Failing Airlines, Striking Pilots, And Bloated State Company Payrolls

Going back to the issue of government production, the tentacles of government production often extend to a wide range of goods and services well beyond those for which there is any remotely plausible justification for government production. For example, until quite recently, many governments around the world, including those in rich countries, owned and ran the telecoms and airlines industries of their countries. Many still do. Yet it is not obvious, even remotely, why the government should be in the business of flying passengers and cargo or in the business of connecting people via mobile or fixed line telephone services. It is no accident that government-owned airlines, the French national flag carrier Air France to name just one, make losses year after year after year, yet they keep on flying. In September 2014, when the airline was barely emerging from almost a decade of losses, Air France pilots went on a two-week strike, forcing the cancelation of 8,500 flights and disrupting the travel plans of more than 1 million passengers, and costing the airline more than US$400 million. More recently, in May 2018, the airline’s chief executive resigned in response to the trade union’s impossible wage demands which made the airline unmanageable. What keeps unprofitable, inefficient state-owned airlines flying in the face of seemingly endless losses are government bailouts financed by tax payers…