Adrian Smith (R-NE3) sent out an E-mail to his constituents claiming the high costs of rural airline travel are due to onerous Federal regulations.
I wrote back, and also sent my letter to the local newspaper, the Scottsbluff Star-Herald. (Let's see if they print it. There is no edition on Mondays, so I'll be scanning the opinion column on Tuesday for my letter.)
If they don't, here is my letter to Representative Smith and the Star-Herald, below the orange tumbleweed.
Sir: You recently sent an E-mail to your constituents concerning pricing of rural airline flights. Your claim was that onerous regulations are the reason for high cost.
As anyone versed in economics knows, it is the deregulation of the airline industry that has caused high prices. The combination of monopolistic mergers and nickel-and-diming service by American airline companies has long priced American air travel out of my reach.
My wife and I recently travelled to Germany and Poland from Western Nebraska. We had a travel agent search for the least expensive method for us to go. As it turns out, the highly regulated Air Canada was far cheaper than anything in the USA: so much so it was cheaper to drive 700 miles from Western Nebraska to Regina, Saskatchewan and park our car at the airport there for a month.
Moreover, our trip consisted of three legs (aside from the drive from Broadwater to Regina): One way flight Regina to Stuttgart, First Class rail travel from Stuttgart to Gdańsk, Poland, and a one-way flight via Scandinavian Air and Air Canada back to Regina. (The overseas flights included flying on the latest Boeing 787 Dreamliner.)
To fly out of either Scottsbluff or drive to Denver would have cost us thousands more than flying from Regina did. What would actually reduce the cost of flying would be to re-regulate the airline industry.