A senior White House official is threatening to “take a new interest in the airline industry,” after he and his wife separately had flight delays on American Airlines, just one day apart…
James Blair subtly threatens American after two delays
James Blair is the Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, which is a role he has had since the start of Trump’s second term. Last night, Blair took to social media to complain about American:
Today, American Airlines delays me 2.5 hours because someone failed to notice empty hydraulic fluid before it was time to go down the runway.
Yesterday, they apparently forgot to BOOK A PILOT for my wife’s flight.
I’m going to take a new interest in the airline industry.
Okay, nobody likes to be delayed, but this hardly sounds like the most offensive thing an airline could do:
- Hydraulics issues can arise during pre-departure checks or during engine startup, so as frustrating as it is, that’s not unusual
- American definitely didn’t forget to “book a pilot” (lol), but sometimes the pilot who is assigned to a trip might call in sick, might miss a flight due to a previous delay, etc., and in those situations, a different pilot is required
Either way, having a Trump White House official saying “I’m going to take a new interest in the airline industry” isn’t exactly ideal for any airline (well, unless the interest is exclusively for American, in which case I can think of some people in Atlanta and Chicago who might be happy). Then again, this likely isn’t an area where a Deputy Chief of Staff would have much power anyway, unless he can get something into Trump’s head.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg added his two cents to this situation, and responded to Blair’s complaints about American with the following:
You could begin by restoring the passenger rights work you rolled back – and then seriously enforce airline laws, like we did. Trust me, it gets results!
Under the Biden administration, we did see some nice improvements to consumer protections for airline passengers, though admittedly progress tends to be slow, and we didn’t see anything too radical implemented.
The Trump administration has indeed decided not to move forward with some Biden proposals for airline passengers. For example, the Biden administration had proposed airlines offering cash compensation for delayed flights, like what we see in Europe, with EC261. For that matter, airlines have been lobbying to eliminate existing restrictions, and once again be allowed to “self-police.”
Bottom line
Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff is angry with American Airlines, after flight delays impacted two flights. He now claims he’ll “take a new interest in the airline industry.” One could certainly interpret that as a bit of a threat, not that creating policies that impact airlines should necessarily be part of his job.
What do you make of Blair’s comments following the flight delays?