The 2023 travel season is expected to be the busiest ever, according to the Transportation Safety Administration. So what is the US Department of Transportation doing to make sure passengers see as few disruptions as possible? Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tells Yahoo Finance that the department has "dramatically improved" passenger rights enforcement and that passenger rights are "at a different level than they were before," creating an economic incentive for airlines to treat passengers better. Buttigieg also highlights technological and logistical advancements at the FAA as another way air travel is being improved.
Click here to watch the full interview on the Yahoo Finance YouTube page or you can watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live here.
Video Transcript
- We're coming up against Thanksgiving. And really this has been, we've talked to you a lot about this, this is one of the worst years for delays at this country's airports. What are your messages to the CEOs of these airlines that I think some would suggest that they've pulled back on investment in some areas of their business, maybe to boost profits, whatever it is. What's your message to them as we might be looking for another holiday season of chaos here.
PETE BUTTIGIEG: Well, look. We know that when there is concerted action it can work. It's one of the reasons why cancellations are below the 10-year average right now, and we'd like to see the same thing happen with delays. That means realistic scheduling. And the other thing that I think is having an effect on airline behavior is we have dramatically improved passenger rights enforcement compared to even a year and a half ago.
The passenger protections that people have, you can learn about them at flightrights.gov, are just at a different level than they were before and that creates the right economic incentive for airlines to do what they should be doing all along. Of course, we're not just coming down on the airlines.
We're also making sure that the FAA is part of the solution, using GPS enabled technology to create smoother simpler flight routes, getting together on operational issues and even things that sound a little exotic but are more and more of an issue like deconflicting frequent commercial space launches from an airspace that's busy for certain travel periods.
But here's what we've seen so far this year. A reduction in cancellations, an increase in passenger rights, and an all-time record high in terms of travel in the summer holidays. I expect that we'll probably see the same thing going into the winter holidays. And so we'll be watching closely and ready to have passengers back anytime they experience an issue.