One out of every five flights in 2022 have been delayed in the U.S. and more than 100,000 flights have been canceled, causing many travelers to become frustrated. 

Congresswoman Cindy Axne says she wrote a letter calling for the Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to hold airlines accountable for their delays and cancellations of flights. She explains the problem is due to the airline industry not using the $50 billion in COVID-19 relief funds correctly.  

“Problem is many of them use that to offer early retirement packages to literally tens of thousands of airline workers. So they have massive staff shortages because they didn’t use the funding the way that they should have used the funding. They used it to pat their backs in their pockets. And now they need to get back and get an order.”

Axne says the solution is outlining the specific purpose of the federal funding that businesses and services receive.  

“We’ve got to make sure that we don’t have businesses like this gouge us. And that’s why it’s just important to have people out here in Congress that will oversee these things. And that’s what I will continue to do.”

The full letter will be listed here.