federal financial relief during the pandemic.
It's time now for A4A, and travel industry lobbying groups of all sorts, to define stability as a core interest. That would mean no longer staying silent as democratic norms are repeatedly violated and when sowing bitter division is used as a stock political tool.
I can think of no better way to help flights attendants have less reason to be afraid.