“We want our pilots to be entirely free from any financial consideration when they take a safety-related decision,” WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said
Safety related delays and cancelations are not the problem. The airlines not having enough staff to fly the planes is the problem. Poor planning by the airlines is the problem. Lying and calling those YOU problems safety problems IS the ptoblem.
The loophole is allowing airlines to call any delay or cancellation a “safety issue” to deny passengerd compensation.
We pay for a an agreed service at an agreed time. If the airlines don’t provide the service as and when described we should be compensated. The government is just closing a loophole that allows the airlines to decide how, when, and even if they are going to provide the service we paid for.
I feel like “Penalize them even harder for taking off an unsafe flight” is the obvious answer here?
Like, your analogy with the helmets doesn’t really fit here, because that’s an issue of survivor bias, but what we’re talking about here is incentives.
It’s only a problem if unsafe flights are the most profitable option. They don’t have to be.