As passengers at airports around the country struggle in the days following Christmas with high rates of flight cancellations on Southwest Airlines, the editorial board at the generally conservative newspaper The Wall Street Journal has come out with an article criticizing the prospect of further government oversight of airline companies.
The narrative from the Journal contradicts the messaging on the Twitter account for the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, where a post recently appeared rhetorically asking about the whereabouts of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, as though he hasn’t been very public with the department’s response to large numbers of temporarily stranded air travelers, giving what is now a series of interviews and getting directly in touch with figures including the Southwest CEO. Buttigieg responded to the House GOP tweet — and he also pushed back on the Journal’s messaging. A cornerstone idea in the Journal seems to be it’s somehow destructive for the Transportation Department to, you know, oversee the transportation industry, including with new rules Buttigieg proposed adding to the circumstances under which airlines would be obligated to offer passengers refund opportunities.
What is the department supposed to do? Offer thoughts and prayers instead of real policy? “We are prepared to face this kind of criticism for being too aggressive on airline performance and customer service,” Buttigieg said on Twitter in response to the Journal. “The truth is that USDOT has both the responsibility and the authority to support the traveling public, and we will continue to do so.”
Buttigieg’s previously proposed rules about which the Journal complained required refunds be offered if flights are delayed over three hours or will land at a different airport, among other specifications. Those are substantial alterations to a planned flight path, and with people using air travel for obviously all sorts of reasons, those kinds of changes could lead to possibly serious ramifications for passengers. Should the government leave addressing that prospect to private companies that might or might not actually do so? What’s next — complaining about regulatory pushes ensuring what’s listed as in a food item is what’s actually in there? It’s just really basic stuff here in consumer protection terms. The Journal also contended with the contents of a letter from dozens of those holding a state attorney general post that pushed for expanded enforcement opportunities for consumer protection rules in the airline industry. As the publication explains it, that was just a letter. Anybody in government can write a letter. It’s not an apocalypse.
We are prepared to face this kind of criticism for being too aggressive on airline performance and customer service.
The truth is that USDOT has both the responsibility and the authority to support the traveling public, and we will continue to do so. https://t.co/IcuHElDXz1
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) December 29, 2022
