WASHINGTON, June 29 – As skyrocketing flight delays, cancellations, and outrageously high prices and hidden fees are leaving passengers and crew members frustrated, broke, and stranded, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Tuesday sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging immediate action to protect the rights of airline passengers and workers.
Sanders wrote, “Let’s be clear. During the pandemic, when air travel came to a near halt, U.S. taxpayers came to the rescue and gave $54 billion to the airline industry. The top eight airlines alone received nearly $50 billion in taxpayer assistance from the federal government. Given all of the generous taxpayer support that has been provided to the airline industry, all of us have a responsibility to make sure that passengers and crew members are treated with respect, not contempt.”
In the letter, Sanders lays out specific and urgent steps Sec. Buttigieg should take to protect passengers and crew members and substantially reduce cancellations and delays, including requiring airlines to promptly refund passengers for flights that have been delayed over an hour; imposing fines on airlines for flights that are delayed more than two hours; and imposing fines on airlines for scheduling flights that they are unable to properly staff.
Over the past year, the price of airline tickets has climbed by 38 percent, while airline delays have increased by 50 percent and cancellations are up by 18 percent compared to where they were before the pandemic. So far this year, one out of every five flights in the U.S. were delayed.
The letter comes at a time when many pilots, flight attendants, and airline workers are also picketing and follows recent allegations from the American Airlines pilots’ union that airlines are intentionally scheduling flights they cannot staff.
Read the letter here.
Many of the people in the Biden administration are ARE NOT simply inept. They are DEMONIC. They are serving the devil, whether consciously or subconsciously. Certainly not serving God.
Buttiboy couldn’t fix the potholes in South Bend, he took 3 months maternity leave
during the shipping crisis, he said roads are raciest how do you expect him to
fix the problems in the airlines burnee.. get a clue he’s a check mark in the
pronouns dept of potato heads administration… nothing more just a lot less..
The whole Biden administration and the ones hiding behind the curtain ” mind trust ”
pulling feckless joe’s strings, are completely inept…………
So we have the commander and thief, Kammy working and solving all sorts of issues
on the border correct, and now Socialist Sanders is picking on Lil Pete, that’s been on
leave tending to his newborn, that is where the real issues are !!
Wake up people, they only care about staying in power, saving the country is way down
on their things-to-do list………….. remember who put you in this dilemma when you vote,
and it wasn’t Putin or Trump …………….
So Bernie’s solution to the current air travel industry issues arising from recent wrongheaded & overreaching government actions involving the pandemic, fossil fuels and the economy is more of the same. Spoken like a true Commie. But fresh off Buttigieg’s highly successful handling of the supply chain problems that continue to beset the country, Bernie couldn’t have picked a better member of the Biden administration to solve this one. Besides, Kamala’s still busy at the Mexican border…
Such hubris. There’s only one way to ‘protect’ consumers. Be they fliers or students. Guaranty they have a choice, be it airlines or schools. More cronyism will only beget more cronies.