US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made media rounds last night, pledging that the Department of Transportation would hold Southwest Airlines accountable for what he called a “complete meltdown.”
Pete Buttigieg: We’re In A Position To Hold Southwest Airlines Accountable
Among others, Buttigieg appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, the PBS News Hour with Judy Woodruff, and NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas.
Buttigieg minced no words with Wolf Blitzer when asked about Southwest:
“From what I can tell, Southwest is unable to locate even where their own crews are, let alone their own passengers, let alone baggage…
“Their system really has completely melted down.”
Asked if such language was too strong on the News Hour, Buttigieg told Judy Woodruff:
“Ordinarily, I think that, sometimes, in the media, the word meltdown is used a little bit too often. Right now, I would say meltdown is the only word I can use to describe what is happening across Southwest Airlines’ operations.”
Buttigieg does not believe that weather is a valid excuse, telling Tom Llamas on NBC Nightly News:
“This has clearly crossed the line from what’s an uncontrollable weather situation to something that is the airline’s direct responsibility.”
On PBS, Woodruff pushed back on Buttigieg’s “stump speech” pledging to hold Southwest accountable to suggest that new Biden-era DOT consumer protections cannot prevent the sort of meltdown that has impacted Southwest this week.
Buttigieg’s response encapsulates the totality of all his media appearances in just a few sentences:
“Ultimately, what we’re seeing is that no other airline had this issue. So, it does seem to be specific to this one airline. They’re going to have to, I think, as a company that has relationships with their passengers, answer for that. But they’re also going to be responsible to us for meeting their customer service commitments.
“And what we have found is that, both through transparency and through enforcement, we have been able to get a lot of results out of airlines. Just this year alone, we have gotten hundreds of millions of dollars back to hundreds of thousands of passengers.
“And because we put that pressure on over the summer, many airlines, including Southwest, made new commitments in writing to what they will do for passengers in situations like this. Now that we have that in hand, we’re in a position to hold them accountable to them. And that’s exactly what were going to be doing as we look ahead.”
But he did go even further on CNN, telling Blitzer not only would Southwest be held accountable for what has happened, but also be held accountable to a degree that such a meltdown cannot happen again:
“I made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this can’t happen again.”
The US DOT also released its own statement concerning the Southwest meltdown:
USDOT is concerned by Southwest Airlines’ disproportionate and unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays, as well as the failure to properly support customers experiencing a cancellation or delay. As more information becomes available, the department will closely examine whether cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is complying with its customer service plan, as well as all other pertinent DOT rules.
It is not clear what the DOT can do beyond ensuring that Southwest refunds canceled tickets and pays for incidental expenses incurred by consumers as a result of its cascade of delays and cancellations.
CONCLUSION
While DOT policy did not prevent the meltdown at Southwest Airlines this week, Buttigieg promised to hold Southwest accountable for making passengers whole and better understand exactly what caused the collapse. I am not sure DOT can do anything more at this time, but I remind you once again, folks, that the DOT has every right to poke its head in Southwest’s business when Southwest was the beneficiary of billions in taxpayer subsidies during the pandemic.
image: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
-Ronald Reagan (August 12th, 1986)
Yeah, lets ask the 400 or so million Europeans who, due to government help, get assured care, reimbursement and/or compensation for events just like this……..
Sounds awesome. But someone pays for that. And it’s not the businesses.
Somehow the cheap European air fare would tend to disagree with you.
Cheap fares, but no pitch and you pay for absolutely everything if you fly a ULCC (like Ryanair). If not, you pay fares comparable to here but with Eurobusiness class that offers the same crap pitch as everyone else gets, only at a price premium. Over there, everything is smaller, yet costs as much or more than we pay here for the larger version. Why? Taxes, taxes, taxes. And they cannot even defend themselves.
Europe is gorgeous and I love visiting. But it’s no model for us.
Two words “Euro Biz”
Ok then. Please tell us who does pay? It ain’t free.
As a European living in the US the answer is everyone pays. The US is built around corporations and individual rights first, Europe is built around the people and community first. In Europe maybe sales tax is ~20%, income tax is high, gas is ~$6 to 8 a gallon, etc……. BUT if you are sick you go to the Doctor and the care is based on medical need not money, with minimal paperwork. In the airlines case the European model is based on consumer protection and redress, the US model based on “well you should have picked another airline”, and redress if you purchased insurance or can hire a good lawyer. The US system leads to dramatic disparity in the life styles of the population, the Europeans would rather not go there, it ultimately causes great troubles.
I missed a connection in Paris on Air France earlier this year. They not only paid for my hotel and meal vouchers but gave me $330 cash (not credit or vouchers) for my inconvenience. It’s high time we held US airlines accountable like this. If cost is a concern let’s mandate its deducted from the CEO’s salaries and stock options.
Yes, we could be like Haiti and have no visible government or any oversight. Be run by warlords and gangs. Which in our case in the U.S. would be corporate leaders ready to line up consumers outside so as to pick pocket us as we wait for food.
It’s a great soundbite from someone with actual dementia (not the imagined dementia that Republicans think Biden has) that has groomed the citizens of this country for the downfall of a functioning society.