Airline Oversight

I was reading Afternoons with the Mad Rocket Scientist and came across this post http://madrocketsci.blogspot.com/2008/04/your-dose-of-geekery.html

Personally, I think having FAA oversight is vital and necessary. Yes, American Airlines isn't going to initially go skimping on maintenance. But what would keep smaller contract airlines from skimping? And with the smaller guys skimping and undercutting the big boys, who is to say American won't then skimp to keep costs in line? I really don't want a series of ValuJet crashes because everyone is trying to save a buck.

It already happens in the Charter world with scumbags undercutting the premium charter companies. I flew down in FL and IMHO the maintenance is known as bad and fulfills the legal obligations and nothing more. Good charter companies can't compete on price and if someone is shopping for a ticket, they have no way of checking the maintenance quality.

Plus, this issue has been fought with crew rest (maintenance on the pilots if you will). Pilots work long and hard hours, usually in unique environments that place additional stress on them. ALPA has fought long and hard for additional crew rest requirements and has won some and lost some. As it is, the NTSB has it on this most wanted list in aviation safety.

Update: I forgot about the Cessna 208 Caravan in icing conditions. The aircraft flys like a brick in icing conditions but that hasn't stopped the FAA from revoking it's ability to fly in icing. It's a major cargo aircraft, and thus would be destroyed in value and create huge upsets in the cargo industry if it's FIKI certification was revoked.