Buttigieg Defends New Airline Rules After CEOs Make Critical Comments

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said airline chiefs should use more energy worrying about their passengers than their regulators. During a Nov. 21 news conference, Buttigieg—in an apparent response to Delta Air Lines Inc. CEO Ed Bastian—said he could not speculate on whether the next administration will be “less passenger friendly and more corporation friendly” than President Joe Biden’s administration. On Nov. 20, Bastian, the head of one of the country’s largest passenger carriers, told reporters in Atlanta ahead of his company’s investor day presentation that he hoped President-elect Donald Trump’s administration would “take a fresh look at the regulatory environment, the bureaucracy that exists in government, the level of overreach that we have seen over the last four years within our industry.”...