The Trump administration announced last Friday that it will end the federal rule requiring airlines to give cash refunds and compensation to passengers for cancellations and significant delays. The plan, implemented by the Biden administration last year, also mandated that carriers provide free meals, accommodations and rebooking for customers. The White House claims that the policy reversal, praised by the airline industry, was a necessary move to correct executive overreach by President Biden.
President Trump seems intent on deregulation and stripping consumer rights to the bare legal minimum. According to the New York Times, the White House specifically mentioned that Biden-era rules went beyond what was required by Congress. Airlines were giddy to see the protections abolished because of how much refunds eat into their revenue. For example, Delta Air Lines paid out $6 billion in refunds between January 2020 and August 2022 before the rule was implemented. Airlines for America, an industry lobby representing every major U.S. carrier, stated:
“We are encouraged by this Department of Transportation reviewing unnecessary and burdensome regulations that exceed its authority and don’t solve issues important to our customers. We look forward to working with DOT on implementing President Trump’s deregulatory agenda.”
We don’t want to have another airline meltdown
It’s fair to say that the airlines have a very biased view of the Biden administration’s policy and would like to omit how we ended up here. We shouldn’t forget the Southwest Airlines operations meltdown in December 2022, which led to approximately 16,900 flights being cancelled. The DOT later handed a record $140 million fine to Southwest, on top of the almost $600 million in refunds and reimbursements.
Unless we all return to taking ocean liners overseas, government oversight is the only surefire method of pressuring airlines to provide better service to all passengers, not just those paying for a first-class ticket. Commercial aviation is a cutthroat industry where the perpetual demand for profitability has transformed airlines into de facto financial institutions that also fly planes on the side. If a carrier doesn’t keep up, it could end up like Spirit Airlines and declare bankruptcy twice in a year.
