Earlier than he was confirmed final week, Sean Duffy, President Trump’s choose for secretary of the Transportation Division, appeared before Congress for his nomination listening to. As an alternative of going through rigorous and probing questions on his longstanding ties to the airline business or his imaginative and prescient on shopper safety and competitors insurance policies, senators on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee largely gave him a cross.
People stay at nighttime on whether or not Duffy will battle on behalf of them or the monopolistic firms he is supposed to manage.
This can be a concern. The Department of Transportation is massive, regulating not simply airways however rail, highways, waterways and far more. In 2023, this sector made up $1.8 trillion of the nation’s GDP. It’s an space rife with consolidated, dominant firms that always attempt to cost the best sum of money they’ll for the bottom potential high quality of shopper expertise.
It is the Transportation Division’s job to look out for customers and shield the competitiveness of the airline business. However Duffy exemplifies the revolving door between authorities and the personal sector, a problem that for years has helped these dominant transportation corporations run roughshod over customers, smaller gamers within the business and our financial resilience.
Duffy labored for BGR Authorities Affairs in 2020 and immediately lobbied on behalf of the nation’s Big Three carriers: American Airways, Delta Air Traces and United Airways. It is little marvel that Airways for America, the biggest lobbying group representing solely the biggest U.S. carriers, acknowledged in November it was “thrilled” with Duffy’s nomination.
Regardless of such inherent divided loyalties, Duffy wasn’t requested basic questions on his previous work lobbying for the biggest, least aggressive and most problematic home airways; whether or not that may compromise his capability to manage them; or how he would act on a proposed rule to make junk charges extra clear (which the Huge Three airways and Airways for America are suing the department to block). The latter was just halted by the Court docket of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; the airways Duffy beforehand lobbied for all are plaintiffs within the case.
It is a statistical incontrovertible fact that U.S. airline efficiency and customer support have declined in recent years, with report numbers of flight delays, cancellations, shopper complaints and unpaid refunds. But on Fox News on Dec. 29, 2022, on the top of the worst single airline meltdown in U.S. historical past, when Southwest Airlines stranded more than 2 million passengers through the Christmas holidays, Duffy acknowledged: “Capital markets work. … Southwest will repair this, Pete Buttigieg by no means will.”
Nobody requested if Duffy nonetheless believes the airline market will right its personal issues, although there was no proof of this within the final decade. Lawmakers additionally did not particularly ask if he’ll facilitate pending rulemakings that airline passengers have embraced, corresponding to obligatory computerized refunds, incapacity entry, junk payment transparency and compensation throughout flight disruptions.
Though a lot was made on the listening to of Duffy being the daddy of 9 youngsters, he was not requested in regards to the rulemaking regarding youngsters being seated other than their households, although the FBI reports a rise in in-flight sexual assaults, for which unaccompanied minors are “sometimes” victims.
On the protection entrance, the Federal Aviation Administration has been understaffed and underbudgeted for many years, but no particular plans for fixing FAA’s oversight of the airways or Boeing have been mentioned. (To be clear, the listening to occurred two weeks earlier than the American Airways crash in Washington.)
We hardly realized something about Duffy’s place on the core situation going through airways and different transportation industries: consolidation. The U.S. airline industry has never been more consolidated, with the fewest variety of scheduled passenger airways because the 1910s. The Huge 4 oligopoly of American, Delta, Southwest and United management 80 % of the market; there have been solely two new-entrant carriers within the final 17 years. The business is hardly in wholesome form. The truth is, since deregulation in 1978, we have seen 46 domestic airline mergers and 214 bankruptcies.
All this has led to regional inequality throughout the nation, as small and rural communities are denied simple, frequent and low fare entry to the aviation grid. Cities as giant as Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and St. Louis have lost major airport hubs which have led on to company relocations and misplaced jobs.
However, once more, Duffy wasn’t requested how he plans to test the facility of Wall Road to extend competitors, nor was he requested what the Division of Transportation will do to encourage entry by start-up airways or facilitate airport entry to offer extra low-fare service and actual competitors. Additionally not mentioned was that the secretary has broad powers below Unfair and Deceptive Practices authority to advertise innovation, foster progress from start-up airways, and counter the facility of the airline oligopoly and business consolidation.
To be truthful, Duffy’s listening to did generate some questions from senators on adjoining points, together with about help for the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes flights for small and rural communities; air visitors controller shortages; DEI insurance policies; and the sorry state of Boeing, as soon as America’s crown jewel. Duffy additionally acknowledged he would help all present legal guidelines, together with the “1500-hour” rule for commercial pilot training. To their credit score, some senators additionally adopted up by sending written inquiries to Duffy after the listening to, however though this correspondence has been made public, it is unlikely to be as broadly seen because the listening to itself.
The secretary of Transportation could not historically be a high-profile place, however outgoing Secretary Pete Buttigieg introduced unprecedented attention to the position. He did so by successfully implementing the regulation in opposition to the airline business’s largest gamers and implementing key shopper safety and competitors reforms; the way forward for a few of these guidelines shall be determined by Duffy.
With such a big and complicated portfolio, it’s essential the American individuals know what sort of transportation secretary Sean Duffy shall be and whether or not he’ll take his mandate to supervise the transportation business severely. It is unlucky their elected officers selected to not ask him publicly once they had the prospect.
William J. McGee is the senior fellow for aviation and journey on the American Financial Liberties Mission.
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