‘When You Book Your Flight, You’re Gonna Fly’: Secretary Sean Duffy Pledges Action On Flight Disruptions

During Monday’s press briefing at Newark Airport, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke about combatting flight disruptions.

Transcript

00:00I'm going to turn it over in a second to the deputy administrator.

00:04But I also, again, I fly out, this is my airport, I fly out of Newark.

00:09And I think a lot of people were frustrated by the fact that they were booking flights.

00:15And because of the issues we were having, their flights were hours delayed and then maybe even canceled.

00:21And all of the airlines came together with the FAA's leadership

00:26and United being the biggest provider, biggest airline here at Newark.

00:31They worked together to reduce the capacity at the airport.

00:35Again, we're flying 28 flights an hour in regard to departures.

00:39And I think the beauty of that is that when you book your flight, you're going to fly.

00:44Again, you don't want to book and wait two hours and be canceled.

00:48If you book, you want your plane to take off.

00:51And so we are at an agreement now where, again, if you come to this airport,

00:57by the way, Chris or Scott said we've got some even better pricing right now at Newark.

01:02So if you want to book at Newark, you might get a little better deal if you're coming out of this airport.

01:07But if you book, you fly, and that's critical.

01:11That's important.

01:12And so the message I have for all of you is no one here has created this problem, right?

01:20The problem has landed on our laps, but I want you to know that you have every asset that touches the problem

01:27working together, coordinating, cooperating, collaborating to make sure that as a team

01:33we address the problem that exists at Newark.

01:36And by the way, we may see some of these problems happen at other places around the country.

01:41And with the same kind of energy and fervor, we're going to address those problems should they come up.

01:48And so, again, I'm proud of this team.

01:50I want to, again, say thank you to the Port Authority who, again, leaned into the problem

01:57and brought us to a moment where we're 13 days early.

02:00Again, critically important getting the runway up and active.

02:04I've been...