Two Democrat senators have asked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to crack down on airlines amid the industry's current chaotic landscape, CNN reported.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., sent a letter to Buttigieg demanding that the Transportation Department "aggressively" use its authority to hold airlines accountable for escalating prices, and an increasing number of cancellations and delays, CNN reported.
The senators said consumers are being victimized barely two years after the government bailed out the airline industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"After receiving tens of billions of dollars in assistance from American taxpayers, major airlines have reciprocated by dramatically increasing ticket prices and reaching new lows in their treatment of travelers," Warren and Padilla wrote in the letter sent Monday evening, CNN reported.
Airlines have blamed a surge of flight cancellations on staff shortages, including a lack of pilots.
Warren and Padilla urged the Transportation Department to hold airlines accountable for canceling flights, "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," CNN reported.
The senators said that 41% of delayed flights were due to reasons within airlines' control.
"Consistently delaying flights for reasons within an airline's control is an unfair and deceptive practice," the joint letter stated, CNN said.
Warren and Padilla criticized airlines for intentional rebookings, in which flights are overbooked, and called for carriers to pay a "hefty fine" in addition to compensating passengers.
"When this gamble fails, it should be airlines — not consumers — that pay the price," Warren and Padilla wrote, CNN reported.
A Transportation Department spokesperson said airlines will continue to be pressured to protect consumers.
"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, CNN reported.
The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration said last week that U.S. airlines' travel performance was improving after delays and cancellations snarled traffic and prompted anger from lawmakers and passengers.
"We are keeping our eye on things. We've seen good improvements," acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen told Reuters and another news outlet on the sidelines of the Farnborough Airshow. "We can see overall delays are down … the airlines are working to right size their network."
Travel also has been affected by bad weather, with more than 1,300 flights canceled Monday when East Coast storms caused disruptions, according to FlightAware.
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