As summer vacation kicks off with Memorial Day, US ​​Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg talks with Brian Sozzi about what consumers should expect from the busy travel season ahead.

TSA projections suggest the busiest summer travel season yet, putting pressure on airlines and airports to uphold timely flights and security checkpoints. Secretary Buttigieg says that during the busy holiday weekend, travelers should "allow a little extra time, make a plan, be patient, and also, air travelers, we're urging them to make sure you know your rights."

He points to automatic refunds as a major improvement, saying, "If your flight gets canceled and you don't fly, you don't have to ask for your money back. It's just going to come to you." He adds that the Department of Transportation will investigate any unrealistic airline schedule and already has reviews underway. "We want America's airlines to succeed and thrive. We want them to do it by providing good customer service and through honest practices," he explains.

Secretary Buttigieg also says the Department of Transportation is addressing the pilot shortage, noting that the pay has increased and training programs are being expanded. He emphasizes that flight attendants, air traffic controllers, and mechanics are also important to the industry as the demand for air travel surges.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video Transcript

Memorial Day will be the start to a very busy summer travel season.

According to AAA, the number of travellers were will most likely surpass pre pandemic levels at about 43.8 million, marking this the busiest Memorial Day holiday weekend in nearly two decades.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joins me now, Mr Secretary, always nice to get a few moments with you.

So we've talked a lot in the past about just chaos in America's airports because of these large crowds.

What should consumers expect this weekend?

Well, we were very encouraged by last year's results.

Uh, the cancellation rate for flights last year was, uh, at a 10 year low, and that included some, uh, very smooth sailing across some of the busiest travel days ever recorded last year.

So what I'm looking for this year is, can the airlines and the airports of this country keep that up when we have even more travellers coming?

Uh, a lot of TS a projections would suggest we're we're gonna have the busiest summer holiday travel season ever.

Memorial Day is really the launch of that.

Obviously, we're pleased about what that means economically, but but that's still a big challenge to the system.

44 million travellers expected by AAA about 3 million going through TS a checkpoints on Friday alone, which we think will be the busiest day of that Memorial Day weekend.

As far as air travel is concerned, definitely a good idea for travellers to allow a little extra time make a plan, be patient and also for air travellers.

We're urging them to make sure you know your rights.

Because so much has changed in the last couple of years as we have launched new rules and new passenger protections to make sure that airlines take care of you, especially if you do experience some kind of disruption.

And the airliner is responsible.

Uh, Mr Secretary, of course, a lot of these publicly, uh, these airlines in many respects, are they are, in fact, publicly traded Delta JetBlue.

You name it.

So they wanna make a lot of money.

Uh, on a weekend like Memorial Day, they stuff the planes, But in terms of scheduling, are airlines in this country scheduling?

Realistically, you know, this is a big concern, especially in summer of 22 when we saw huge amounts of delays and it seemed that the airlines just weren't prepared to service the schedules they were actually selling.

So what I'm looking at now is, uh, results.

The results have certainly improved, but I think one of the side benefits of the rule we just launched on automatic refunds, which says that if your flight gets cancelled and you don't fly, uh, you don't have to ask for your money back.

It's just going to come to you.

Is that really changes the economics for airlines that might have been tempted to engage in unrealistic scheduling.

Any time there is a credible concern in our department about unrealistic scheduling, we will investigate.

We've actually had some of reviews underway, and if we make a determination that that's what happened, there are consequences to that.

The best way, of course, to deal with all of that is for the airlines to do the right thing in the first place.

Look, we want them to succeed.

We want America's airlines to succeed and thrive.

We want them to do it by providing good customer service and through honest practises.

And Mr Secretary, how much progress has been made on, uh, made on addressing the pilot shortage.

So from my conversations with the sector, there's been definite improvement in the availability of pilots.

Uh, the pay for pilots has been going up in an extraordinary way, not just for the, uh, uh, the, uh, captains of those wide body long haul aircraft who can often make north of half a million dollars a year.

But I've been encouraged to see the entry level.

The other end of that career pipeline in those regional airlines that pay has has gone through some noticeable improvements.

Uh, now, of course, raising the pay is one thing.

It's taken a while for the training pipeline to catch up with that, especially because of the, uh, rigorous standards that we right we have on what it takes to even qualify for safety reasons.

But, uh, again, real real improvement, Uh, on the pilot front, continuing to keep an eye on mechanics as well, uh, that that's an area where there can be a lot of tightness in that, uh, skilled labour market.

Uh, and, uh, watching what's going on with the flight attendants making sure that they are well taken care of and and, uh, and that that pipeline is strong, by the way, we're doing the same thing over on our end at the FAA.

Increasing the hiring of air traffic controllers That was just in Congress, asking for the funding to be able to do 2000 controllers.

Uh, next year, on top of the 1800 that we are hiring this year in the 1500 that we hired last year, we finally reversed the decade long loss in the number of air traffic controllers, or what I should say is we've stopped that trend line from going down.

Now we're pushing to accelerate it, going back up.