Davids Takes Action to Protect Passengers, Hold Airlines Accountable
Representative Sharice Davids joined her colleagues on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee yesterday to call on Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to hold airlines accountable for mass cancellations. Davids pointed to Southwest Airlines in particular, which cancelled 16,000 flights nationwide and left thousands of passengers in the Kansas City area stranded amid the busy holiday travel season.
"We urge you to use the full weight of your agency to hold Southwest Airlines accountable, provide stronger consumer protections for passengers and help prevent these types of mass cancellations from occurring in the future," Davids and her colleagues wrote. "Unless immediate action is taken, the rising threat of mass flight cancellations risks jeopardizing Americans' confidence in the reliability of our nation's air transportation network."
In the letter, Davids and her colleagues proposed a number of policy changes to protect consumers and stop these mass cancellations from financially damaging future passengers, including:
- Not leaving reimbursement in these scenarios to the complete discretion of the airlines.
- Ensuring passengers and airlines can effectively communicate with each other.
- Making sure that airlines are able to maintain a reasonable level of operational capabilities in the event of extreme weather and other disruptions.
Davids acknowledged that DOT has already made progress on expanding the rights of airline passengers and asked the Department to notify Congress of any legal authority they need to execute these further protections. The House plans to consider major aviation legislation this session through the 2023 FAA reauthorization, and the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee will play a major role in any policy changes.