Flying is a mess. Blame the airlines.
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What’s to blame for a summer of flight disruptions. And the legacy of pioneering “Star Trek” actress Nichelle Nichols.
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This summer has been filled with air travel issues: canceled flights, lost baggage, long lines. There’s been a lot of finger-pointing from airlines, at weather issues and short-staffed air traffic controllers, but federal data suggests the airlines themselves are to blame for many of the disruptions. Transportation correspondent Lori Aratani explains why airlines are still struggling to handle the demand for travel, and how to plan ahead when traveling.
Nichelle Nichols, the actress best known for her role as Lt. Uhura in “Star Trek,” died last weekend at 89. David Betancourt discusses the road she paved for Black women in entertainment and the impact she had on the entire science fiction genre.
Transcript
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| 0:34.0 | So I'm sitting here in the Toronto Airport along with a few hundred other people waiting for connections that seem to not exist. |
| 0:47.0 | That's India Robinson. She's the sister of one of our producer Sabi. |
| 0:53.0 | And last week, India was having a pretty awful travel day. |
| 0:58.0 | I'm looking up at the board right now of flights and it's just rad across the board all delayed. |
| 1:04.0 | So I mean, it kind of seems to be a problem everywhere and the delays seem to just keep piling on top of each other. |
| 1:14.0 | India had a layover in the Toronto Airport, but her flight to New Jersey was delayed and eventually just canceled. |
| 1:21.0 | So she had to sleep overnight in the Toronto Airport. |
| 1:25.0 | All I can say is, try not to travel. |
| 1:31.0 | If you have taken a flight this summer, you may have experienced some of this yourself. |
| 1:36.0 | Canceled flights, lost bags, long delays, or just high ticket prices. |
| 1:41.0 | And you may have also heard a lot of reasons for these problems from bad weather to airline employees calling in sick. |
| 1:48.0 | But as transportation reporter Lori Arotani explains, the biggest reason behind delays and cancellations is the airlines themselves. |
| 1:57.0 | I think one line you heard last year, you've heard throughout the pandemic is, it's a global pandemic. There's no playbook. |
| 2:03.0 | And yes, that is true. There's no playbook for how you were going to recover after a global pandemic. |
| 2:10.0 | But once they started to see the recovery, they should have known. |
| 2:14.0 | And I think one of the reasons why consumers are even more frustrated is they're thinking, we gave you $54 billion to keep people on staffs when we were ready to fly. |
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