In 1978, Congress passed the Airline Deregulation Act and President Jimmy Carter signed it into law, laying the basis for a greatly expanded, more competitive, and lower-priced airline industry. In recent years, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has increasingly used its authority to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive practices to chip away at airline deregulation.
The transportation department’s rulemakings on airfare advertising, ticket refundability, and tarmac delays during the Obama administration have been cited by critics as examples of a backdoor re-regulatory trend at DOT. The Trump administration attempted to bring the aviation consumer protection authority in line
