Air travel may soon become somewhat less comfortable as the US government has urged passengers to “dress with respect“.
In a new message, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has also spoken up against casual dressing norms that he claimed have crept into airports and cabins in recent years, urging commuters to abandon pajamas, slippers, and other overly relaxed attire during air travel.
US air travel: Duffy likens dressing poorly to air travel woes
The Transportation Department has highlighted some statistics of travellers behaving in an unruly manner, including a 400% increase in in-flight outbursts since 2019 and the number of unruly passenger events doubling between 2019 and 2024, Fortune reported.
The timeline, however, also includes the pandemic timespan from 2020 onwards, when airlines enforced mask mandates, prompting many passengers who thought COVID-19 was a hoax to push back against crews and disrupt flights, according to reports.
In an earlier interview with Fox Business, Duffy had also noted that today’s air-travel misanthropy doesn’t just happen on board planes, pointing to fights occurring at baggage claim and arguments with gate agents. He added that “people dress up like they’re going to bed when they fly”.
He also warned to travellers to not take their shoes off and put them up on the chair ahead of them as that wouldn’t “honour” the country.
‘Better treatment for pilots, airline staff required’
Duffy has also sought better treatment for pilots and flight attendants during the busy holiday season.
“I think we have to think about, how do we do a better job? How do we maintain some of that frustration we have as we travel this Thanksgiving season? Maybe we should say a ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to our pilots and to our flight attendants,” he said at a press conference held earlier at the Newark Liberty Airport.
Netizens react
Social media users chimed in with their own ideas, from widening cramped economy seats to making security checkpoints friendlier for travellers, CBS News reported.
“I cannot wear a [suit] as I am crammed into my seat,” one user wrote online, criticising Duffy’s comments.
“You ride back there in row 34 middle seat cause you can’t afford to pay the extra $ to choose your own seat instead of riding shotgun in row 1 and see how comfortable that is,” they added.
Has there been any dress code imposed?
There has been no formal dress code issued by the government, nor have any penalties been imposed yet on airlines or travellers for not complying with the directive. The government’s message instead leans heavily on personal responsibility.
“It is more of a soft nudge about travel etiquette,” Sarah Silbert, a strategist at the flight search engine Points Path, had told CBS News.