Fly Me to the Moon

You sure don't have to be a big-shot economist to know that airline travel is full of pointless requirements, but I still could not agree more with what Freakonomics czar Steven Levitt calls "airplane nonsense." While Levitt usefully points out that there has not been "an unlikely water landing" in a very long time, what I like best about the "water landing" speech is that they give it to you know matter where you are going. If you are on a flight from, say, Pittsburgh to Dallas and are being warned about a possible water landing, you have put yourself in the hands of one seriously incompetent pilot.

Another favorite is the time they take before each flight -- using either one of the flight attendants or a video that obviously is several years old because both the airline employees and customers are smiling -- to tell the passengers how to fasten and unfasten the seat belt ("Insert the metal end into the buckle..."). Given that it is extremely unlikely that anyone who does not know how to use a seatbelt is traveling alone or without the assistance of someone from the airline, what exactly is the point of this exercise?

The "plastic knives only" rule also is completely pointless, but not for the reason Levitt mentions. After 9/11, airline passengers are not going to allow someone wielding a knife or any other similar weapon (such as the broken wine bottle Levitt posits) to take over a plane. A group of passengers will simply beat that person into submission, if not death. It is that simple.

Happy summer flying!!