Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia should nationalize Alaska Airlines.
The major airlines in the U.S have become too greedy for their own good to the point that it is now causing poor service. The end of mask mandates has led to mass cancellation of flights due to staff being sick with covid. It is leading to Senators like Lindsay Graham proposing to raise the retirement age of pilots from 65 to 67. Letting covid run rampant not only cancels many flights, but endangers the ones that are able to fly, by having planes flown by pilots with brain fog from long covid, as well as lackluster maintenance. The greed of the airlines caused the CDC to shorten the isolation period for covid as well as drop masks. For public health and in flight safety reasons, as well as an end to corporate bailouts, it is necessary for the state to take ownership of the airlines. Being that Alaska is primarily the domain of the Cascadia bioregion, our states must take over ownership of Alaska Airlines.
When we take over Alaska Airlines, we will implement a mask mandate immediately to stop transmission of covid on the planes. This will ensure the safety of the staff, the passengers, and the plane itself. Alaska Airlines under state ownership would become the safest airline to fly on in the U.S. By protecting the staff from covid, we would have significantly fewer cancellation of flights, thus taking away customers from other airlines who continue to be plagued by covid. The immune compromised and vulnerable would also choose to fly with us. Within a short period of time, Alaska Airlines would gain a reputation as being the best airline in the U.S.
Under state ownership, we would also seek to make the in flight experience the best of any U.S airline, to further take away market share from the other airlines. We would do this by increasing seat pitch, better known as legroom, to 34 inches in economy class. This would be the best legroom in economy class on any airline. We would also make seat width be a minimum of 18 inches. We would pry staff away from the other airlines by doubling the salary of all on board staff and ground crew.
These moves in total would not be profitable. However, the job of the state is not to make a profit, it is to serve and provide high quality services to its people. It is to make people happy, to make people’s lives enjoyable. Alaska Airlines under state ownership would serve the needs and wants of our people. Lastly, under the ownership of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, we would rebrand Alaska Airlines to Cascadia Airlines, to reflect that the airline is primarily the domain of our bioregion.
adamkendall2 