> The reason my flight on Saturday was cancelled was because Delta was one flight attendant short of the legal minimum to board. [...]<p>> Four days later, this same problem persists. Delta simply can’t find it’s own employees.<p>> I’ve read a few early think pieces on the matter, and it looks like this will cost Delta at least a billion dollars, although it could be substantially higher depending on what fines the Transportation Department imposes. The federal government stuck Southwest with a $140m penalty for a similar disruption in service more than a decade ago.<p>(Based on some quick searches - his "more than a decade ago" is bunk; the $140m was in 2022: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#December_2022_scheduling_crisis" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#December_20...</a>)<p>Gosh, let's see...<p>- airline leadership is relentlessly optimizing for profit and stock price<p>- airline customers are (by most accounts) relentlessly optimizing for price, amenities, and safety<p>...and people complain that air travel isn't reliable.<p>In other news: data-center server motherboards are not circular, and base-model econo-cars have mediocre 0-60 times.