Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged Americans to do their part in creating a “golden age of travel” that’s focused on being helpful, minding your manners, and dressing better.
His department highlighted some statistics of travelers behaving badly, including a 400% increase of in-flight outbursts since 2019 and the number of unruly passenger events doubling between 2019 and 2024.
Of course, that span includes the pandemic, when airlines enforced mask mandates, prompting many passengers who thought COVID was a hoax to push back against crews and disrupt flights.
In an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, Duffy noted that today’s air-travel misanthropy doesn’t just happen onboard planes, pointing to fights occurring at baggage claim and arguments with gate agents. He added that “people dress up like they’re going to bed when they fly.”
“So we wanna push people, as we come into a really bad busy travel season. Help people out, be in a good mood, dress up, bring civility back to travel,” Duffy said. “And i think everyone’s experience is going to be that much better.”
He acknowledged that some travelers may be carrying some emotional baggage while flying but urged everyone to “set that aside and be good partners.”
That could include acts of kindness toward fellow travelers like helping someone put their luggage in the overhead bin if they’re having trouble. Airlines, their staff, and airport workers will be happier for it too, Duffy said.
“And you, as you get in your plane, are going to feel that much better because everyone is channeling the same positive energy of having a great experience,” he explained.
Online backlash
At another point in the interview, he revisited what travelers wear, saying “Sometimes you just have to ask people, ‘Hey, let’s maybe go back to an era where we didn’t wear our pajamas to the airport.’ We actually might dress up a little bit.”
Duffy’s fashion advice didn’t go over well with many online, who said airlines have made the flying experience increasingly uncomfortable by packing in more passengers per plane, reducing legroom, and cutting back on amenities. That forces them to turn to other ways to find comfort—like wearing pajamas.
“Tell ya what, we’ll go back to wearing nice clothes when you don’t pack us in like sardines and go back to providing us with meals, pillows and blankets again,” one commenter said.
Others pointed to parts of the overall travel experience that are taking a toll on passengers as well, adding that airlines and regulators should bear more of the burden for bringing back civility than passengers.
“Do you think he means the era where the seats were comfortable & spacious, hot meals were served & planes arrived & departed at scheduled times? When passengers didn’t spend hours in the terminal being delayed or worry about ATC folks in the tower getting enough sleep last nite?” another commenter asked.