United Airlines marketed the jingle “fly the friendly skies.”   And, one pilot of United’s very worthy adversary, Southwest Airlines, should have taken note, perhaps.

We write “perhaps” because, in spite of AP reporter Collen Long’s outrage expressed on her Twitter account, there is no clear-cut audio or video of the reported SWA pilot uttering “Let’s Go Brandon” as passengers were about to deplane in Alberquerque this past weekend.  Not yet.

Predictably both sides of the divided country quickly stepped up to either defend the yet unnamed pilot or want to have him fired by sundown in New Mexico.

Fox News had their roundtable of five on the Outnumbered show yesterday take turns citing examples of either Alec Baldwin or Robert DeNiro screaming “F Trump” into microphones, or even that has been redheaded comedienne (her name escapes us) that faux beheaded Trump as justification for the pilot’s behavior.

There are few more staunch supporters of the freedom of speech than BBR.

But, the above examples are individuals acting as individuals.  You don’t have to like what they said or did any more than watching the American flag being set ablaze. You just have to respect their right to do so.

So, simply stated he had a right to say what he said.  And, because of that, the airline has a right to take whatever disciplinary action it deems appropriate against the pilot.  He was on their time earning his dime.

The SWA pilot was representing SWA.  And a company spokesperson released the following statement yesterday.  “Southwest Team takes pride in providing a welcoming, comfortable, and respectful environment for the millions of customers who fly with the airline each year, and behavior from any individual that is divisive or offensive is not condoned.”

A wise owl once said, “you can say anything you want on your last day.”

Whether the purported incident did or did not happen is still for debate. What is not debatable is that a corporate line is a corporate line.

And, now a pilot, vaccinated or not, might have to join the unemployment line. His freedom of speech wasn’t free.

At a minimum he’ll get his wings clipped a bit.

Meanwhile, “Let’s Go Brandon” seems to have a lot of air under its wings.