WASHINGTON听–听US听罢谤补苍蝉辫辞谤迟ation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he is willing to take a hard line with听补颈谤濒颈苍别蝉听飞丑别苍听苍别肠别蝉蝉补谤测听as the Biden administration vows a sweeping upgrade in passenger consumer protections.
“We’re continuing to work to make sure that听补颈谤濒颈苍别蝉听live up to their obligations, which we will enforce,” Mr. Buttigieg told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview on Thursday.
US听补颈谤濒颈苍别蝉听have sparred with the administration in recent years over responsibility for聽, passenger rights,聽聽and other issues. Carriers and a federal audit say the Federal Aviation Administration聽.
Mr. Buttigieg has opened 聽and imposed fines for carrier misbehavior. President Joe Biden has often criticized听补颈谤濒颈苍别蝉, saying in February “.”
While Mr. Buttigieg works with听补颈谤濒颈苍别蝉听飞丑别苍听possible, he added: “We’re going to beat ’em up聽飞丑别苍听we think that’s important to get听辫补蝉蝉别苍驳别谤蝉听a better deal.”
Mr. Buttigieg said he is “in the middle of what I intend to be the biggest expansion of passenger rights in years. And there are tensions that are naturally going to come through with that.”
United Airlines聽CEO Scott Kirby recently suggested the Federal Aviation Administration had “聽before changing his tone.
In late June and early July, United had higher cancellations that it blamed in part on air traffic control staffing issues.
“It was another scenario where you had the rest of the system seem to recover and one player struggling – so certainly something we’re looking at it,” Mr. Buttigieg said.
In late 2022, Southwest Airlines聽suffered an聽聽after bad weather that also affected peers was compounded by its legacy scheduling system. Buttigieg has an ongoing investigation into Southwest’s meltdown but he declined to discuss findings.
Buttigieg said the US airline industry has improved over last year, citing lower cancellation rates and adding “the schedules are more realistic, certainly the outcomes are better.”
The听罢谤补苍蝉辫辞谤迟ation Department plans to propose new rules聽听肠辞尘辫别苍蝉补迟别听辫补蝉蝉别苍驳别谤蝉听for significant flight delays or cancellations聽飞丑别苍听carriers are responsible.
Mr. Buttigieg said the July 1 rollout of 5G C-Band has gone better than expected with minimal disruptions. Last month,聽聽for airplanes without upgraded radio altimeters.
Mr. Buttigieg said听补颈谤濒颈苍别蝉听were largely prepared but that “took a lot of pressure. It took multiple moments where we had to really just make sure they could read our body language that we really were serious… I don’t think the听补颈谤濒颈苍别蝉听believed聽耻蝉听early on.”
The FAA has been without a Senate-confirmed administrator since April 2022 and a聽聽in March.
Mr. Buttigieg said the White House was close to naming a new nominee. The White House has been considering naming former Deputy FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, sources told Reuters, but Buttigieg declined to identify the expected nominee. – Reuters
