American Airlines Inc. has informed state officials that it intends to eliminate 209 jobs at major Texas airports, including 158 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

I am old enough to remember when flying used to be romantic. Not so much during my time but during my parents’ and grandparents’ halcyon years when my very peripatetic grandfather boarded DC 3’s and prop jets and a variety of planes that absolutely spelled “Modernism” in the changing world.

People would actually get dressed up to take trips on an airplane. In may grandfather’s time, my parents’ time and even in my first flying years it was more common to see people stepping off in business dress than the ragtag attire you see today. And, as a bonus, the actually washed and didn’t stink. Kept their shoes on. Showed a little more ethical decorum in their behavior.

I remember people going gaga over the Boeing 707. I was still a child, but my parents’ friends would take off to exotic places in the sleek, narrow bodies four engine jet. Then came a succession of planes and with it cheaper fares and people dragging everything from sixteen bags of crap, live chickens and goats, trying to jam all this junk in the overhead storage bins. They took off their shoes and let their smell fit hang over your arm rest. Screaming babies, and all but fist fights between the passengers and flight attendants trying to enforce the rules.

Clearly, somewhere between then and now the romance in flying was over. Long waits and flight delays on the tarmac. Bad meals got worse. And then came 9/11. No rules. Some made sense. Some didn’t. Perhaps the only upside of a dastardly and tragic situation was passengers could no longer drag on fifteen bags and live chickens and pigs. One carry on, only.

Now comes the energy crisis. Now they are charging for bags. The lousy food has turned into no food at all. Now even peanuts. The flight schedules have been severely reduced. You go through body scans and semi-strip searches, just to board a plane wait on the tarmac for the two hour delay, before landing in a crowded and outdated airport, where you then board a cab, limo or funky shuttle for the hour’s drive through traffic to the city hub.

And now come the layoffs. Corra has clients who do the background checks for some of the smaller airlines. They are hurting; the larger airlines as hurting as well. Soon no one will be flying anywhere. Too expensive and an even bigger pain than it is already. “Sorry we have one flight going where you are going, and that leaves on the sixth day of the sixth moon of the winter solstice.

I try to drive wherever I go. I figured it out that driving from LA to say San Francisco it is maybe, when all is said and done, waiting at the airport in both places, driving to the airport, driving from the airport to the city, two hours longer. The driving is more convenient, and I have my car with me.

Now you certainly can’t do this coast to coast. Gasoline ain’t cheap, either. And let’s face it, there will be a limit to airline flight schedule and staff reduction. Sooner or later, the airlines will make a valiant come back. The Air Force is already experimenting with synthetic fuel, and there will be other alternate sources, material that will factor in to a better plane and better system. The airlines will consolidate, become more efficient. They will hire pilots and staff again, conduct preemployment screening programs, and probably still run behind schedule. As for the passengers, I think the one bag carry-on is here to stay. Now if they can only keep their shoes on…..

Check them out before you hire.