NEED TO KNOW
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Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair criticized American Airlines after allegedly experiencing delays and operational issues on his recent flights
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He also claimed his wife recently experienced a delay with the airline
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Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg suggested Blair address the administration’s rollback of passenger rights regulations
A White House official has promised to take a “new interest” in the airline industry after reportedly experiencing a significant delay on a recent flight.
On Thursday, Feb. 26, Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair took to X to complain about his experience with American Airlines.
“Today, American Airlines delays me 2.5 hours because someone failed to notice empty hydraulic fluid before it was time to go down the runway,” Blair writes. “Yesterday, they apparently forgot to BOOK A PILOT for my wife’s flight.”
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He then adds: “I’m going to take a new interest in the airline industry.”
PEOPLE has reached out to the White House and American Airlines for comment.
The 36-year-old former political consultant has risen in the ranks of national politics since serving as the political director for President Donald Trump’s 2024 election campaign.
At the beginning of Trump’s second term, he began work as a White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs. According to a December 2025 report from Politico, he is responsible for the administration’s 2026 midterm strategy.
An American Airlines plane
Credit: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty
His post comes as American Airlines is facing scrutiny over flight cancellations amid late-January winter storms.
Reuters reports data from aviation analytics firm OAG shows the carrier lagged behind its competitors on reliability. The airline trailed Southwest, Alaska, United and Delta Air Lines in on-time performance and had the highest cancellation rate amongst the companies.
In response to Blair’s post, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg suggest he look into the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse Biden era air travel regulations.
“You could begin by restoring the passenger rights work you rolled back — and then seriously enforce airline laws, like we did,” Buttigieg writes on X. “Trust me, it gets results!”
In December, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) waived $16.7 million in fines issued to American Airlines under President Joe Biden in 2024 as part of a settlement of the carrier’s treatment of passengers with disabilities. Instead, the department required American to spend $16.8 million on technology to assist such customers.
A month prior, the administration announced it was withdrawing plans introduced by Biden to require airlines to pay passengers cash compensation when there was a flight disruption caused by the carrier.
Passengers look at flight delays at the Orlando International Airport.
Credit: Andrew Wevers/Getty
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In the U.S., airlines are required to refund passengers for cancelled flights. However, there are no such requirements to compensate travelers for delays. The European Union, Canada, Brazil and Britain all have airline delay compensation rules in place.
In the DOT’s reasoning for the withdrawal, they cited efforts to “allow airlines to compete on the services and compensation that they provide to passengers rather than imposing new minimum requirements for these services and compensation through regulation, which would impose significant costs on airlines.”
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