Don’t look now, airline dress codes are on the way.

Recent headlines have been filled with accounts of passengers who were kicked off of their flights, simply because of the clothes they happened to be wearing.

One man was booted off a Delta flight because his shirt displayed an anti-TSA message. Other passengers were escorted off a Southwest flight because their attire was deemed inappropriate (due to cleavage), while others have been refused passage because of shorts which were considered “too short.”

Where will this madness end?

On one side of the argument you have the old farts (like me) who recall the past glory days of aviation when passengers actually dressed nice for their flight. We now observe passengers boarding flights in what appear to be the pajamas they rolled out of bed wearing. Oh, for the days gone by.

Of course passengers quickly reply by saying they are tired of the growing TSA security requirements and they will wear as little as possible, allowing them to quickly move through the security process with as little hassle as possible. Many, citing their dress as a point of expression, reply that they can wear anything they like and limiting such would be the same as limiting their freedom of speech. (A little bit of a stretch there I am afraid.)

The bottom line is airlines, just as any restaurant or other business, can refuse service to customers if they so choose. They have every right to establish and enforce rules of conduct and dress, based on company policy and for those who do not wish to comply - they will be forced to look elsewhere for service, or in this case transportation.

The problem is there is no consensus among airlines and what is appropriate on one airline is deemed inappropriate by another. It is for this reason there is talk among many in Washington to put forth some type of minimum dress standard for airline travel.

Like we don’t have enough to concern ourselves with.

No, additional rules are not needed and no standardized dress code should be rolled out. What we need is for airlines to do a better job educating their customers on what is, and what is not, accepted attire when traveling. We have millions of people flying each day and only a few seem to have attire issues, so my hope is we don’t saddle the masses with additional rules based on the actions of a few.