Smith blames new regulations for airline woes

U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith speaks in the McCook's Municipal Facility this morning. (Bruce Baker/McCook Gazette)

McCOOK, Nebraska -- U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith urged caution on legislative involvement in the national pilot shortage that has reportedly hurt most airlines and contributed to the suspension of commercial air service to McCook.

Smith said the situation was created by an overreaction by lawmakers to the crash and he wants to avoid repeating the mistake.

Congressman Smith visited with the McCook City Council and Airport Advisory Commission, as well as other citizens in attendance, this morning during a pair of public meetings at the Municipal Facility.

Smith said the pilot shortage affected every airport in his district and a focus would need to be placed on restoring reliability of air service and passenger confidence. Smith repeatedly said he was against the government setting ticket prices or writing contracts between airlines and local airports, but, some level of action would be necessary.

Smith said the regional airline accident in Buffalo, New York was very unfortunate, but the resulting changes were clearly an overreaction.

Smith said Essential Air Service had issues prior to the pilot shortage, adding it seemed as though subsidized airlines advertised very little and were in a rush to cancel flights. Smith said it is a privilege for a business to use tax dollars and he believed they should make more of an effort to promote their own business.

"A system of high-priced empty seats doesn't make sense and it's not just this [McCook] route," Smith said.

He indicated he would look into incentivizing airline subsidies with related requirements, adding that, right now, there is no incentive to fill seats. City staff suggested the addition of incentives for on-time and on-schedule flights also be considered.

Police Chief Ike Brown asked about the disparity in fares and asked about setting guidelines for a more reasonable fare but Smith cautioned against legislators deciding at what price airline tickets should be set. Smith said the market should determine prices and government involvement often had a negative effect on the market.

"We want business to prosper and our government, for the most part, to stay out of the way," said Smith.

Smith said he hoped to give communities the ability to increase passenger boardings on their own.

Smith said efforts were already under way to bring more flexibility to the smaller passenger markets, such as McCook, which he hoped would provide a transition period into writing better contracts and ultimately increasing reliability of flights. Smith said he would prefer to avoid having legislators come up with the language but indicated an incentive program based on performance might be the right approach.

Above all else, Congressman Smith indicated any legislation would need to be carefully researched, "the only thing worse than a slow bill, is a bill that passes too fast."