Stardate 20020207.2157

(On Screen): As probably shouldn't be too much of a surprise, the year 2001 was one of the worst on record for the international airline industry. Losses overall may reach $15 billion. American domestic carriers took it in the teeth. (United lost $2.1 billion.) Ridership is substantially down.

And the airlines are committing slow suicide by trying to make the experience as miserable as possible for such customers as they still have. Do they have a death wish? We're rapidly reaching the point where the only time anyone will travel by air is when they have no other choice, not because it's perceived as being dangerous but because it's perceived as being a royal pain. I think that passengers now hate the airlines more than potential hijackers. (At least passengers can deal with hijackers.) Am I the only one old enough to remember "Fly the Friendly Skies"?

I'm about due for another vacation; I was considering going to Florida, because I haven't been to Disney World in ten years, and I hear they opened an entirely new attraction and have revamped other parts of the park. But I think Nevada is going to get my business again, because I can drive there. And no-one will take my pocket knife from me while I'm in my car on Interstate 15, or try to confiscate my notebook computer because they think it might have explosives in it.