Attention All Passengers: The Airlines' Dangerous Descent---and How to Reclaim Our Skies Book

Author's Note ix

Acknowledgments xi

Prologue: Flying Sucks 1

1 Sit Down and Shut Up or We'll Turn This Plane Around: Why Airline Service Has Collapsed and Air Rage Is Soaring 11

2 What Happened to the Airlines? 43

3 Collusion and Confusion: How Airlines Don't Play by the Rules-and How Passengers Pay 71

4 So You Think You've Found the Lowest Fare 87

5 A Mad Race to the Bottom: How Airlines Mistreat Employees, Outsource, and Ignore Passengers 107

6 When Your Airline Isn't Your Airline: Regional Carriers Provide Lower Levels of Service and Safety 139

7 Outrageous Outsourcing: The Single Greatest Threat to Airline Safety 169

8 Unsafe at Any Altitude? Facing Unprecedented Dangers 199

9 Threats to Survival: Why Many Air Crashes Need Not Be Fatal 223

10 Lights, Camera, Strip Search: The Tragicomedy of Airline Security 247

11 Cloudy Skies: Aviation's Carbon Footprint 269

12 Ink-Stained Wreckage: How Airlines Manipulate the Media 285

Epilogue: Fighting the Clock 305

Conclusion: A Manifesto for Taking Back Our Skies 307

Appendix A Domestic Mainline Airline Partnerships with Regionals 315

Appendix B Domestic Regional Airline Partnerships with Mainlines 316

Glossary 317

Selected Bibliography 319

Notes 337

Index 345