United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is launching an interesting campaign, and I agree with him 100%…
Transportation Secretary wants flying to be civilized again
Transportation Secretary Duffy has taken to social media to encourage travelers to be more civilized. In a post on Twitter/X, Duffy writes the following:
It’s not your imagination. Traveling has become more uncivilized! The Facts:
- 400% increase in outbursts on planes since 2019
- 1 in 5 flight attendants report experiencing physical incidents
- Unruly passenger events DOUBLED since 2019
But it doesn’t have to be this way. The Golden Age of Travel starts with all of us. It’s time to bring back civility and manners when we travel
That’s accompanied by a 90-second video, which first shows clips from the “golden age” of air travel, followed by clips from the not-so-golden-age of air travel, with people fighting, arguing, and more.
In the last 30 seconds of the video, Duffy makes a plea to the public:
“Things aren’t what they used to be. Some might call it the golden age of travel. Let’s bring civility and manners back. Ask yourself, are you helping a pregnant woman put her bag in the overhead bin? Are you dressing with respect? Are you keeping control of your children? Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants and your pilots? Are you saying please and thank you in general? The golden age to travel begins with you.”
I commend Secretary Duffy for this campaign!
I think it’s fantastic to see the Transportation Secretary encouraging kindness and consideration of others, and I very much appreciate the tone of this campaign. It’s entirely positive, and it’s non-partisan. Will this materially change the way people act? Probably not. But either way, it’s a nice effort and we can always use more good vibes.
Up until now, a lot of Duffy’s messaging has been very partisan, so it’s nice to see something totally void of politics, that everyone should be able to agree on.
It’s interesting to see the responses to Duffy’s post, with a lot of people on social media basically blaming airlines for how uncivilized things have become, due to airlines cutting legroom, charging for bags, etc. I don’t think that’s fair, as I recently explained in a post about the golden age of air travel, and how it might all be an illusion.
The reality is that flying is much more affordable than decades ago, and therefore, it’s also not as special of an experience. That’s a good thing, because ultimately it means that air travel isn’t just for the rich, but it’s for everyone. In many cases it now costs more to take an Uber to the airport than to actually fly somewhere, so of course that also has an impact on the way people behave.
The people you see on planes are now much more a reflection of all of society, and we do have some argumentative and aggressive people out there!
Bottom line
The US Transportation Secretary has launched a campaign to encourage civility and manners when flying, asking people to thank pilots and flight attendants, dress nicely, and help others. I think that’s something we should all be able to get behind, so kudos… we need more of this! Can we try this with politics now? 😉
What do you make of Duffy’s kindness campaign?
