在运输部长皮特·布蒂吉格会见航空公司领导并询问他们大范围航班中断的第二天，他自己的航班被取消，他最终从华盛顿开车到了纽约。
“很多人都遇到了这种情况，这就是为什么我们在这里密切关注可以做些什么，以及如何确保航空公司在周六的一次采访中，Buttigieg告诉美联社。
Buttigieg说，他正在推动航空公司对他们的夏季计划进行压力测试，以确保他们可以用现有的员工运营所有计划的航班，并增加客户服务人员。这可能会给航空公司带来进一步削减夏季航班的压力。
Buttigieg说，他的部门可以对未能达到消费者保护标准的航空公司采取执法行动。但首先，他说，他想看看在7月4日假期周末和夏季剩余时间是否有重大航班中断。
执法行动可能导致罚款，尽管金额往往很小。加拿大航空公司去年同意支付200万美元的罚款，原因是退款缓慢。
在周四的虚拟会议上，航空公司高管描述了他们正在采取的措施，以避免阵亡将士纪念日周末的重演，当时约有2，800架航班被取消。Buttigieg说:“现在我们要看看这些步骤是否合格。”
旅行回来了。周五，超过240万人通过了美国机场的安全检查站，距离去年感恩节后的周日打破疫情时代的最高纪录约12500人。
如果航空公司没有取消1400次航班，这个记录肯定会被打破，其中许多航班是因为雷暴袭击了东海岸的部分地区。根据跟踪服务FlightAware的数据，一天前，航空公司取消了1700多个航班。
谈到夏季飞行，天气总是一个不确定因素，但航空公司也承认员工短缺，因为旅行从疫情低点反弹的速度快于预期。航空公司争相雇用飞行员和其他工人，以取代在疫情袭击后被鼓励辞职的员工。
雇佣和培训一名飞行员需要几个月的时间才能达到联邦安全标准，但交通部认为，如果航班取消，航空公司没有理由不能立即增加客服代表来帮助乘客重新预订。
政府有自己的人员配置挑战。
短缺在联邦航空管理局Buttigieg部门的一部分，导致了佛罗里达州的航班延误。联邦航空局承诺在那里增加人手。美国国土安全部下属的运输安全管理局(Transportation Security Administration)组建了一支由1000名安检人员组成的流动队伍，他们可以被派往检查站排队过长的机场。
Buttigieg: US may act against airlines on consumers' behalf
The day after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with airline leaders to quiz them about widespread flight disruptions, his own flight was canceled and he wound up driving from Washington to New York.
“That is happening to a lot of people, and that is exactly why we are paying close attention here to what can be done and how to make sure that theairlinesare delivering,” Buttigieg told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.
Buttigieg said he is pushing the airlines to stress-test their summer schedules to ensure they can operate all their planned flights with the employees they have, and to add customer-service workers. That could put pressure on airlines to make additional cuts in their summer schedules.
Buttigieg said his department could take enforcement actions against airlines that fail to live up to consumer-protection standards. But first, he said, he wants to see whether there are major flight disruptions over the July Fourth holiday weekend and the rest of the summer.
Enforcement actions can results in fines, although they tend to be small. Air Canada agreed to pay a $2 million fine last year over slow refunds.
During Thursday's virtual meeting, airline executives described steps they are taking to avoid a repeat of the Memorial Day weekend, when about 2,800 flights were canceled. “Now we're going to see how those steps measure up,” Buttigieg said.
Travel is back. On Friday, more than 2.4 million people passed through security checkpoints at U.S. airports, coming within about 12,500 of breaking the pandemic-era high recorded on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year.
The record surely would have been broken had airlines not canceled 1,400 flights, many of them because thunderstorms hit parts of the East Coast. A day earlier, airlines scrubbed more than 1,700 flights, according to tracking service FlightAware.
Weather is always a wild card when it comes to flying in summer, but airlines have also acknowledged staffing shortages as travel roared back faster than expected from pandemic lows. Airlines are scrambling to hire pilots and other workers to replace employees whom they encouraged to quit after the pandemic hit.
It takes months to hire and train a pilot to meet federal safety standards, but the Transportation Department sees no reason the airlines cannot immediately add customer-service representatives to help passengers rebook if their flight is canceled.
The government has its own staffing challenges.
Shortages at theFederal Aviation Administration, part of Buttigieg's department, have contributed to flight delays in Florida. The FAA promises to increase staffing there. The Transportation Security Administration, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, has created a roving force of 1,000 screeners who can be dispatched to airports where checkpoint lines get too long.
