Oop! President Donald Trump‘s Department of Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, is urging flyers to stop wearing sleepwear to the airport, instead he wants travelers to “dress with respect” and reduce rude behavior and in-flight disturbances.
In a press release issued last Wednesday (November 19), the DOT announced that Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy is enforcing a “new civility campaign.” The new civility campaign is titled “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You.”
The initiative hopes to reduce rude behavior and in-flight disturbances caused by passengers. Additionally, the DOT is pushing for travelers to “dress with respect.” The release states:
“The campaign is intended to jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel. This won’t just make the travel experience better for the flying public – it will ensure the safety of passengers, gate workers, flight attendants, and pilots.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Tells Travelers To ‘Dress Up’ And ‘Be Nice & Courteous’ At Airport And On Planes
The press release continued to share data supporting its claims of passengers becoming increasingly unruly on flights. Take a look below:
- Since 2019, the FAA has seen a 400% increase of in-flight outbursts—ranging from disruptive behavior to outright violence
- 13,800 unruly passenger incidents since 2021
- Unruly passenger reports rose 6x between 2020 and 2021
- 1 in 5 flight attendants experienced physical incidents in 2021
- 2024 saw double the number of unruly passenger events compared with 2019
Ahead of this year’s holiday season, Secretary Duffy posed the following questions for all travelers:
- Are you helping a pregnant woman or the elderly with placing their bags in the overhead bin?
- Are you dressing with respect?
- Are you keeping control of your children and helping them through the airport?
- Are you saying thank you to your flight attendants?
- Are you saying please and thank you in general?
On the day the press release was issued, Secretary Sean Duffy spoke with Fox Business about his new civility campaign and the data to support it. While mentioning Donald Trump, the Transportation Secretary said:
“Donald Trump talks about ‘The Golden Age of Transportation,’ ‘The Golden Age of America.’ But, ‘The Golden Age In Transportation’ truly begins with you, the traveler. If you just watch social media, you have brawls at the baggage claim, you have passengers berating gate agents. We have unruly passengers on airplanes. People dress up like they’re going to bed when they fly.
I see people get on airplanes, and they’re having hard taking their luggage and getting it in the overhead bins. Help people out. Be nice. Be courteous. So, we want to push people — as we come into a really busy travel season — to help people out. Be in a good mood. Dress up. Bring civility back to travel. And I think everyone’s experiences are going to be that much better.”
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