Bizarre even by the standards of unions is the latest hissy fit by the US Airline Pilots Association, the union that represents US Airways’ pilots. USAPA has decided that the proposed slot swap between US Airways and Delta is bad for consumers, that the DOT was correct in calling for the airlines to sell slots at LaGuardia and Reagan National to low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines as a condition for approval, and that the DOJ should investigate the transaction.

Hate to break this to the pilots, but US Airways having to sell slots to a JetBlue or Southwest at DCA isn’t in their self-interest. More competition = lower profits = lower pay in the long run for USAPA members.

So why the economic illiteracy and action against their own self-interest by USAPA? US Airways has also announced it was closing its pilot bases at LaGuardia and Boston and the union thinks the two actions are linked. No US Airways pilots are losing their jobs, though some will have to fly out of other stations, but even that, as far as USAPA is concerned, constitutes a act of shear villainy for which the airline must suffer.

US Airways has said it is closing the two pilot bases regardless of whether the slot swap is approved or not, and that in any case, the slot swap involves regional jets and turboprops, whose pilots are not in USAPA. But reality has never been too important for USAPA.