So you'd need a licensed anesthesiologist monitoring every passenger? Sounds expensive.

It's a matter of monitoring and dosage. You can easily do mass scale sedation with proper monitoring and appropriate patient selection. If your BMI is over 25 or you have OSA, you wouldn't qualify. If you're healthy, fit, and consenting, you could be sedated for a long haul flight and have minimal hangover, perhaps even feeling rested.

No. General anesthesia is a risky procedure, requiring constant one-on-one monitoring by a anesthesiologist.

Sounds like an industry ready for disruption. If only these damn regulations weren't holding us back.

/s (sort of).

GE has been trying to disrupt anesthesia for quite some time:

http://www3.gehealthcare.com/en/products/categories/anesthes...

Edit: Since its not obvious, they have some machines that can go in autonomous mode and alert the hospital if the patient needs an actual doctor to fix something.

Can you show me a GE product which doesn't need an anesthesiologist present at all times?

As far as I can tell, none of those devices acts autonomously or even close to it.