As far as I know, the crews are provided by ABX and ATI - which are owned by Atlas (something may have changed recently, though).

Not at all. This operation is mainly because FedEx and UPS don’t have enough lift.

Amazon isn’t operating the aircraft - ABX is.

Neither the 767 nor the A330 are “regional” in any sense of the word.

I saw the name before the picture loaded and visibly grimaced. Then the picture came, as if the mental image wasn’t enough...

Makes a great deal of political sense, in hindsight.

You seem to have forgotten the strike in ‘81 by the PATCO folks - incidentally, that’s the branch that Shuster and friends want to privatize.

I disagree with your second point.

Right, but there was no federal regulations prohibiting box cutters or anything else - they were airline guidelines, and oversight on security screening was basically nil by the airlines themselves.

I’m not advocating for a return to the status quo ante.

There’s no question that results thus far are a mixed bag all things considered.

And have what in its place?

There’s a lot more to it than that.

Before 9/11, airports and airlines coordinated their own security set-ups. There’s definitely a need for a federal-level regulatory and oversight regime (TSA), but the screening itself should be undertaken by contractors.

No one is advocating for a pre-9/11 regime. But, I’ll indulge you: how effective is TSA in halting such things as is? Not very.

Indeed it was, but it was directly under the control of the airports.

I’m not making things up here - vis a vis TSA, private contractors who do the same work cost TSA less.

Indeed, right after posting I remembered that op-ed he penned a while back.

There’s an easy solution with TSA: privatize. It’s been done at several airports already (SFO being the most prominent), and those operations cost less, fail fewer audits, and are more popular with passengers.

The variance between Toyota brands is interesting.