Trump administration seeks to roll back airline passenger rights

Trade group argues rollbacks are course corrections from years of overreach

- Christine Chung

Compensation for disrupted flights. Refunds for faulty services, such as broken WiFi. Transparent airfares, and certain protections for disabled travellers whose wheelchairs are damaged.

All were airline passenger protections championed by the Biden administration. Now it looks as if the Trump administration is seeking to roll them back.

Recent filings by the Transportation Department indicate that it is looking to loosen aviation industry rules something the nation's largest carriers have increasingly pushed for undoing the policies of the previous administration.

While some rules covering passenger rights are set to be eliminated, others have been flagged for updates, according to the Transportation Department's agenda of proposed regulatory changes released in September.

The Transportation Department and Airlines for America, a trade group representing the country's biggest carriers, argue that these rollbacks are course correcting from years of government overreach.

Mr Nate Sizemore, a spokesman for the Transportation Department, said in a statement that the department would enforce all aviation consumer protection requirements mandated by Congress, including the requirement to refund tickets to passengers if flights are cancelled or substantially delayed.

But he said that some of the rules proposed or adopted under the Biden administration went beyond what was required by law.

“We intend to reconsider those extra-statutory requirements,” he said.

Mr Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary during the Biden administration, said in a video statement posted on the social platform X that in dismantling rules protecting airline passengers, the Trump administration was choosing corporations over consumers.

Airlines “will not do anything to protect passengers unless Congress makes them”, Mr Buttigieg elaborated in an interview to CNN.