The United States Secretary of Transportation, Sean P. Duffy, has launched a nationwide “civility campaign” aimed at improving behavior in airports and aboard commercial flights during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. But how feasible is the initiative?
Two former pilots told Newsweek that while it may be “too late” and “a bit unrealistic,” improving travel conditions could help restore some civility.
The campaign—titled “The Golden Age of Travel Starts With You”—calls on Americans to revive basic courtesies, adopt more respectful behavior, and, in some cases, rethink what they wear when they travel.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) told Newsweek the effort is intended “to jump-start a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel.”
The spokesperson added: “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.”
The campaign comes as nearly 82 million Americans are expected to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday period this year.
A Call for Kindness and ‘Dressing With Some Respect’
Speaking Monday at a press conference at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey, Duffy urged travelers to be more mindful of how they treat airline and airport staff during the holiday rush.
“We have to think about how do we do a better job? How do we maybe maintain some of that frustration we may have as we travel this Thanksgiving season?” he said. “Maybe we should say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to our pilots and to our flight attendants.”’
He also suggested that passenger behavior could be improved by slightly elevating standards of dress.
“I call this maybe ‘dressing with some respect’…whether it’s a pair of jeans and a decent shirt, I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better, which encourages us to maybe behave a little better,” he said. “Let’s try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come to the airport—I think that’s positive.”
The DOT spokesperson echoed this point, telling Newsweek: “It shouldn’t be controversial to suggest dressing respectfully in public, especially in environments where children may be present.”
The spokesperson also connected the campaign to broader administration goals, saying: “On a broader note, the Trump Administration is focused on improving the lives of American families—that includes their experiences on our transportation systems.
“Emphasizing polite behavior goes a long way in making the experience more enjoyable for everyone. Whether it’s thanking your gate agents, flight attendants, and pilots, or helping someone struggling to store their baggage in an overhead compartment, the secretary is calling on every American to exercise a little kindness that can make a big impact in the lives of others.”
‘Too Late’ for Dress Code, but ‘Behavior Is Another Matter’
Stephanie Wallach is one of the first female airline pilots in the U.S. and has been an air traveler since the early 1950s. Wallach told Newsweek she has witnessed dramatic changes in air travel over her decades of traveling in the sky.
“There certainly have been big changes since I started flying professionally, in 1975, and as a passenger as far back as the early 1950s,” she told Newsweek.
While she agrees that passenger behavior deserves attention, she believes Duffy’s hope of elevating dress standards is unlikely to succeed.
“The attire of passengers has changed enormously in my 75 years of flying. But what is considered acceptable dress now and then has changed everywhere,” she said. “When I was in college, we had to wear skirts to dinner—the horror. I think Sean Duffy’s attempt to put that genie back in the bottle just won’t work. It’s too late.”
Wallach also recalled that unruly passengers were not unheard of decades ago—just concentrated in a different part of the plane.
“The only incidents of unruly passengers during my piloting days that I can recall took place in first class,” she said. “These were fueled, I think, by a nasty mix of entitlement and alcohol and surely had something to do with the unlimited supply of gratis highballs being knocked back.”
Still, she believes the modern travel experience itself contributes to fraying tempers.
“Behavior is another matter. I think he [Duffy] may have a point here,” she said. “The airlines and TSA [Transportation Security Administration] could help by being kinder and gentler to the poor, beleaguered, and embattled passengers, most of whom are not looking forward to being scrunched into an ever-shrinking seat with a tiny bag of salted croutons and a 6-ounce. cup of Dr. Pepper…unless you’re traveling in first class, not much about the experience puts one in a particularly joyous mood.”
Civility Requires More Than Manners
Historian Dan Bubb, who is a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a former airline pilot, also spoke with Newsweek about Duffy’s initiative—placing today’s frustrations in historical context.
“Air travel in the 1960s and 1970s was a bit different from air travel today,” he explained. “During those years, passengers dressed in their nicest clothes…also, it was common for passengers in coach class to receive a meal.”
But he cautioned that these norms reflected a very different era. Bubb said: “Prior to the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978, air travel was relatively expensive. The average blue-collar worker could not afford it unless they saved their money. There were fewer flights.”
As air travel became more accessible in the 1980s and 1990s, “the dress code for passengers loosened a bit,” the professor said. During Bubb’s career as a commercial pilot in the late 1990s and early 2000s, passengers “often dressed in business casual, and some wore more comfortable clothes than that,” but “on the whole, passengers were respectful and followed the flight crews’ instructions,” he noted.
Shrinking personal space, he emphasized, is a major factor in rising tensions today.
“In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, seats in coach class were wider and had more leg room,” Bubb said. “Today, seats in economy class are a little smaller, and there is less leg room. Passengers don’t feel comfortable dressing in their nicest clothes, especially when they feel like they are being crammed together because airlines are adding as many seats as they can to increase profitability.”
The rapid expansion of air travel also plays a role. Earlier decades of air travel were different “largely because there weren’t as many travelers as there are today,” he noted.
He pointed to several contributors to modern incivility, such as “people feeling like they have been crammed together, excessive consumption of alcohol, and personal challenges some people have in their lives.”
Given these pressures, Bubb believes the White House’s expectations may be unrealistic. “I think it is a bit unrealistic for the White House to expect people to behave like passengers in the 1960s and 1970s,” he said.
However, he noted a series of policy changes that might improve behavior more effectively than appeals to nostalgia.
He said if we give passengers “a little more physical space,” include meals in ticket prices, reduce alcohol consumption, ease the airport security process, simplify airport parking, expand gate areas, and encourage courtesy among passengers and crew, “we might see a decline in the incivility.”
Despite acknowledging the challenges, Bubb says kindness still goes a long way in the air.
“Fortunately, I didn’t have any disruptive passengers when I flew,” he said. “People were kind and respectful to the flight crew and each other.”
He encourages travelers to focus on patience, movement, and gratitude. “My recommendation always is kindness, perhaps getting a little exercise before a flight…and being patient,” he said, adding: “I give Starbucks gift cards to flight attendants and express my appreciation for what they do. It brightens their day.”
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