Flying already stinks — and Trump just made it worse

Let me count the ways.

1. Lines are getting longer at airports.

Democrats want to fund the TSA, but Trump’s congressional Republicans refuse. They want all of the Department of Homeland Security to be funded, including ICE and Border Patrol — without the safeguards Democrats are insisting on.

So TSA continues to go unfunded, TSA personnel don’t show up for work, and lines get longer. (Don’t count on ICE to do much to reduce the length of the lines.) Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee this morning, Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said the shutdown has produced the longest airport wait times on record.

2. Air-traffic controllers are way understaffed and underpaid.

New York’s LaGuardia Airport is the worst but safety is an issue all over. Pilot concerns about LaGuardia were filed with aviation officials months before Sunday’s collision between an airplane and a firetruck left two pilots dead and 41 other people hospitalized.

Last summer, according to the aviation safety reporting system, a pilot using the airport wrote, “Please do something,” after air traffic controllers failed to provide appropriate guidance about multiple nearby aircraft. “The pace of operations is building in LGA,” they wrote, referring to LaGuardia, one of the busiest in the U.S. “The controllers are pushing the line.”

3. Ticket prices are soaring and flights are being cancelled because the cost of jet fuel is soaring.

Jet fuel prices in the U.S. have increased by over 60 percent since the start of Trump’s war in Iran. Airlines are putting the increased costs of jet fuel onto consumers by raising ticket prices and cancelling less profitable routes.

Why has the war called jet fuel prices to soar? Because Trump apparently didn’t consider that one of the first things Iran would do when attacked would be to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

4. Trump’s Transportation Department scrapped a Biden-era rule that would have required airlines to give cash refunds to passengers for significant travel disruptions and delays within the airlines’ control.

That’s bad news for passengers like you and me — and it comes at exactly the wrong time. But it’s great news for airlines, whose own data showed that they were responsible for 60 percent of major delays in 2022 and ‘23.

5. The Transportation Department is also reportedly planning to claw back other protections around passenger refunds, cut requirements for airlines to disclose junk fees, and roll back rules holding airlines liable for damaged wheelchairs.

This will be a boost to the bottom line of the airlines and a nice return on investment for Delta and United in particular, which contributed $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund.

Oh, did I mention that Trump Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy’s most recent gig, before becoming transportation secretary, was … lobbying for the airline industry? But I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that he won’t lift a finger to rein in airlines’ unchecked greed and power.

Remember: Trump and his cronies in the Cabinet will always govern for their corporate donors and former clients — not for you.

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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.