On industry hot topics and two cents worth on policy and elections ...

Consider the hub and spoke system. It is changing, as evidenced by the topic of this issue’s cover story. Kent George is living in the fishbowl that is Pittsburgh International, redefining his hub airport when his hub carrier is disappearing, trying to revitalize his retail segment that redefined airport concessions in the 1990s, and grappling with TSA on how to let people into his airport to spend money at those concessions. He just may have the most difficult airport job in the country.

Then there’s Chicago and DOT. O'Hare International has become the poster child for delays in the system. It sits in a city that has a tradition of being the center of transportation for a nation, to the point that it is a double hub, with American and United. And, it is the access point, or one of them, for many communities in the country’s mid-section to the national air transportation system.

The City of Chicago wants to rebuild O’Hare with as much as $20 billion of taxpayers’ — and aviation industry’s — money. But its modernization plan will have minimal impact on system capacity, ultimately the overriding issue.

DOT just wants to keep the system moving, and DOT Secretary Mineta seems determined to make carriers provide concessions in scheduling to help reduce delays while not restricting access. Meanwhile, others are attempting to address Midwest capacity from another perspective (see page 26).

But there’s a bigger issue here, the one of local control over national interests. In Chicago, Mayor Daley has his agenda, but it is not a national agenda. DOT’s is.

As important as these issues are, you’ve heard nothing of any of this during the presidential election discussion. But that’s OK, because this election is really about two things: Palestine and terrorism.

In 1948, the U.S. made Israel a country. Now we need to make a nation for the Palestinians, who were displaced in the process. In essence, the latter is the cause of the war on terror we fight today. It is a very serious fight, one that could ultimately destroy our way of life. When one thinks of 9/11, one needs to remember that people used our industry to attack our nation because of policies followed by our country since 1948.

When November comes, pull the lever on the presidential candidate that you feel will best fight the war on terrorism.

Thanks for reading.