A group of members of Congress—Democrats and Republicans—are
terribly upset that nonstop flights between some smaller cities and Washington, DC's
Reagan National Airport are being endangered by the pending merger between American Airlines and US Airways. The politicians say, of course, that they are concerned about economic fallout in their districts, with local businesses losing easy access to the nation's capital as less profitable routes are dropped when the merged airline has to give up some of its slots at National to allow for increased competition. It doesn't take a hardened cynic to suspect that some of the fervor behind their outcry over the possible cuts comes from the fact that they would face increased travel time, but that's not the whole story:
“This letter has absolutely nothing to do with lawmakers’ convenience and everything to do with representing the smaller communities that realize the economic benefits of these flights,” [Maine Rep. Michael] Michaud said Friday. “We heard from our communities on this issue and responded in a bipartisan way. There’s really nothing else to it, and I’ve been disappointed with efforts in the media to misconstrue the intent of this letter.”
Still, one government watchdog noted that many of the lawmakers’ campaign donors and other supporters back home also tend to be frequent fliers to Washington.
“It would be an enormous hassle if [lawmakers] could not fly nonstop,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “But by the same token I’m sure they would be concerned for their communities. I’m sure that they’re hearing from some of those business people … who tend to be contributors.”
So it's not just members of Congress who'll be inconvenienced, it's the business people who contribute to and lobby them—people they're accustomed to listening to and thinking of as important.
What we're talking about here is not severing Augusta, Georgia, or Tallahassee, Florida, from the rest of the known world. We're talking about losing a nonstop flight to one city. An important city, yes, but not the economic lifeline of the entire country. It's just that the people who are most likely to fly to that city a lot are also the people who are likely to have relationships with the nation's legislators. Because that's why you go to Washington. So even the member of Congress most innocent of any concern about his or her own nonstop flight may be getting an outsized view of the economic blow this would represent, based on their existing relationships with the type of people who the loss of these flights will hurt. It may just be time for these legislators to step back and try for a little perspective on who exactly they're hearing from on this.