When thousands of flights were axed at the last minute over the Memorial Day weekend, passengers were left in the lurch, and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg told airline chiefs to take immediate steps to avoid a repeat.
The Biden transport administration chief called a virtual meeting of airline and travel industry executives on Thursday to hold them accountable for recent travel disruptions and to get assurances that they wouldn't happen again this summer.
After the meeting, Buttigieg told NBC News that they were counting on them to deliver.
According to sources, Buttigieg ordered airlines to look into whether they could deliver the flights they were busy selling.
The meeting could cause U.S. airlines to cancel some of their summer schedules in order to be more reliable. The general thought is that airlines are too ambitious to meet demand.
The industry is suffering from chronic understaffing and any external events like bad weather or an air traffic control delay can quickly escalate into a full-blown crisis.
The White House is concerned that travelers in the U.S. will experience the same kind of travel turmoil in Europe, where demand has bounced back much quicker than the rate at which staff can be hired.
The British government has ordered local airlines to reduce the number of flights on sale for the rest of the summer in order to build more resilience into the system.
Air traffic control delays must be brought under control if the federal government is to avoid travel chaos.
The FAA plans to increase the number of air traffic controllers in Florida to avoid a repeat of the problems at the Jacksonville ATC center.
Mateusz Maszczynski As an international flight attendant, Maszczynski worked at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying for a well-known European airline. He is an expert in passenger experience and human-centered stories. Some of the biggest names in journalism rely on Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage often.
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