The aviation industry dominates our country like nowhere else on the planet, yet it is riddled with problems.

Commercial aviation makes up 5% of the U.S. GDP, according to Airlines for America. Our domestic aviation industry is the largest in the world, and the U.S. government spends billions of dollars supporting the industry every year, according to Airforce Technology.

Flying in the U.S. should be smooth. However, several flaws in aviation are only getting worse, and aviation companies continuously prioritize profit over public good. 

Reform is necessary.

Airlines employ several tactics to increase profit at the expense of passenger experience, such as overbooking flights. Airlines commonly sell more tickets on flights than the actual number of seats, assuming a certain number of people will not show up.

These predictions are not always accurate. Often, airlines ask passengers to voluntarily give up seats due to overbooking. Sometimes passengers are forced onto later flights.

Megan Radke, a St. Paul resident, said overbooked flights are very annoying.

“There used to be a time when you could fly standby, and you can’t anymore,” Radke said. “Even if you have a seat, sometimes you wonder, ‘Am I going to be on my flight anymore?’”

Flying standby allows passengers to get on earlier scheduled flights if seats are open. Not all airlines offer standby options, however, and overbooked flights make the policy difficult to use.

For the sake of passengers, overbooking flights should be drastically reduced. Instead, airlines should create better standby programs to fill empty seats without harming the passenger experience.

Many airlines increased the cost of baggage on flights in recent years. Some airlines even charge passengers for carry-on bags. The cheapest economy fares now come with almost nothing besides a cramped seat.

“I remember being in college and taking the economy fares and feeling like you’re strapped to the wing of the plane,” Radke said. “And then you’re paying for all these extras. Let me check a bag for free again.”

Issues in the aviation industry run far deeper than reservations and fares. Many airlines use ancient software to schedule their flights and crew. For example, in 2022, Southwest Airlines used two programs called SkySolver and Crew Web Access that were developed in the 1990s.

The software was so outdated that bad weather during the 2022 holiday season caused a systemwide meltdown. Too many flights needed to be rescheduled for the software to handle, and Southwest canceled thousands of flights.

Another major failure in aviation technology occurred in July when an update to the cybersecurity program CrowdStrike caused Microsoft systems around the country to crash, leading to mass cancellations of flights. For Delta Air Lines, the issues ensued for five days because their crew-tracking software failed to recover.

Clearly, aviation companies need to invest in replacing archaic technology to prevent more disasters. If airlines can afford to add touchscreens to every seat on their airplanes, they should make sure their basic software is sufficient.

Airplane manufacturers, too, continue to cut corners at the expense of public good.

Cheng Wang, assistant professor in the aviation department at Minnesota State University, Mankato, said Boeing consistently prioritizes making money over passenger safety. 

Wang said one example occurred when Boeing added new flight control technologies to their new Boeing 737 Max 8.

Pilots should have received new training with the system, but Boeing did not inform airlines or pilots of the changes since a training requirement may have caused fewer airlines to purchase the plane, according to Wang.

In 2018 and 2019, two planes crashed due to a malfunction in the system, killing 346 people. If pilots were adequately trained with the technology, the disasters could have been prevented.

Boeing’s position worsened when a door plug broke off and left a gaping hole in an airplane in January, all due to a simple manufacturing failure.

Boeing already receives 37% of their income from the U.S. government, making it essentially a taxpayer-funded company. For their number one priority to seemingly not be the public good is shameful.

Reforming Boeing is difficult as the company has already lost billions of dollars this year, according to MarketWatch. 

Ultimately, our airplanes must be safe. Hopefully, Boeing will improve, but if other manufacturers like Airbus gain dominance in the future, no one will be surprised.

Another concern plaguing the aviation industry is sustainability. Flying releases more greenhouse gas per mile traveled and contributes more to climate change than any other transportation form.

Aviation companies must do all they can to improve sustainability. Using more sustainable jet fuel with less fossil fuel is crucial. According to Wang, airport design should also be improved because airplanes often use excess fuel when moving on-ground.

“The design of the taxiway or runway can sometimes take a lot of fuel,” Wang said. “An ideal layout would have aircrafts taxi from the ramp to the runway in a shorter period of time. That could help save emissions at the airport and improve sustainability.”

Some argue airplanes are so environmentally destructive that the only solution is replacing planes with other forms of transportation. 

This is true, but only to an extent. The U.S. is so large and sparsely populated that planes are still the only realistic method of long-distance travel. However, on certain routes between close, dense cities, high-speed rail is a viable replacement.

Right now, aviation companies receive massive sums of money from the government through tax credits, bailouts and subsidies. Sean Ressler, a Minneapolis resident, said he supports the government investing in transit.

“The government invests in a lot of things that are for the public good,” Ressler said. “Airports and airlines are one of them, just like trains and buses and everything else. It’s about interstate commerce.”

Investing in transit is good—but the government currently pays aviation companies so much that it gets an unfair advantage over more sustainable forms of transit, like trains. 

Aviation will always have a place in our country, but it desperately needs change.