A war of words has broken out between California Governor Gavin Newsom and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over the Trump administration’s plans to herald in a new ‘golden age of travel’ which Duffy believes should start with Americans dressing nicer before they board a plane.
Last week, Duffy launched a major new campaign to restore civility to air travel, with the onus put on the traveling public to play their part by being polite, helping out others, and wearing nice clothing on airplanes.
Using the slogan, “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You,” the Department of Transportation hopes the campaign will “jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel.”
Duffy seems particularly frustrated with passengers wearing their pyjamas to the airport, although the DOT is also concerned that a lack of civility in air travel has resulted in increasingly disruptive and violent behavior on U.S. airlines.
It didn’t take long for Gavin Newsom to compare Duffy’s campaign with the Trump administration’s decision to abandon a rulemaking that would have made airlines pay passengers cash compensation for delays and cancellations within their control.
“Sean Duffy eliminated fines for airlines that delay or cancel your flights — making it easier for them to disrupt your travel,” Newsom slammed in a post on X. “His grand alternative?? Wear a nice dress on the plane.”
It did not take long for Duffy to fire back, comparing his dress code recommendations with the mask mandates of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Not true, Gavin. Unlike your mask mandate, our attire recommendations don’t impede on Americans’ civil liberties,” Duffy sniped. “Look your best, feel your best.”
President Biden introduced a federal face mask mandate for air travel shortly after taking office in 2021, and while deeply unpopular among some Americans, the rules did, for the first time, guarantee rights for travelers who couldn’t wear a mask for the first time.
Until the federal rules were enacted, airlines had been allowed to enforce their own mask mandates, which often meant giving passengers zero options if they couldn’t wear a mask due to a physical or mental disability.
The mandate remained in place for just over a year until it was struck down by a Florida district judge in April 2022. The Biden administration considered appealing the decision but ultimately decided to let the ruling stand.
Mask rules were blamed for a dramatic and alarming rise in unruly passenger incidents, some of which were incredibly violent. In 2021, the number of incidents reported to the FAA surged to 5,973 – a 414% increase on pre-pandemic incidents.
The FAA responded by launching a zero-tolerance campaign and issued big civil penalties against hundreds of unruly passengers. The campaign, alongside a relaxation of pandemic-era rules, has resulted in bad behavior incidents dropping to a five-year low.
The problem with telling someone to ‘dress nice’ for the airport is that one person’s interpretation of ‘nice’ might be very different from Duffy’s preference.
U.S. carriers already impose dress codes, with most airlines banning passengers who are barefoot, or who are wearing anything that might be deemed obscene, overly revealing, or offensive to someone else.
In the past, these kinds of open-to-interpretation dress codes have resulted in some awkward situations. In 2021, American Airlines was criticized after it ordered a two-time cancer survivor to cover her sweater that celebrated her recovery.
The sweater boldly exclaimed: ‘F**K Cancer’ in a bold typeface across the chest, which falls foul of AA’s policy on offensive clothing. At the time, the airline stood by its decision.
