Discussion about a shutdown again. Why would we have a shutdown in september . If the appropriations process is still not working by september, that is a bad thing for the country. One of the things that we like as members of the government is that the proper functioning of the appropriations process is critical to the constitutional function of the government. The house and senate are supposed to use the power of the purse. When they dont do appropriations bills, our constituents voices are not heard. We hope that comes back as part of the process. We are pleased with the deal today. Thank you very much. Thank you for letting me have a shout out to my wife. Can we identify the location of that wall exactly . Sean sean. Really . No one leave. [chatter] they are not coming back . [chatter] announcer cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. This morning, republican congressman Chris Stewart of utah discusses tensions with north korea to then virginia democratic representative Gerald Connolly on the future of health care and market polyp, senior White House Correspondent for bloomberg talks about president trumps approach to wall street regulation. Watch cspans washington journal live this morning at 7 00 eastern. Join the discussion. Munoz airlines ceo oscar and other industry executives testified at a house transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on Customer Service concerns following recent incidents on domestic flights. As is about threeandahalf hours. [gavel] the committee will come to order. To order. I, first, want to recognize mr. Lobiondo for a motion. Pursuant to rule 1a1 on transportation infrastructure i move that the chairman be authorized to declare a recess during todays hearing. Questions to the motion and all those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay. The ayes have it and the motion is agreed to. I, first, want to start with thanking all of the witnesses for being here today that accepted our invitation to testify on this oversight hearing on the airline Customer Service and we invited all of the major carriers to participate and you are the very few to be here with us to seek answers regarding the treatment of passengers in the Airline Industry. Air travel can be stressful and as many of us on this knows that we are passengers and many here are passengers on a twice a week basis flying all over the country, but anyone who flies knows just getting on the plane can be stressful and getting to the airport, checking in and getting to the gate on time can rattle the most seasoned travel. The whole thing starts with the purchase of a tick pet. There is the expectation that theyll be treated fairly and with respect with the airlines and the employees. There is also an expectation that the ticket will be honored and the airline will get them to the destination safely. I used to be in business, in fact, i was in business for 20 years and one of the fundamental rules of any successful business is that the customer comes first, and as i said, i spent 20 years face to face in the Retail Business with customers, so i know firsthand how our customers are supposed to be treated if you want to be a successful business. So theres something clearly broken when you see passengers being treated the way some of you have been treated in recent flights. Regardless of the contractual relationship between the airline and ticket holder, its common dyessency and common sense that you dont treat a person that way, let alone a paying customer. As i mentioned, members of congress fly a lot so many of our constituents and those watching online, weve all been in a situation where we all just want to get to our seat, get in the air and get home as quickly as possible. But imagine almost seven hours into a long flight and you get physically ripped out of a seat you paid for and thrown off the plane and get your teeth knocked out or getting your infant child on the site and yanks a stroller out of the way and nearly hits your baby. These are recent examples of serious disturbing Customer Service breakdowns. I expect well hear more examples when the members of this committee get their opportunities to question the witnesses. There will be tough questions today and make no mistake about it you owe the public and this committee answers. Hundreds of millions of people fly in this country every year and 2 Million People will fly today or something close to 2 million and theyre tired of being treated inappropriately and without courtesy. Something is broken and the obvious divide between passengers and the Airlines Need to be addressed and thats why we are here today. We want to hear what the breakdown and the response to make sure that it doesnt happen again. To learn about these Customer Service approximately sees, what are you doing to improve the Service Experience . What needs to be done like the most recent that may never happen again. This wont be a pleasant hearing for the witnesses today, but i want it to be constructive and i want to stress that. This needs to be constructive and we need to come out of here with a better understanding from this committee on how the Airlines Operate and what a better understanding of what the response of the Airline Industry will do to change to make sure that the steps are taken to improve Customer Service. This is and i know that some have already and mr. Munoz has been on tv and i watched them and others have already made changes to the way they operate, its a positive first step, but its only a first step. This committee and congress do not want half measures or temporary fixes. This issue is not going away. We will hold you accountable and we expect real results. As a general rule i dont believe in overburdening our industries that are successfully deregulated and i shouldnt need to remind you that congress will not hesitate to act whenever necessary to ensure that our customers are treated with the respect that we deserve. If we dont see meaningful results the next time this Committee Meets to address the issue i can assure you you wont like the outcome. I want this to be a constructive meeting today and i appreciate the witnesses being here today to take the tough questions. As i said, its going to be a tough, tough hearing today and with that, i would like to recognize the Ranking Member mr. Defazio for his statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate you holding this hearing. A number of us asked for a hearing after the highly publicized hearing on united and i am pleased we are here today for the hearing and not pleased for the circumstances. Id say that todays hearing is really the culmination of the deterioration over a number of years. I mean, just think back to last summer, hundreds of thousands of people were stranded and displaced if are days because of major computer meltdowns at two airlines including southwest who is represented here today. Airplanes and youre very good at filling them up, but they often dont have a single empty seat and theyre getting smaller and closer together and the highprofile and lowprofile seats are great and you can jam more people into the cabin, but its certainly testing the patience of the passengers and testing the patience of the flight crew. Just last month we saw an American AirlinesFlight Attendant trying to go at a customer in a physical fight. Tempers are short everywhere and then, of course, dr. Dao, and that incident, and i know, mr. Munoz, that you have apologized and i am interested in what you will tell us her today about why this will never happen again and how things are going to improve. My first term in congress, i actually introduced an Airline Passenger equity act to keep airlines accountable to their passengers. Among other things, it would have required them to report information regarding flight delays, cancellations, reroutings, luggage status, performance and passengers. Some of the provisions were included in the passenger act of 87, but 30 years later, i think theres a lot of room for improvement and so i think were here today to look and hear about where we could prod, push or regulate or legislate to get Better Service for passengers. Today Ranking Member larson and i are requesting a gao study of what more congress and the d. O. T. Can do to remedy whats gone wrong with the airline system. Weve seen massive consolidation. We have basically four carriers and 80 of the market and you know, less than a decade ago we had much more diversity and much less concentration and factors are near a 15year high and denied boarding for 15,000 passengers and a lot of people just dont have a choice anymore, and we adhere that the big problems are air Traffic Control, but actually, its 60 of delays were caused by factors within the airlines control and there was a recent article in forbes by an advocate of privatization and air Traffic Control said you cant take 15 or 20 planes off in a oneminute period from any airport and no matter what you have is a system, yet airlines insist on scheduling it that way and in part, they are at fault in addition to the meltdowns of the reservation systems and their dispatch systems and other things. The socalled passengers passengers rights when they are told to look at your contract of carriage, the contracts of carriage are, i would say, deliberately obscured in terms of legalese. Some airlines, this is which one is this . These are the contracts of carriage and some are 37,000 words and 67 pages long, and i would say very few passengers have any idea of what their rights are, and i had a staff member last weekend after we were talking about this decided to printout the contract of carriage for the airline she was traveling on and delay of the control of the airline which required you to get compensated and how many people have the patience to do that . We need simple language disclosure and transparency in these contracts of carriage. That, in part, was what led to the incident with united was the limitations in the policies. Representative larsen and i have introduced hr 1420, know before you fly act two months ago, and it would require that the airlines provide information to the public and baggage fees and assisting passengers during widespread disruptions. As weve seen the concentration grow for a long time, the airlines neglected their own i. T. Infrastructure. We had those incidents last summer with dispatch and with ticketing, and that really shows to me that this is all being driven by the bottom line and not by Customer Service and weve got to get some Customer Service back in there and customer rights in there and now were being pressured by the airlines to privatize the air Traffic Control system and put them in effective control of the governing board. I think the airline needs to focus getting its house in order instead of extending the reach to control our skies. The airlines lack of focus on the traveling public and the failure tors reflect i. T. Infrastructure add to the many reasons i will continue to oppose privatization and with that, mr. Chairman, i thank you for the time and look forward to the testimony. I thank the gentleman and now recognize subcommittee chairman lobiondo for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Like you, i was deeply troubled by the events last month where a paying passenger was forced from his seat and we are here today to ensure that this never happens again and hear how that will take place so it never happens again. Flying is stressful. Thats just the simple truth and passengers are stressed and waited at a crowded gate for the delayed flight or trying to make a connecting flight when the weather is not cooperating or spending an exhausting day flying with Young Children. Unfortunately, there are examples where Airline Employees make an already stressful situation even more unpleasant and in some cases, impossible and those situations need to be singled out, addressed and talked about how theyll be solved in the future. There are also daily instances where Flight Attendants take action on their own to improve the flying experience, go above and beyond as well as gate attendants and pilots. These incidents and these situations need to be recognized, but the recent upsetting incidents were absolutely avoidable. Airlines need to clearly communicate their policies and use good, oldfashioned common sense when applying those policies especially during difficult situations. Today we will hear what actions the airlines are taking to ensure the passengers receive the best Customer Service possible and i look forward to a productive discussion. Id like to hear what the airlines are doing to uphold the commitments to the passengers and ensure that the paying customers are treated in a fair and respectful manner. It is this commitss responsibility to make sure the Airlines Follow through on these commitment ands we will continue our efforts to ensure that positive changes made as a result to recent Customer Service debacles are not just the temporary response to the media spotlight. I want to thank the witnesses for attending today and look forward to hearing the testimony. I yield back. Gentlemen . Now recognize subcommittee member larson. Thank you, chairman schuster for holding todays hearing. I dont want to belabor all of the points and just a few of them so i will be brief. I want to make clear to you and all of the other airlines at the table and those who are not here and what happened on United Express cant happen again. We are here to discuss what went wrong and how it can be prevented from happening again. What happened was the Airline Policy failures and failures that the company took steps to recognize last week. In truth, these problems are generally not specific to united, several of the airlines have recognized room for improvements in the overbooking and other policies and have announced changes in the reese eve recent weeks and theyre enhanced focus on the paying customer Going Forward and better training and empowerment of the front line employees and have their interactions with passengers and in the same spirit this morning, Ranking Member defazio and i recognize that the gao dive deeper into the Consumer Protection for Airline Passengers and understanding current protections and identifying any gaps will be critical as we develop meaningful improvements for the flying public. Ranking member defazio and i address two surefire ways to address two sure fire ways to ruin someones flight. Unexpected fees and electee delays. The know before you fly act remains trance parents when it comes to baggage fees and inform passengers at the time of the Ticket Purchase what they will and will not do for passengers in the event of of a widespread Computer Network failure and i would also like to note that Consumer Protection must recognize the improvement travel for persons with disabilities and the shortterm aviation extension bill included my Provision Requiring the d. O. T. To move forward with a longdelayed rule making updating standards for the lavatory access for passengers with disabilities. We almost continue to advocate for the rights and protections like these for all travelers. So to you, they may be your customers. To us, they are constituents, deserving of the oversight and questions that we will ask today. So with that, i look forward to todays panel and will to the forthcoming report and yield the remainder of my time. Thank you. I thank the gentleman. I would like to welcome our panel of witnesses and mr. Oscar munoz who is the chief executive officer of United Airlines and hes accompanied by mr. Scott kirby, the president of United Airlines. Mr. Joseph sprague, Senior Vice President for external relations for Alaska Airlines and mr. Bob jordan and executive Vice President and chief commercial officer of Southwest Airlines, and Senior Vice President of Customer Experience for American Airlines and mr. William j. Mcgee and aviation Consumers Union. I look forward to hearing your testimony and to working with you in the coming months and i ask that our witnesses full stapts be included in the record and without objection, so ordered. Since your written testimony has been made part of the the committee asked that you would limit your oral testimony to five minutes and with that, mr. Munoz, you may proceed. Microphone. Thank you, chairman schuster. And you might want to pull it a little closer to you. Thank you, sir. Better . Yes, sir. Thank you, and Ranking Member defazio, thank you as well as all members of the committee. We thank you