Lawmakers Demand Airline Privacy Probe

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Shontel Brown (D-OH) are demanding a Government Accountability Office probe. They want to know why the Department of Transportation has never brought a public enforcement action over airline passenger privacy.

This demand follows the sale of hundreds of millions of travel records to federal agencies by an airline-owned clearinghouse. According to a Congressional Research Service review cited by the lawmakers, the DOT has not brought a single public airline privacy case in over 40 years. Wyden and Brown label this inaction a "systemic abdication" and "regulatory neglect."

Congress gave the Transportation Department authority to police unfair and deceptive airline practices through the Airline Deregulation Act. This law often preempts state privacy claims against carriers. The DOT's complaint-driven system is poorly suited for privacy violations passengers never discover.

Transportation Withholds Airline Privacy Review

The Department of Transportation launched its first industry-wide airline privacy review in March 2024. It covered ten major carriers: Allegiant, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and United.

Then-Secretary Pete Buttigieg said this would begin periodic reviews, with potential investigations and enforcement. No findings were ever released. In December 2024, the DOT withheld 2,095 pages of review records in full. It cited confidential commercial information and an ongoing privacy review.

The Department stated releasing the documents could reveal evidence for a "prospective law enforcement action." No such action has occurred. There is no evidence the review finished, and its status is unclear after the administration changed.

Airline-Owned Clearinghouse Sold Data

The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) is owned by major carriers including American, Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue, and Alaska. It clears ticket sales between travel agencies and over 200 airlines, giving it a vast database.

ARC's Travel Intelligence Program allowed government agencies to search ticket transactions by passenger name and itinerary. It covered 39 months of travel and could notify agencies when someone matching criteria bought a new ticket. The program advertised access to billions of searchable records.

These records were made available to the FBI, IRS, SEC, and Homeland Security components without a court order. ARC shut down the program in November 2025 after media exposure and bipartisan congressional pressure. Lawmakers now question whether the DOT independently investigated ARC or its airline owners.

Government Paid Airline Employees for Data

The Drug Enforcement Administration recruited airline employees to search proprietary reservation systems. A 2016 Justice Department audit identified at least 19 employees paid about $1.6 million over five years. One received more than $600,000 in under four years.

Agents sometimes requested passenger information or entire manifests almost daily. In 2024, investigators found an airline employee flagging passengers who bought tickets within 48 hours of departure. That employee received a percentage of cash later seized from those passengers.

In one instance, agents stopped a passenger boarding a flight. He refused a search, agents detained his bag, and he missed his flight. They found no drugs or cash. The Justice Department later halted most of these airport "consensual encounters."

The DOT said in December 2024 that its review remained open and prospective enforcement was possible. More than two years after announcing its first-ever airline privacy review, it will not say if it found violations, found none, or never completed the work.