Before he was confirmed last week, Sean Duffy, President Trump’s pick for secretary of the Transportation Department, appeared before Congress for his nomination hearing. Instead of facing rigorous and probing questions about his longstanding ties to the airline industry or his vision on consumer protection and competition policies, senators on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee largely gave him a pass.
Americans remain in the dark on whether Duffy will fight on behalf of them or the monopolistic corporations he’s supposed to regulate.
This is a concern. The Department of Transportation is massive, regulating not just airlines but rail, highways, waterways and much more. In 2023, this sector made up $1.8 trillion of the nation’s GDP. It is an area rife with consolidated, dominant corporations that often try to charge the greatest amount of money they can for the lowest possible quality of consumer experience.
It’s the Transportation Department’s job to look out for consumers and protect the competitiveness of the airline industry. But Duffy exemplifies the revolving door between government and the private sector, an issue that for years has helped these dominant transportation corporations run roughshod over consumers, smaller players in the industry and our economic resilience.
Duffy worked for BGR Government Affairs in 2020 and directly lobbied on behalf of the nation’s Big Three carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. It’s little wonder that Airlines for America, the largest lobbying organization representing only the largest U.S. carriers, stated in November it was “thrilled” with Duffy’s nomination.
Despite such inherent divided loyalties, Duffy wasn’t asked fundamental questions about his past work lobbying for the largest, least competitive and most problematic domestic airlines; whether that would compromise his ability to regulate them; or how he would act on a proposed rule to make junk fees more transparent (which the Big Three airlines and Airlines for America are suing the department to block). The latter was just halted by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; the airlines Duffy previously lobbied for all are plaintiffs in the case.
It’s a statistical fact that U.S. airline performance and customer service have declined in recent years, with record numbers of flight delays, cancellations, consumer complaints and unpaid refunds. Yet on Fox News on Dec. 29, 2022, at the height of the worst single airline meltdown in U.S. history, when Southwest Airlines stranded more than 2 million passengers during the Christmas holidays, Duffy stated: “Capital markets work. … Southwest will fix this, Pete Buttigieg never will.”
No one asked if Duffy still believes the airline market will correct its own problems, even though there has been no evidence of this in the last decade. Lawmakers also didn’t specifically ask if he will facilitate pending rulemakings that airline passengers have embraced, such as mandatory automatic refunds, disability access, junk fee transparency and compensation during flight disruptions.
Although much was made at the hearing of Duffy being the father of nine children, he was not asked about the rulemaking concerning children being seated apart from their families, even though the FBI reports an increase in in-flight sexual assaults, for which unaccompanied minors are “typically” victims.
On the safety front, the Federal Aviation Administration has been understaffed and underbudgeted for decades, yet no specific plans for fixing FAA’s oversight of the airlines or Boeing were discussed. (To be clear, the hearing took place two weeks before the American Airlines crash in Washington.)
We hardly learned anything about Duffy’s position on the core issue facing airlines and other transportation industries: consolidation. The U.S. airline industry has never been more consolidated, with the fewest number of scheduled passenger airlines since the 1910s. The Big Four oligopoly of American, Delta, Southwest and United control 80 percent of the market; there have been only two new-entrant carriers in the last 17 years. The industry is hardly in healthy shape. In fact, since deregulation in 1978, we’ve seen 46 domestic airline mergers and 214 bankruptcies.
All this has led to regional inequality across the country, as small and rural communities are denied easy, frequent and low fare access to the aviation grid. Cities as large as Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and St. Louis have lost major airport hubs that have led directly to corporate relocations and lost jobs.
But, again, Duffy wasn’t asked how he plans to check the power of Wall Street to increase competition, nor was he asked what the Department of Transportation will do to encourage entry by start-up airlines or facilitate airport access to provide more low-fare service and real competition. Also not discussed was that the secretary has broad powers under Unfair and Deceptive Practices authority to promote innovation, foster growth from start-up airlines, and counter the power of the airline oligopoly and industry consolidation.
To be fair, Duffy’s hearing did generate some questions from senators on adjacent issues, including about support for the Essential Air Service program that subsidizes flights for small and rural communities; air traffic controller shortages; DEI policies; and the sorry state of Boeing, once America’s crown jewel. Duffy also stated he would support all existing laws, including the “1500-hour” rule for commercial pilot training. To their credit, some senators also followed up by sending written questions to Duffy after the hearing, but although this correspondence has been made public, it’s unlikely to be as widely seen as the hearing itself.
The secretary of Transportation may not traditionally be a high-profile position, but outgoing Secretary Pete Buttigieg brought unprecedented attention to the role. He did so by effectively enforcing the law against the airline industry’s biggest players and implementing key consumer protection and competition reforms; the future of some of these rules will be decided by Duffy.
With such a large and complex portfolio, it’s crucial the American people know what kind of transportation secretary Sean Duffy will be and whether he’ll take his mandate to oversee the transportation industry seriously. It’s unfortunate their elected officials chose not to ask him publicly when they had the chance.
William J. McGee is the senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project.
