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‘We owe it to the victims’ families and the American flying public’ | Interview with Rep. Sharice Davids on aviation safety reform after Flight 5342
Sharice Davids is the Democratic representative for Kansas’s 3rd District, covering much of the Kansas City metropolitan area. She sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has played a leading role in Congress's response to the midair collision of American Eagle Flight 5342 with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on 29 January 2025, in which 67 people were killed. Davids helped lead the bipartisan ALERT Act, which passed the House last month by 396 votes
icarussmith20
May 64 min read


Duffy’s Xbox Controllers
How the FAA's gaming pitch drew a record 12,350 applications in a single hiring window The United States Federal Aviation Administration has spent the better part of a decade wrestling with a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers. This month, it tried something unorthodox: it asked video gamers to step up. The response was overwhelming. On 17 April 2026, the FAA opened its annual hiring window for trainee air traffic controllers with a recruitment campaign built around
icarussmith20
Apr 223 min read


Fuelling the Crisis: Aviation’s most dangerous vulnerability exposed
There is a line buried in airline annual reports that tends to get overlooked in good times. Fuel costs are, the reports note, "extremely volatile and unpredictable, and even a small change in market fuel prices can significantly affect profitability." Southwest Airlines wrote that in its 2025 filing. Weeks later, it became the understatement of the year. When the US and Israel struck Iran on 28 February 2026, the airline industry's most intractable cost problem moved from ch
icarussmith20
Apr 103 min read


United Airlines and Its Flight Attendants Have a Tentative Agreement. We Have Been Here Before.
On 26 March 2026, United Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) announced a tentative agreement covering approximately 30,000 cabin crew members. On paper, it is a landmark deal. The airline says it will make its flight attendants the best-paid in the American airline industry, with top hourly wages reaching $100 by the end of the contract's five-year term and immediate pay increases kicking in the moment ratification is confirmed. The total package is su
icarussmith20
Apr 33 min read


U.S. AVIATION SAFETY LEGISLATION: ONE VOTE SHORT
The framework for a safer American airspace exists on paper. The politics of building it remain, for now, one vote short. Sixty-seven people died when an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided over the Potomac River in January 2025. Fourteen months later, the legislation designed to prevent it happening again has stalled in the House, defeated not by opposition, but by a last-minute Pentagon withdrawal that cost supporters the two-thirds maj
icarussmith20
Mar 133 min read


Turbulence at the Top: American Airlines Faces a Leadership Crisis
Robert Isom became CEO of American Airlines in 2022 American Airlines is one of the world's largest carriers. It flies millions of passengers every year, generates tens of billions in revenue, and employs a workforce that spans the globe. So when its own employees publicly declare they have lost faith in the person running the show, it is worth paying attention. CEO Robert Isom, who took the helm nearly four years ago, is now facing what may be the most serious internal leade
icarussmith20
Feb 263 min read


Airline Finance 101: Where your Airfare Actually Goes
American, Delta and United collectively generated over $170 billion in revenue in 2025. Yet for every dollar that comes in, airlines keep just four cents in profit. Understanding how the other 96 cents gets consumed explains why the airline business remains, as Warren Buffett put it, "the worst sort of business … one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money." Here is how a single dollar of airline revenue gets
icarussmith20
Feb 124 min read


Why Airlines Can't Afford to Keep Saying Yes: The Cracks Behind The Numbers
The largest US airlines recently unveiled their 2025 financial results, delivering headlines that suggest another chapter in American economic resilience. United Airlines recorded revenue of $59.1 billion last year, while American Airlines brought in $54.6 billion, both company records. Delta Air Lines projects 20% earnings growth through 2026, driven predominantly by premium cabin demand as corporate and high-income travellers sustain spending. The aviation industry has embr
icarussmith20
Jan 274 min read


A Way Forward: How New Bipartisan Legislation Offers Hope for America's Beleaguered Air Traffic Controllers
The US airline industry is still recovering from the longest government shutdown in history. Airlines are estimated to have lost around $200 million in operating income, while over five million travellers were affected by flight reduction orders across the country. The shutdown significantly disrupted the livelihoods of different federal workers—most notably 13,000 air traffic controllers who continued to work without pay. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admitted that
icarussmith20
Nov 28, 20253 min read


Waymo's Driverless Taxis Are Going To Even More U.S. Cities. They'll Be In Over 20 Soon
The Alphabet-owned autonomous taxi service added Minneapolis, Tampa and New Orleans to its growth plans on November 20th. The future of transportation is electric and autonomous. And while the whole electric part may have hit a few speed bumps in the U.S. as of late, the driverless car industry is moving faster than ever. There are many companies making headway, but one is setting the pace: Waymo. The Alphabet-owned driverless taxi firm on Thursday announced that it will exp
icarussmith20
Nov 26, 20252 min read
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