US Senators Want More Scrutiny of Airlines

In a terse letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Alex Padilla (D-California) are urging the government agency to “aggressively” use its powers to crack down on the airline industry.

The letter was first obtained by CNN.

The two Senators expressed their dismay at the issues surrounding air travel this year, just two years after the airlines were the beneficiaries of more than $50 billion in government grants and loans because of the onset of the pandemic.

Pilot shortages, other staffing shortages, bad weather conditions, and cutbacks in schedules have led to numerous flight delays and cancellations that have affected every airline.

“After receiving tens of billions of dollars in assistance from American taxpayers,” Warren and Padilla wrote in the letter sent Monday evening, “major airlines have reciprocated by dramatically increasing ticket prices and reaching new lows in their treatment of travelers.”

Warren and Padilla asked Buttigieg to put the blame squarely on the airlines – even though the airlines have partially blamed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for mismanaging its air traffic controller staff.

The letter said airlines should shoulder the load for the travel chaos “whether due to their own poor operations and staffing practices or through intentional schemes to offer flights they know they can’t staff in order to later cancel the least-profitable flights. Consistently delaying flights for reasons within an airline’s control is an unfair and deceptive practice.”

In response, the DOT said it has kept up the pressure on domestic airlines, although it hasn’t followed through with threats to use its power to force carriers to hire more staff to deal with any shortcomings.

“The Department expects that when Americans buy an airline ticket, they’ll get to where they need to go safely, affordably and reliably,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.