The service at major airlines keeps getting worse all the time, so some competition from more consumer-friendly airlines should be very good news for frequent fliers.

Dallas-based JSX Airline was founded in 2018 to meet the needs of frustrated passengers by using smaller jets to connect several dozen underserved markets and leave from private terminals that have their own security. It’s also a non-union air service.

So the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and big carriers that JSX competes with — like American Airlines — are trying to shut JSX down.

Outrageously, last month, the Federal Aviation Administration announced a rulemaking that would likely do just that.

JSX allows passengers to arrive just 20 minutes before departure, allows only 30 spacious seats on its Embraer jets, and offers free drinks, snacks, and Wi-Fi. As an “on-demand” charter operator, the FAA currently lets it hire pilots who are over 65 years of age (the retirement age at other carriers), as well as co-pilots who have fewer than 1,500 hours of experience.

Air travel blogger Gary Leff writes that the unions and the rival airlines are simply making “a protectionist argument against innovation.”

The Biden Administration – think FTC chair Lina Kahn — boasts that it supports “competition,” lower prices, and consumer choice in its regulations. But as our economist Casey Mulligan has reported, when forced to choose between consumers and its union allies it invariably sides with union bosses.