Sean Duffy wants more civility in air travel. Not everyone is on board

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is urging air travelers to dress better and behave more politely – hitting a nerve at a time when many Americans believe Air travel is even more disappointing than ever.

Ahead of the busiest Thanksgiving travel season in 15 years, Duffy last week launched a campaign called “The Golden Age of Travel Begins with You,” in which he looked back to the 1950s and '60s to call for a return to courtesy and class in air travel.

But with air traffic controllers still short-staffed and customers facing frequent flight delays, social media users and aviation experts alike say Duffy is missing the point.

The Department of Transportation's campaign video combines old footage of smiling airport employees and decent passengers with modern social media videos of people starting fights on airplanes, throwing their bare feet over seats and engaging in other destructive acts.

“Manners don’t end at the gate. Things aren't what they used to be,” Duffy interjects. “Let's bring back politeness and manners. Ask yourself, are you helping a pregnant woman put her bag on the top shelf? Do you dress respectfully?”

The Federal Aviation Administration predicts this week will be the busiest Thanksgiving travel season in 15 years, with more than 52,000 flights on Nov. 25 alone.

And aviation experts say Duffy's message won't have much impact on the flying environment.

Scott Keyes, a flying expert and founder of airfare deal site Going.com, told the BBC that while it sounds great to ask everyone to just be kind to each other, in terms of the actual effectiveness of the message, “you might as well ask the wall to start printing money for you.”

“Very few people come on a flight looking to get into a fight with another passenger,” Mr Keys said. And once they reach the level of excitement where they start a fight with a flight attendant or passenger, he said they are unlikely to remember Duffy's words or calm down.

The main problem, he says, is that people allow their tempers to get the better of them, which he sees as a growing problem throughout society, not just on airplanes and not just in the United States.

Since the secretary began posting about the campaign on X, some of his subsequent posts have been flooded with thousands of comments criticizing Duffy's message.

“If you want us to be respectful at the airport, stop treating us like cattle,” commented one user X. “Abolish the demoralizing and humiliating TSA checks (that do nothing) and find a way to force airlines to provide more than 2 inches of space per seat.”

Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of the Atmosphere Research Group, told the BBC that while Duffy makes a valid point about the importance of being mindful, his call to dress nicer won't change anything.

“You can wear black tie and still be a jerk, or you can wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt and be the most considerate person in the world. In this case, clothes don't make the man,” Mr. Harteveldt said.

A number of commenters on Duffy's X-post noted that the reason they dress so casually is because of how cramped airplane cabins have become, as well as the anticipation of long delays.

“That’s it,” one user X commented. “You get the planes running on time and we won’t be getting dressed to spend the night at this damn airport.”

And: “Can I get my legroom back?”

One user X, who has almost 500,000 followers, wrote: “Duffy is absolutely right… BUT our decline in travel is also a reflection of how airlines treat us.

Echoing what many social media users have pointed out, Mr Harteveldt said airlines also bear some responsibility for poor passenger behaviour, making their “economy cabins so unpleasant and so physically uncomfortable” that it naturally puts passengers in a bad mood.

Add to that a minimal number of flight attendants, minimal on-board amenities and the airlines' commitment to the pay-for-what-you-want business model, “you're not going to get people smiling as they walk down the loading ramp to the plane,” Mr. Harteveldt said.

However, others praised the secretary's core message of respect and kindness, with one commenting: “I'll do my small part to spread civility in my life.”

The Department of Transport says the aim of the campaign is not just to say “please” and “thank you”, but also to reduce the number of violent and disruptive incidents on planes and airports.

The agency says there has been a 400% increase in in-flight temper tantrums since 2019, including both unruly behavior and violent attacks. The department has recorded 13,800 unruly passenger incidents since 2021, and one in five flight attendants has experienced a physical incident, according to the agency.

However, experts dispute the idea that the quality of air travel has deteriorated.

Dan Bubb, an aviation historian and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the BBC that while incidents of incivility were on the rise, statistically the number was not very significant.

There are many more travelers and flights now than there used to be, and Professor Bubb said this made it difficult to compare today's aviation accidents with those of past decades.

Mr Keys pointed out what he sees as another major problem with Duffy's message: Air travel used to cause a lot of other problems that we no longer face today.

“It's funny how much worse air travel was back then,” Mr Keys said.

According to him, flights have become much less safe, noting that planes are more often crashed and hijacked. Flights were also much more expensive relative to income. Other drawbacks included cabins filled with cigarette smoke and flight attendants facing rampant sexism and harsh physical demands.

Mr. Keyes believes the FAA and DOT can do more to reduce passenger stress by forcing airlines to minimize delays and cancellations.

Professor Bubb said it would also help “give passengers a little more physical space in terms of seat size and legroom, include meals in ticket prices, reduce alcohol consumption, make airport security screening less stressful, make airport parking easier, increase boarding space at airport gates.”

And, he added, we still need to encourage passengers to be courteous to flight crews and each other.