Airline refund rules could be on Trump's chopping block
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As a record number of travelers fly this Thanksgiving, some may wind up enjoying new Biden-era refund rules that could be on the chopping block after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Why it matters: Trump and his appointees will likely try to defang consumer protection efforts at the Transportation Department (DOT) and across the federal government, as they did during his first term.
Driving the news: New DOT rules forcing airlines to automatically and quickly refund travelers for significantly delayed or canceled flights took effect in October.
- They're a capstone achievement for Biden's outgoing Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, who's spent the last four years framing himself as a consumer rights champion.
- But airline industry leaders now seem confident that Trump 2.0 will be less aggressive and friendlier to their bottom line.
What they're saying: Speaking ahead of a company investor day earlier this month, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said that Trump promised "to take a fresh look at the regulatory environment, the bureaucracy that exists in government, the level of overreach that we have seen over the last four years within our industry," the Associated Press reports.
- "We are hopeful for a DOT that is maybe a little less aggressive in terms of regulating or rule-making," Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan said after a recent speech, per the AP.
- In a letter to Trump, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby — once vilified by the right for the company's early COVID-19 vaccine mandate — asked Trump "to consider the role the federal government plays in realizing [United's] vision for economic growth," but focused more on air traffic control reform than passenger refunds.
Between the lines: Sean Duffy, Trump's pick to head up DOT, is a Fox News contributor and former reality TV star, as Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.
- He has little formal transportation experience — not unlike his predecessor, though, that complicates any tea-reading.
- A Trump Justice Department is also likely to be friendlier to airline mergers — a big change from the Biden DOJ, which grounded JetBlue and Spirit's attempted tie-up on anti-competition grounds. (Spirit has since filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.)
Zoom out: Also likely in team Trump's crosshairs: consumer protection efforts at the Federal Communications Commission (where Democratic officials have been eyeing broadband companies' data caps), the Environmental Protection Agency (where clean water rules could be in the crosshairs), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which has been fighting banks' "junk fees"), and more.
Reality check: Some of these efforts — most notably the airfare refunds — have been broadly popular with consumers, complicating any rollbacks.
The bottom line: Expect fewer consumer safeguards in a new Trump administration, with a question mark on how far they'll go.
