Trump’s Actions Test the Fragile World of Air Travel

Last minute announcements and abrupt changes by the Trump administration have caused confusion in an already strained U.S. aviation system.A nearly deserted security checkpoint at the El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday, after the Federal Aviation Administration announced a 10-day ban on flights over the city.Credit...Paul Ratje for The New York TimesFeb. 12, 2026Updated 2:43 p.m. ETEmergency flight cuts at busy airports. A late-night announcement about “decertifying” Canadian-made planes. Closing off airspace over a big city.The aviation system does best when government policy is stable and predictable. But that has not always been the case since President Trump returned to office last year.Announcements by federal officials have at times caused confusion and, in some cases, upended the plans of travelers and airlines, leaving them struggling to respond.The latest incident came late on Tuesday, when the Federal Aviation Administration said it was suspending all flights in the El Paso area for 10 days. The closure was put in place with little warning or explanation, angering local officials, businesses and travelers. On Wednesday morning, the agency abruptly reversed course.Since then, the confusion has only grown. The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said that the shutdown was a response to an incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels. But multiple people briefed on the situation told The New York Times that the airspace was closed after immigration officials used an anti-drone laser this week that was on loan from the Pentagon without giving the F.A.A. time to assess the risks associated with the technology.The uncertainty associated with such events “clearly isn’t promoting air travel,” said Bob Mann, an industry consultant and a former airline executive. “This is promoting doubts.”Long susceptible to the whims of bad weather and system outages, aviation in the United States has grown more fragile in recent decades because the government has failed to maintain and upgrade radar, computers and other equipment and to hire and train enough air traffic controllers.More recently, airlines and travelers must also navigate abrupt announcements and changes out of Washington.Two weeks ago, for example, Mr. Trump said on social media that the United States was “decertifying” all aircraft made in Canada in retaliation for how that country handled approval of American-made private jets. His post caused widespread confusion over whether U.S. airlines, government agencies and businesses could continue using the thousands of Canadian-made planes and helicopters they have on hand. It took hours for officials to clarify that the president was referring only to new aircraft.Toward the end of the federal government shutdown last fall, the F.A.A. announced that it would cut 10 percent of flights at 40 busy airports. Mr. Duffy had warned for weeks that air traffic controller shortages might require such cuts. But the announcement arrived on short notice, giving airlines just days to cancel thousands of flights, rebook customers and redirect flight crews.Mr. Duffy explained that those cuts were needed to improve aviation safety in appearances well before and after they were put in place. A spokesman for the Transportation Department said that the dispute about Canadian aircraft had no effect on travelers and that Canada had since agreed to grant the approval that Mr. Trump was seeking.“Safety is our North Star, and both the American people and the aviation industry appreciate having an administration that has prioritized their safety like never before,” the spokesman said.In a separate statement, a White House spokesman, Kush Desai, said: “Secretary Duffy is an invaluable asset for President Trump and his administration. He has delivered one win after another for the American people.”Some Americans, however, expressed concern about recent changes to air travel. Laura Rose, a 56-year-old academic who lives in Charleston, S.C., said she tried to avoid flying as much as possible because of safety concerns, inadequate consumer protections and changing policies at border checkpoints.“I feel as though I don’t really know who is in charge right now of this really complex system,” said Ms. Rose, who added that she thought the industry needed more rules and safety regulations to protect the public.The Trump administration has made some notable improvements that the aviation industry has praised. It has begun hiring and training more air traffic controllers and secured $12.5 billion from Congress to modernize air traffic control equipment and software. These efforts could, over time, reduce flight disruptions.“We are grateful to the administration for strengthening aviation safety by modernizing the National Airspace System, replacing antiquated technology and updating crumbling facilities — and making the most progress we’ve seen in decades,” Airlines for America, a trade group for the nation’s largest airlines, said in a statement.Many of the changes the administration has made have favored airlines over passengers, including rolling back Biden-era rules that required carriers to compensate passengers for certain disruptions.In recent months, the Transportation Department has moved to water down a regulation that would have required greater transparency of hidden airline fees; has scrapped a plan that would have forced carriers that caused disruptions to pay travelers cash; and has backtracked on a proposal that would have allowed families to sit together free of charge.The Transportation Department, which is responsible for enforcing aviation consumer rules, is also considering changing the way that it conducts investigations, enforces airline violations and introduces new rules. It has proposed creating “a culture of compliance” rather than relying on actions such as issuing civil penalties, which currently have a ceiling of $75,000 per infraction.Consumer groups say these steps, if put in place, will make it harder for the government to hold airlines accountable for bad behavior and to issue new rules to protect travelers.“It is carriers’ long history of consumer protection violations that should spur D.O.T. to greater oversight, not less,” a coalition of consumer groups wrote in a recent letter to the department.In December, the department waived millions of dollars in penalties that the Biden administration had issued to American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.Airlines for America has welcomed the administration’s move to abandon Biden-era protections and to prioritize deregulation. A spokesperson for the department said in a statement that it was correcting the past administration’s overreach.“Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg created an illegitimate and burdensome bureaucracy of the skies to score political points — jacking up ticket prices and ignoring the fundamental problems with air travel in the meantime,” a department spokesperson said in a statement referring to the transportation secretary under the Biden administration.In a statement, Mr. Buttigieg pushed back against the department’s criticism and said it should “stop gutting passenger protections and start seriously enforcing the rules.”“I aggressively pursued stronger passenger protections and held airlines accountable when they broke the law,” he said. “As a result, airlines changed their behavior, passengers got more of their money back, and airfares fell below prepandemic prices.”For passengers, traveling has become more unpredictable in other, more pedestrian ways, since some changes to airport security have been put in place with scant public announcement.Last May, the Transportation Security Administration began officially requiring federally compliant Real IDs, a change long in the making, but enforcement of the new policy varied widely from airport to airport. This month, the T.S.A. amplified the pressure on travelers to obtain Real IDs; it’s now charging a $45 fee to process travelers with incompliant documents.Even welcome changes, such as no longer requiring travelers to take off their shoes, arrived abruptly with little notice. This change started at airports over the July 4 holiday weekend, confusing passengers during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.The agency’s approach to changing policy has included little, if any, advance notice to T.S.A. employees, said Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former T.S.A. agent who writes a travel newsletter called Gate Access. That has meant rushed training for agents and an inconsistent experience for travelers, he added.Niraj Chokshi is a Times reporter who writes about aviation, rail and other transportation industries.Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel.SKIP