US Airlines, Cruise Lines Prepare for Winter Storm Gianna

---

By Eric Hanson

Foreign Bureau

The Trump Administration and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a new mandatory “Operations Specification” for airline pilots, telling airlines they’re now required to hire airline pilots based on merit. 

The news was quietly published on Friday, February 13 and requires all U.S. air carriers to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. Failure, according to the release, “will subject airlines to federal investigation.” 

The Operations Specification says, in part, that it “acknowledges minimum regulatory requirements…and the importance of merit-based hiring that requires a certificate holder to identify candidates whose specific experience and technical aptitude align with the complexities of their specific operating environment."

We reached out to all major American air carriers, and thus far, American Airlines, United and Southwest all referred us to Airlines for America, the leading association for the aviation industry. 

Airlines for America's statement was as follows: "Safety is, and always will be, the top priority for U.S. airlines. A4A carriers comply with all federal regulations and laws, including those related to qualifications, training and licensing."

Southwest also added, "Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees."

President Trump has been vocal about dismantling DEI practices from the government to the private sector, signing an executive order on the subject that called DEI “illegal discrimination.” Trump has claimed, without evidence, that DEI practices unfairly discriminate against white Americans. 

“When families board their aircraft, they should fly with confidence knowing the pilot behind the controls is the best of the best. The American people don’t care what their pilot looks like or their gender—they just care that they are [the] most qualified man or woman for the job,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “Safety drives everything we do, and this commonsense measure will increase transparency between passengers and airlines.”  

However, there are warning signs that dismantling DEI practices could have long-term impacts on the travel industry.

For example, in November 2025, a group of lawmakers put into question the FAA’s dismantling of DEI initiatives specifically for aviation mechanics, especially since the government had already appropriated funds for DEI initiatives to hire more aviation mechanics before Trump’s dismantling of DEI. 

This male-dominated workforce (women only comprise 2.9 percent of aircraft mechanics in the nation) has an average worker age nearing retirement. A lack of training and hiring a younger workforce—regardless of race or gender—could potentially create stalls that further exacerbate the historic backlog of new aircraft, which currently sits at 15,000 worldwide and is estimated to cost the industry $11 billion. Getting rid of DEI programs, which can provide training assistance or widen the search pool for potential applicants, might worsen the workforce shortage. 

The travel industry has had a mixed reaction to Trump’s dismantling of DEI—with many, including major airlines, staying quiet. Yet last February, when the Trump Administration made its first attempts at dismantling DEI, Intrepid Travel, Tourism Cares and Delta Air Lines reaffirmed their commitment to DEI. 

The US Tour Operators Association also stood in support of DEI, saying, “USTOA believes that travel is a force for good, and as such, we will continue to focus on sustainability and DEI. The USTOA Executive Committee, Board of Directors, and you, our members, remain steadfast in our support of efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion industry wide.”

 By Suzanne Edgewater

West Coast Bureau

Partner airlines Delta and Aeromexico must dissolve their joint venture agreement, the Department of Transportation said Tuesday.

The two carriers formed the agreement in 2016, and it allows them to list flights together and share revenue. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said the partnership must end because Mexico is not being fair to United States airlines.

At the center of the issue is a disagreement about Mexico City’s two airports. 

Duffy says that the Mexican government rescinded slots for U.S. airlines and all-cargo carriers at the capital’s Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) in 2022 and 2023 under the guise of upcoming construction projects.

However, that construction was never started, the DOT states. The U.S. cargo airlines were forced to move to the newer but less appealing Felipe Angeles International Airport (NLU) 30 miles from the center of the city.

“By restricting slots and mandating that all-cargo operations move out of MEX, Mexico has broken its promise, disrupted the market, and left American businesses holding the bag for millions in increased costs,” the DOT says.

The change provides an unfair advantage in the market to Delta and Aeromexico, according to Duffy. As a result, he terminated the airlines’ agreement and withdrew its antitrust immunity. The two carriers must wind down the joint venture by January 1, 2026. 

The two carriers will need to end common pricing, capacity management, and revenue sharing, but the DOT says they will still be able to continue “arms-length activities,” like codesharing, marketing, and coordinating their frequent flier programs.

“Empty promises mean nothing,” Duffy said. “After years of taking advantage of the U.S. and our carriers, we need to see definitive action by Mexico that levels the playing field and restores fairness. Under President Trump’s leadership, we will continue to put America First and hold any country who thinks they can distort the rules accountable.”

The termination of the partnership follows a warning from Duffy in July that he would end the agreement if Mexico didn’t take any action to restore the U.S. airlines’ slots. 

“We are disappointed that the Department of Transportation has chosen to terminate its approval of the strategic and pro-competitive partnership between Delta and Aeromexico, a decision that will cause significant harm to U.S. jobs, communities and consumers traveling between the U.S. and Mexico,” Delta said. “We are reviewing the Department’s order and considering next steps.”

The airline says that all of its flights will continue to operate as normal, unless passengers are contacted by Delta.

By John Stutz

West Coast Bureau

Flight attendants at American Airlines continued to escalate cries to oust CEO Robert Isom with a protest at the airline’s headquarters on Thursday. 

Crew members and other workers picketed outside American Airlines’ Dallas headquarters, chanting “Robert Isom got to go,” according to local news channel WFAA.

The protest is the latest action showing employees dissatisfaction with the airline’s leader. Earlier this week members of the board for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the union representing 28,000 American Airlines flight attendants, issued a unanimous no-confidence vote on Isom, calling for a change in CEO. 

It was the first time the flight attendant union had ever issued such a vote in its decades-long history. “From abysmal profits earned to operational failures that have front-line Workers sleeping on floors, this airline must course-correct before it falls even further behind,” said APFA President Julie Hedrick. “This level of failure begins at the very top, with CEO Robert Isom.”

Operational bungles in January ignited a firestorm among the airline’s employees, as poor handling of Winter Storm Fern left flight attendants stranded at airports with no hotels and the airline reported tepid annual earnings for 2025 compared to their competition. 

The flight attendants’ union has also noted that while executive compensation remains high, workers are “paying the price” for “ongoing operational disruptions, declining industry rankings and management decisions.” 

With their protests, the airline’s staffers say they are continuing to demand accountability from American’s executives, as well as improved operational support for front-line crew members, and a “credible turnaround strategy to restore performance.”

Over the weekend, Isom conceded to a meeting with the airline’s pilot union over the same issues, but it’s not clear when that meeting was scheduled to take place.

By Eric Hanson

Foreign Bureau

In the wake of the airspace closure in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday morning, a variety of theories are circulating regarding the true cause of the unexpected incident.

When the Federal Aviation Administration initially announced the airspace closure, unspecified security concerns were cited as the cause, and government agencies said all flights would need to be stopped for 10 full days.

The FAA made this abrupt announcement without any advance coordination or communication with El Paso city officials, El Paso airport officials, or local hospital officials (who also operate medical flights in the local airspace).

Juliette Kayyem, faculty director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Homeland Security Project and assistant DHS secretary during the Obama Administration, told PBS News, "That failure to communicate is unacceptable."

Further heightening confusion, just a short time after announcing the 10-day shutdown, the FAA completely reversed course and reopened the airspace.

Moreover, the only explanation provided surrounding the series of perplexing airspace decisions was that the action was taken "out of an abundance of caution." Federal officials also cited potential drone activity in the area as a reason for the closure.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reinforced that explanation on X, saying the FAA and the Department of War had acted quickly to "address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region."

The drone rationale for the shutdown, however, has since proven not to be credible, and the entire incident has triggered outrage among local officials. Here's a closer look.

During an interview with PBS News, Kayyem, the faculty director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Homeland Security Project, made clear that drones in the airspace over El Paso's airport is not a new development or something that would suddenly require a 10-day shutdown.

"According to NORAD, the military division, thousands of drone excursions happen between Mexico and the U.S. monthly," Kayyem said.

"There is nothing new about a drone excursion," added Kayyem, who called the drone explanation "a false story."

Kayyem also stressed that the FAA's initial decision to issue a sweeping, 10-day airspace closure was highly unusual. By comparison, when the United States bombed Venezuela recently, airspace orders surrounding that incident only involved a one-day closure.

"Basically the notice goes out by the FAA. People like me see it, and go…I cannot describe how unique this is…No notice. Just comes out of nowhere. 

And it's a 10 day no flight."

"So no-one knows what's coming. There's silence. Then there's a false story—that's the best way of putting it—about Mexican cartels and drones."

A far more credible theory has since emerged regarding the El Paso airspace closure. Various news organizations have reported that the closure was actually caused by the Pentagon testing a new anti-drone defense system and doing so without giving aviation officials a chance to assess its danger to commercial flights.

In particular, The New York Times reported that "Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft," according to multiple people briefed on the situation.

Concerns about the lack of understanding surrounding the impacts of the anti-drone laser on commercial planes may have caused the FAA to abruptly shut down El Paso airspace. 

"The Pentagon has been trying out what's called high energy laser technology," Kayyem told PBS. "Very powerful electricity that comes through a laser. The public does not know exactly the capacity of this technology, but it's suspected it could probably bring down a commercial airplane."

This new laser technology is being tested at Fort Bliss near El Paso, Kayyem explained.

"Perhaps they tested it out prematurely? The FAA gets nervous and says 'We don't know what's going on in the sky' and makes this sweeping judgement," continued Kayyem. "So everything we heard from the administration was essentially not accurate."

Kayyem added that if the Pentagon was testing laser technology without notifying the FAA, as appears to have been the case, it is very concerning. In particular, she pointed to the deadly crash that occurred in Washington D.C.'s airspace between a commercial airplane and a Blackhawk helicopter in January 2025 that left 67 people dead.

"You don't mess around with commercial aviation space. We saw what happened in January 2025," Kayyem added.

On the ground in El Paso, the local mayor decried the federal government's handling of the entire incident, most especially the lack of communication and the subsequent confusion.

"I want to be very, very clear that this should have never happened," Mayor Renard Johnson said during a press conference. "You can not restrict airspace over a major city, without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership. That failure to communicate is unacceptable."

Kayyem, on this front, did not mince words either during her interview with PBS News.

"It's not good, just from a communications standpoint, because we're talking about commercial aviation space. Passengers in the air. And a lack of coordination and confusion at best," she said.

The airspace shutdown also had a variety of ramifications for life in El Paso. Because nobody in the city was notified ahead of time, local hospitals were forced to quickly divert medical flights taking place to a city 45 minutes away. That put people's healthcare at risk, said Kayyem.

There are also protocols that are supposed to be followed, which were not followed by the Trump Administration or the FAA in this case.

Representatives from local, state, federal, and the private sectors meet every morning to discuss what's taking place each day, Kayyem said. None of these parties were notified about the airspace shutdown.

"The protocols are in fact there," said Kayyem, who concluded that the incident is an example of the fact that "There is no homeland for this administration…that federal agencies do things without coordination with state and local officials."

Senator Maria Cantwell's office issued a statement that included similar criticism: "Yesterday's incident in El Paso reminds me of why…interagency coordination is so important," said Cantwell, who is chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. 

"If we can get into this kind of conflict, where the FAA is saying that we're going to shut down airspace for ten days, and then another agency is saying something different – and there's concern about what is happening in the airspace—it just seems to me that we have a real problem of coordination between DoD and FAA. We need to resolve that" said Cantwell.

By Carla Martilotti

Foreign Bureau

Delta Air Lines announced plans to launch new nonstop service between Minneapolis–St. Paul and Maui, Hawaii. 

The carrier’s new flights between Minnesota and Hawaii will operate daily during peak holiday and spring break periods, with five weekly flights scheduled through the winter season, operated on the Airbus A330-300. 

Delta also revealed the return of nonstop service between Boston and Honolulu, with daily flights during peak late-December travel before transitioning to four weekly frequencies through the winter season, also using the Airbus A330-300. 

In addition to the new and returning routes, the airline has broadened its Hawaii schedule with added frequencies, earlier seasonal service, and aircraft enhancements designed to support peak winter travel. Delta revealed the changes below:

Atlanta (ATL) – Honolulu (HNL): Second frequency operating three-times-weekly from January 4, 2027, through March on the Airbus A330-300.

Detroit (DTW) – Honolulu (HNL): Expands from three-times-weekly to daily service beginning November 9, 2026, operated by the Airbus A330-300.

New York-JFK – Honolulu (HNL): Expands from up to five weekly flights to daily service beginning April 1, 2026, on the Boeing 767-300.

Salt Lake City (SLC) – Kona (KOA): Daily service on the Boeing 767-300 will begin November 9, 2026, launching earlier than last year and giving Mountain West customers an earlier start to winter travel to the Big Island. 

Los Angeles (LAX) – Kona (KOA): Beginning November 9, 2026, service will be upgauged to the Boeing 767‑300 for the winter season, providing customers with a widebody onboard experience to Hawaii Island.

By Robert Jeffers

East Coast Bureau

As of midnight on Saturday, February 14, the U.S. federal government is once again in a partial shutdown—so how might this new shutdown impact travel?

The government had a two-week period for the House and the Senate to agree on a new funding package for the Department of Homeland Security, which Democrats are demanding follow stricter rules for ICE agents aligned with other law enforcement agencies, including proper identification. 

According to the BBC, the Senate was unable to make the deal, with Democrats demanding a ban on agents wearing masks, better identification for officers, a return to requiring judicial warrants to enter residences as aligned with the Fourth Amendment, and greater transparency at ICE facilities. 

On Thursday, the Democrats in the Senate had blocked two funding bills because they did not carry the reforms they requested. 

The issue has been ongoing since late January, when Democrats, spurred by the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretty in Minneapolis by ICE agents, refused to fund the DHS unless reforms were made. 

The government went into a partial shutdown for one weekend on January 31, and a two-week period was decided for Republicans and Democrats to discuss any necessary changes. 

Now, several travel groups, including Airlines for America are warning that this new partial government shutdown might impact travel, as Congress is expected to take a two-week break through February 23, potentially prolonging a shutdown. 

“As yet another government shutdown looms, so does one of the busiest travel times of the year—spring break," reads the letter. "Travelers and the U.S. economy cannot afford to have essential TSA personnel working without pay, which increases the risk of unscheduled absences and call outs, and ultimately can lead to higher wait times and missed or delayed flights. We commend all TSA employees, especially the frontline workforce, who continued to serve the traveling public during the 43-day shutdown last year."

While the partial shutdown will only affect some of the Department of Homeland Security, and not the FAA or air traffic controllers, which operate under the FAA, the U.S. Coast Guard personnel and Transportation Security Administration personnel will be going without pay yet again for the foreseeable future, potentially causing delays and snarling air travel the longer the shutdown drags on.

The last government shutdown cost the travel industry over $6 billion and lasted a historic 43 days, during which thousands of TSA and air traffic control workers worked without pay. Air travel was so beleaguered by the shutdown as it wore on that the FAA began reducing flights at major airports in a first for the nation. 

Lawmakers could be recalled to Washington if the two sides reach a deal, however, potentially ending the partial shutdown earlier than February 23.