Let's take a look at airports again.

I sat in a JetBlue airplane for 5 hours. We were in line for take off, but the pilot didn't know it what position and when we would go. After 3 hours of that, he got it confirmed that he should head back to the terminal. The taxi people didn't get to our plane for another hour, and for some reason, we couldn't connect back to the terminal we came from, so they had to send buses to drive us back. The buses apparently couldn't get to us.

And all this was nobody's fault because it was thunderstorming outside. Five hours of my life wasted because somebody somewhere decided that if people are on the plane, at least at some point they'll be able to take off. I guess that's how you make money in the rain. Shove and pray.

I had this conversation recently with someone about how airlines are privately owned but the airport itself is controlled by the government. It seems hard to be competitive when you can only do so much before some regulation prevents you from going further. Add on the fact that airlines are just price cutting each other until they all operate with no profit, and what do you get? Today's airlines.

JetBlue does a fantastic job of being competitive in this world anyway. No first class, because everyone is made to feel like they are first class. Why not? JetBlue's airfare is about twice as much as their competitors. Sure, they seat a few less people because they actually want their passengers to be comfortable, and sure, they can't gouge money from first class and business class travelers, but when every ticket costs the price of business class, you're bound to make out pretty decently.

Now if only we could get JetBlue a private airport. How many people would pay some JetBlue membership fee if they could skip security checks and waiting on the runway for 5 hours? I would.