Patriotism at its stupidest!

The following Bloomberg News story ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today.

U.S. airlines must tell passengers where planes were built, under a rule that becomes final today and was prompted by a U.S. lawmaker's concern that so many aircraft are being manufactured outside the country.

Carriers, including American Airlines and United Airlines, must place the information on the plastic cards in airplane seat backs that describe emergency exits.

The rule is the result of a provision that Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who is chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, added to legislation enacted in December 2003.

"All of the airlines are probably already in compliance," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said yesterday in Washington. The agency estimated it would cost carriers $522,000 to print stickers with the location where planes were "finally assembled" and place them on the placards in 6,559 aircraft.

Airbus has won more orders than The Boeing Co. in five of the past six years and delivered more planes the past two years. U.S. airlines also use planes made by Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. and Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, which has its headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil.

The requirement is "irrelevant" because aircraft manufacturing is a global industry and planes contain parts from countries around the world, said Mary Anne Greczyn, a U.S. spokeswoman for Airbus.The company's planes are "finally assembled" in France or Germany, she said.

???? $522,000 to pay for stickers with final assembly location information on them. Unless you are an aviation freak (like me) I doubt if most people can tell the difference between a 757 and a A320.