'Do the right thing now': Buttigieg calls on airlines to act, not wait for family seating rulemaking

Even Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is not immune to travel headaches.

"I mean, like anybody else, it's frustrating to get canceled or delayed and it happened to me the other day," Buttigieg told USA TODAY in an interview. "Luckily, the delay was not so extreme that I missed my trip, but there have been times when we had to find a different way to get somewhere because of a cancellation, just as millions of Americans have experienced."

Those disruptions can range from minor annoyances to major system failures, such as Southwest Airlines' meltdown over the holidays or the Federal Aviation Administration system outage that grounded all U.S. flights in January. Buttigieg and the Department of Transportation have taken aim at a range of issues in an effort to improve air travel, and just this week launched a dashboard outlining airline policies for family seat selection.

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We spoke to Buttigieg about other steps the DOT is taking to hold airlines accountable and streamline travel, from policy changes to airport improvements. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What can customers expect?

Question: What has been your commercial air travel experience?

Answer: Well, look, I'm a very frequent flyer, as you might imagine. I take at least a trip a week, usually on any number of the major airlines, and so I feel like we always have a chance to mystery shop how the airlines are doing when I'm pushing them to raise the bar on customer service. What we've seen is, overall, outside of extreme weather events, a general improvement in terms of cancellations and delays. But there's still more work to do in terms of improving that customer service experience.

Will 'significant delays' ever be officially defined by the DOT?

Yeah, that's something we're working on right now, and we're going to have hearings coming up (this month) so that passengers and others can weigh in about their experience. We think right now there's a pretty clear practice that has allowed us to give people refunds and benefits, but we do think that needs to be more specifically codified in regulation. We're working on a process that to try to get that right as we speak.

Editor's note: U.S. airlines are required by the DOT to give passengers refunds if their flights are outright canceled and they choose not to travel, but the rules around delays are a little murkier. There's no federal requirement for passengers to receive a refund or reimbursement as a result of a flight delay. DOT has not specifically defined a "significant delay" that would require customer compensation.

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In addition to the dashboard, what else is the DOT working on to ban airlines from charging families to sit together?

The bottom line is that you shouldn't have to pay in order to sit next to your kids on a flight. I think most of us think that's pretty common sense, but that hasn't been the official policy of any of the major airlines up until now. It's why we called on them to guarantee this in writing, to make it their official policy, and when they do, we're getting enforceable commitments so that we could respond if there are any violations in that policy.

So far, three out of the top 10 airlines have responded and made that commitment. We're calling on all of the airlines to do the same.

The reason we're doing the regulation at the same time is because we want to make sure that that is an enforceable industrywide standard. But we're doing a both/and approach, and the reason is that regulations and rules – just because of the way the law works – take a very long time to finalize is put into effect, and passengers shouldn't have to wait for that. So, my message to the airlines is, we're going to do the work to require you to do this, but don't make us finish the regulation to do the right thing. Do the right thing now. And we're still going to mandate it.

We're still going to do this rule-making but just do the right thing now.

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What is the DOT doing to hold Southwest Airlines accountable?

In the aftermath of the Southwest debacle, what has the DOT done to hold the airline accountable?

Yeah, the investigation is still open, so there's some things I can't talk about right now. But what I'll say is that we are continuing to follow up on complaints that our department is receiving, and when it's something that we can't tell if the airline got first, we're sending it to the airline saying, "You've got to take care of this customer who came and told us that they didn't get their reimbursement, their refund," or whatever it is.

We're also investigating the possibility of unfair scheduling. That's when an airline knowingly schedules flights that they're not going to be able to serve. And again, that investigation has to run its course, but we're going to use all of the powers and authorities we have to hold Southwest accountable.

Southwest said that they are making operational changes. How is the DOT working with them?

Well, it's their responsibility to get this done. We can hold them accountable for the outcome. So we're not going to go in and tell them what software to use. We are going to tell them that they have to meet a better standard of customer service.

And this is a very Southwest-specific issue. You know, that winter storm that hit around Christmas really crippled the entire system, but every other airline recovered pretty quickly. Southwest moved in the opposite direction. ... We don't view our role as running the airline, but we're a watchdog. We have to make sure they run their airline properly.

Is old aviation tech being updated?

Between Southwest and the FAA Notice to Air Missions issue, it seems like the backend tech systems are struggling to cope. What can the DOT do to make them more reliable?

We are in the midst of multiyear and multimillion-dollar or even billion-dollar modernization processes, especially when it comes to the FAA.

The FAA has a unique challenge because it's a system that has been built up piece by piece over decades. And as it gets modernized, it's very important not to lose anything that has created the exceptionally safe airspace that American air travelers enjoy, and at the same time, make improvements that clearly are needed to keep the system going and prepare for the future. Plus, of course, you can't have any downtime. You know, you can't just take the system off for a couple of days and unplug it while you're getting stuff done to fix it for the future.

The FAA is up for reauthorization in 2023. What are the DOT's priorities for FAA funding?

Absolutely. I'll say the broad strokes. You'll see more from us soon, but the FAA reauthorization is a chance to look at every part of our aviation policy and make sure we have the resources to support it. That's everything from air traffic controllers to technology improvements for the FAA and accelerating modernization.

So, I'll give you an example. The NOTAM system, the one that caused us so much trouble a few weeks ago, is actually in the middle of a modernization that started in 2019 and was not set to be completed until 2025. Obviously, I'm interested in speeding that up. Doing that will take resources.

We can also get some of these policy improvements that go beyond the FAA, and we've been working with legislators who are interested in tougher standards for customer service as well. You'll see a lot more on this when the president's budget is released. That'll give you a sense of where some of our priorities are, and I do think that this year is a chance to really makes a big difference in aviation funding as well as policy.

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What about airports?

What do you see as some of the biggest airport pain points to alleviate, and how will the recently announced funding be allocated? 

There's really three things that need to happen to improve the airline passenger experience: The things we're working on directly with the FAA systems. There are things the airlines need to do, which is why we're pushing them so hard. And then there are the airports, and I think anybody who's flown around the U.S. and been to other countries knows that U.S. airports have not kept pace with a lot of our competitors ... If we want to remain the world's best economy, we've got to have the world's best airports. And that's why President (Joe) Biden pushed so hard to make sure the infrastructure law included this funding for airports.

... This latest round of $1 billion went to 99 airports across the country, and we're funding airports of all sizes. Sometimes it is a grant in the tens of millions of dollars to help a major airport do a major terminal expansion or a roadway improvement. Others are in the six figures for airports that are small in the grand scheme of the national airspace, but incredibly important to the communities they serve.

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There was one case where a general aviation terminal at an airport in South Dakota was a mobile home and we funded them through an earlier round of the same program just to get a permanent building. So, you see things from that all the way through to a place like Nashville, where I was the other day, marking $7 million we're putting toward improving their pickup and drop off system.

In terms of the pain points, it's different from airport to airport, but there are certain things that make a difference wherever we do them. Sometimes you just need a whole new terminal. Other times you need new jet bridges or better gates. We're doing a lot of investments in things you won't see, but that'll make a big difference, like baggage handling systems, and often reconfiguring security checkpoints so that you can move through them more efficiently and more quickly.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'We're a watchdog': Buttigieg on DOT holding Southwest accountable