Pete Buttigieg might be one of the most high-profile Transportation Secretaries in recent history. During his tenure as head of the DOT, he oversaw the airline industry’s post-pandemic recovery, meltdowns, a safety and quality crisis at Boeing and two mergers, one of which was blocked.
The department under Buttigieg’s leadership also implemented a slate of consumer regulations ranging from automatic refunds to free family seating. It’s unclear how Buttigieg’s expected successor — former Fox Business host Sean Duffy — will shape the DOT under an incoming Trump administration, but many of the regulations Buttigieg has championed have received praise from Congress and criticism from airline executives.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said there was a “level of overreach” during the Biden administration. Airlines for America, the trade group that represents most major U.S. airlines, sued the DOT for regulatory overreach for a rule on junk fee disclosures. The trade group criticized the DOT for creating the junk fee and automatic refunds rules “without collaboration.”
In the last few weeks of the Biden administration, Skift had the chance to interview Buttigieg about his tenure at the DOT. Buttigieg discussed the department’s relationship with airline CEOs, mergers, consumer protections and junk fees. Here are five takeaways:
- On industry criticism: “I do continue to wish they understood that when we have better customer service, it’s going to be better for their businesses and for the sector as a whole.”
- On mergers: “The approach we tried to take was really to call balls and strikes. We weren’t fundamentalists about things.”
- On enforcing regulations: “We saw enforcement patterns where a billion-dollar abuse would be met with something on the order of a million-dollar fine, which is just not enough to change behavior. So we knew the enforcement practice needed to change, which is why we, in some cases, added a zero or two.”
- On junk fees: “I just think if you were going to court to avoid having to tell people what you charge them, you’re kind of telling on yourself when it comes to business practices.”
- On legacy: “There’s always more work to do, but I’m really encouraged that whether we’re talking about performance or whether we’re talking about protections, we’re definitely leaving the airline sector better than we found it.”
Read the full interview below. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Skift: How do you view some of the CEO backlash you received during your tenure? Do you think any of it was warranted?
Buttigieg: You can’t be totally surprised that a corporation will object when you direct them to take better care of their customers. But I do continue to wish they understood that when we have better customer service, it’s going to be better for their businesses and for the sector as a whole.
I think one of the things we’ve seen is that there’s been real improvement in the rights of passengers, real improvement in cancellation rates, both of which are things we really pressed on. And their businesses are getting stronger. So, again, any time you require a corporation to do something, you can expect they’re going to push back. But in this case, certainly the public response has been very positive. I think the passenger response has been positive. And at the end of the day, the airlines demonstrated that they can in fact do what we’re asking them to do and do the business too.
As hard as I press these guys, it’s also the case that if there’s an operational issue or an emergency, we can get on the phone any time to work out that issue so that passengers are better off. So I just want to emphasize that there continues to be a day-to-day operational level of engagement with the airlines in addition to the standards that we hold them to when it comes to passenger protection.
Skift: There are a lot of rumors that certain airline mergers could occur in 2025. What are you concerned about when it comes to the incoming administration’s approach to mergers?
Buttigieg: Obviously starting in two weeks, I’ll experience this more as a passenger and a citizen than as a policymaker. But those concerns will be very similar to the ones that I brought to this job, which is to make sure that there’s a healthier marketplace, to make sure there’s healthy competition — which continues to be a major concern in the airline sector — and to see good outcomes.
The approach we tried to take was really to call balls and strikes. We weren’t fundamentalists about things. We got involved and blocked one merger. We ultimately supported another one after getting the level of commitments and passenger protections that we did in Alaska and Hawaii. The point is to make sure that passengers are better off.
Skift: Following up on the merger that was blocked, do you have any concerns about Spirit Airlines’ viability given the collapse of the JetBlue merger and its recent bankruptcy filing?
Buttigieg: Our role is policy and law. Their role is to run a viable business. So of course, we’re keeping an eye on that. I’m encouraged to see that the bankruptcy process has not had an effect on scheduled flights and that they’ve got a plan to exit the bankruptcy. They should be able to do that and we’ll be watching.
Skift: Can you tell me more about your approach to consumer regulations and what made you want to implement a lot of these regulations in a way that your predecessors did not?
Buttigieg: What I found worked is a three-legged stool where you got enforcement, transparency and regulation. And one of the great things about the [airline consumer] dashboard was we saw how just through transparency alone, you get a lot of results before you even complete a regulation. But you still have to have the rules to back it up. And then when you have the rules on the books, you’ve got to enforce them.
We saw enforcement patterns where a billion-dollar abuse would be met with something on the order of a million-dollar fine, which is just not enough to change behavior. So we knew the enforcement practice needed to change, which is why we, in some cases, added a zero or two, as we did in the case of Southwest, where I think one enforcement action in response to that meltdown wound up having more value.
We also knew that we needed a stronger hand in the department, and that’s where it was working with Congress. Using our own regulatory authority, we added passenger protections. The point has always been, we didn’t watch any of these things for their own sake. We were responding to the concerns that passengers shared and problems that we were all seeing in the aviation sector. And there’s always more work to do, but I’m really encouraged that whether we’re talking about performance or whether we’re talking about protections, we’re definitely leaving the airline sector better than we found it.
Skift: Have the fines like the one on JetBlue for chronically delayed flights and the Southwest one for the 2022 meltdown had an effect on airline consumer practices?
Buttigieg: I certainly think that airlines have taken note of our enforcement. I mean, just anecdotally, I’ve just had a flight cancelled because of the storm. I saw right there in the text message from the airline a note disclosing that I had the right to a refund if I didn’t want to be rebooked. These are exactly the kind of behavioral changes we’ve been trying to drive with the airlines.
Of course, we’re just a few years into this new enforcement practice and we’ve got to see how it affects the practice and the culture of the industry, which is why I would call for there to be consistency. Obviously, every administration decides what it’s going to do. But I think that this one is pretty bipartisan across.
Skift: The rule on junk fee disclosures is currently being litigated in court and was temporarily blocked. The Obama administration had a similar rule on baggage fee disclosures that was then scrapped by the Trump administration. Is such a rule ever going to be possible?
Buttigieg: I think so. I think it shouldn’t be that hard when you’re selling something. You should tell people how much you’re charging. It’s a basic principle of business and it is disappointing to have them respond to that by suing us. We continue to think this is on good ground. It will likely fall to the next administration to continue the work on how and whether to defend that rule. I would also add, though, that Congress can choose to get involved here. Congressional backup made a big difference at the end of the day on our automatic refund rule. And this is one — the airlines should be doing this anyway.
I just think if you were going to court to avoid having to tell people what you charge them, you’re kind of telling on yourself when it comes to business practices.
Skift: Are you concerned that a lot of the work that has been done under your leadership of the DOT could be undone by the incoming administration?
Buttigieg: Yeah, of course I worry about policy changes, whether it’s the passing of protections that we’ve secured or the infrastructure work we’ve been doing, [such as] the incredible industrial renaissance we’re driving in places like where I grew up through the newly invigorated American automotive EV industries.
You worry about these things, but you also can’t speculate, and you certainly can’t control what a different team’s going to do. What I will say is I believe that all of the major things we worked on deserve bipartisan support. I have yet to meet anyone, be it a politician or a passenger, who wants to see these passenger rights eliminated. I’ve never seen somebody in a community that we’re funding regret that we’re fixing their bridge or enhancing their port.
So I would like to think, at least as far as domestic policy goes, we’ve got some of the most durably bipartisan initiatives out there. But again, I can’t speculate on what a new team will do. I’ll be watching very closely for that.
Skift: How would you grade yourself as Transportation Secretary? Which of your actions and policies do you hope to see endure through future administrations?
Buttigieg: That’s not for me to say. But what I will say is we’re proud to leave every form of U.S. transportation in better shape than we found it. And I really hope that those improvements continue. I know that many of them will because some of the multi-year projects that we funded are now entering construction. So they’ll be creating jobs for the next few years and then will create useful infrastructure for the next few decades.
One thing I told our team is, we won’t just look back on our work. We’ll be proud of it. We’ll actually look forward to seeing our work as more and more pieces of this get built out. I’m really proud of the passenger protections. I’m really proud of the infrastructure building that we’ve done. I’m really proud that we’ve made such headway in terms of the condition of our infrastructure and meaningful progress on its safety, though there’s a long way to go. I think the biggest pieces of America’s unfinished business and transportation have to do with safety.
