Obama Vs. McCain: Views on Travel

(MoneyWatch)  How do Barack Obama and John McCain see the travel industry? Several Web sites have already jumped on the bandwagon with the answers, including the Los Angeles Times, MSN, Gadling, various blogs and, of course, BNET.

Evan Sparks' Aviation Blog praised Obama's team for having an aviation policy, while McCain's team seemed to be more concerned with space exploration. Obama had a few words on aviation along with veiled support for unions:

Because of an outdated air-traffic control system and overscheduling at airports already operating at full capacity, there were a record number of flight delays during the first half of 2007. Moreover, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has failed to work well with our nation's air traffic controllers, neglecting to treat them with the respect they deserve.

Obama also supports the Essential Air Service Program (which Sparks calls "a boondoggle") and wants to appoint someone who "will not play politics with the safety of American travelers" as head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin told Sparks of McCain's opposition to all earmarks and his support for measuring agency performance and accountability, as well as economic review. Holtz-Eakin also emphasized "the important role of the private sector." In fact, McCain has said he wouldn't mind moving air traffic control to private companies. McCain also released a statement about FAA's communications failure last August, again suggesting it needed private control.

John Rosenthal tried to quiz the candidates, and one of the few topics the candidates disagreed on with any passion was railway travel -- McCain against Amtrak, Obama for Amtrak. Rosenthal blames it on geography, because with McCain being from Arizona and Palin from Alaska, both mavericks are used to wide open spaces better served by pilots rather than conductors. Obama, on the other hand, is a city boy used to the convenience of subways and passenger trains.

Along with vice presidential hopeful and Amtrak user, Joe Biden, Obama hopes to create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand federal support for projects like bullet-trains.

McCain has been one of Amtrak's strongest foes in the U.S. Senate. In 2002, McCain called for an end to federal funds for the passenger train service which he viewed as the embodiment of government waste. On McCain's Web site, a section on energy called "Transform Transportation," doesn't mention railways or airlines.

In the past, presidents rarely considered travel as a major issue. Perhaps that's changing as we become home to a growing number of world travelers who expect more from their government.

In a recent survey, 1,200 registered voters expressed said federal officials weren't doing enough to improve travel in the United States, the D.C.-based Travel Industry Association reported. In a survey last May, 60 percent of more than 1,000 travelers said that air travel is deteriorating -- the majority blaming the air travel process, not the airlines. The TIA has not endorsed a candidate because, as spokesman Geoff Freeman said, "Neither has stepped up and given these issues the attention they deserve."