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COMPANIES PRICE GOUGING HURRICANE MILTON EVACUEES  
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Sharon Kelly
October 9, 2024
DeSmog
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_ For years, United, American, and other airlines have led massive
lobbying efforts against regulations to prevent climate change. _

Airport customers line up at an American Airlines counter. , Jon
Cutter/Flickr

 

As millions sought to evacuate from Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton,
reports surged from consumers and industry watchdogs that airfares on
flights out of the state were spiking, with tickets that might
typically cost a few hundred dollars suddenly going for much higher.

New Yorker Cerina McQuillan told AP News
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that, as she sought to buy a ticket for her 17-year-old daughter to
evacuate, the airline’s website crashed. “All of a sudden it went
back on again, and the flights quadrupled in price. It went up to like
$750 within a matter of seconds,” she told AP.

Airline watchdogs reported similar findings. “Yesterday and this
morning fare searches were producing quite a few four-figure
airfares,” William J. McGee, the American Economic Liberties
Project’s senior fellow for aviation and travel posted
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Tuesday, October 8. The National Weather Service warned that Tuesday
was the final day to evacuate Florida ahead of Milton, a Category Five
storm at its peak.

“As Americans seek safety from natural disasters, we’re hearing
troubling reports of price gouging for essentials that are necessary
for people to get out of harm’s way — from hotels to groceries to
gas,” Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan said in a
statement
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released today.

Milton’s ferocity and its rapid intensification were fueled by
abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico – just one of many ways
that climate change made the storm more severe, according to a host of
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climate scientists
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Axios
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and NBC News’s senior Miami meteorologist John Morales
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who broke down on air as he described the coming storm.

“I would argue that the reason [price gouging] happened is because
we have four airlines controlling 80 percent of the market,” McGee,
author of the book _Attention All Passengers_, told DeSmog.
“They’re behaving badly because they can.”

Today’s climate crisis is playing out at a time when corporate power
is highly consolidated, particularly in concentrated airline markets.
“I don’t think we can look at something like this in the narrow
prism of the last week,” McGee said, “I think we need to look at
the past decades.”

Some of the same airlines accused of hiking prices ahead of Hurricane
Milton also have a long record of lobbying against regulations aimed
at preventing climate change from worsening.

“It’s one of the most greenwashing industries out there,” McGee
said. 

Fighting Against Climate Action

United Airlines, for example, earns a “D” Climate Policy
Engagement score from the think tank InfluenceMap. The organization
faults the airline for lobbying on sustainable aviation fuels and
membership in “negatively engaged industry associations” like the
US Chamber of Commerce [[link removed]],
Airlines for America
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and the International Air Transport Association
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United’s history of attempting to obstruct climate policies runs
back years. “Last year, United Airlines, along with the airline
industry lobby group, Airlines for America
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effort on Capitol Hill to try to kill a plan that would see U.S.
airline companies participate in the European Union’s climate law
for all their flights to and from Europe,” DeSmog reported
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back in 2013.

According to The New York Post
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United marketed a ticket from Sarasota-Bradenton Airport to St. Louis
for $2,118 – while competitor Delta Airlines was selling the same
route for $614.

Similarly, American Airlines – also accused of hiking airfares ahead
of Milton – earns a “C Minus” from InfluenceMap. “Robert Isom,
CEO of American Airlines, is on the Board of Directors of Airlines of
America
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and the International Air Transport Association
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both of which have engaged negatively on U.S. and global climate
policy for aviation. The American Airlines CEO is also a member of the
Business Roundtable
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Airlines is a member of the US Chamber of Commerce
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InfluenceMap notes
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There’s an irony, McGee pointed out, because the airline industry
itself now faces rising costs from the consequences of climate change
– especially with the nation’s air-travel system already operating
at peak capacities. This leaves little margin of error for
weather-related disruptions. 

“For the airlines, these things are very expensive and insurance
isn’t going to cover everything. When something like this happens,
there’s going to be major disruptions,” he said. “Transportation
systems are not supposed to operate at peak capacity at all times,
they’re supposed to ebb and flow.”

United Airlines told DeSmog the company capped its Florida fares on
Sunday.

“Since then, the average price for a one-way, economy class ticket
to our hubs from affected Florida markets was below $500,” United
spokesperson Leslie Scott told DeSmog. “Our teams have flown in
extra water, non-perishable food, tarps, duct tape, and other supplies
to get ready. We’re also preparing United facilities at affected
airports by securing equipment and ground vehicles.”

“In preparation for Hurricane Milton, United added 18 extra Florida
flights and larger aircraft on four additional flights on Monday and
Tuesday to serve as many customers as possible,” Scott continued.
“United has booked 25,000 customers on those flights, including
2,750 on extra flights. All United flights out of Tampa, Orlando, Fort
Myers and Sarasota are full for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,”
she added. “We encourage our customers traveling in areas impacted
by the hurricane to take advantage of our waiver policies.
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“American capped fares on direct flights in the area and also
operated multiple additional flights with more than 4,000 seats to
allow customers who would like to evacuate by air the opportunity to
do so,” American Airlines told DeSmog. The company pointed to a
statement
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it released Tuesday that listed 12 airports
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covered by a travel alert. “The airline proactively capped fares for
all direct flights departing from airports covered by the travel
alert,” American said.

Both airlines have pledged
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to hit net-zero by 2050
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“We continue to embrace our goal to be net zero by 2050 by reducing
our greenhouse gas emissions by 100% without relying on the use of
voluntary carbon offsets,” Scott Kirby, United’s CEO, says on the
company’s sustainability page
[[link removed]].
“And we’ll get there not with flashy, empty gestures, but by
taking the harder, better path of actually reducing the emissions from
flying,” 

“To drive progress, we have set an intermediate, science-based
target to reduce GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions intensity by 45% by
2035, relative to a 2019 baseline,” American notes
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website, adding that the company is “helping to catalyze the
development of hydrogen-electric propulsion technology.”

Nonetheless, the industry has been active in fighting climate
regulations – and has a history of getting its way.

Until December 2020, aviation was “the largest unregulated
transportation source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country,”
according to
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the Center for Biological Diversity, which faulted new rules
established by the Trump administration as “Do-nothing
‘Standards’ for Airplane Climate Emissions.” In 2022, airline
industry groups “succeeded in watering down a United
Nations-sponsored effort to offset emissions, saving the industry
billions of dollars,” according to
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the Wall Street Journal.

The airline industry’s efforts have continued into this year. In
May, “US airlines lobbied against plans to monitor the damage
wrought by planet-heating pollutants pumped out of planes in a
previously undisclosed meeting with the European Commission,” the
Guardian reported
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PRICES DROP AFTER FEDERAL SCRUTINY

Officials urged more than 5.5 million
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people to flee ahead of Hurricane Milton. “You need to get out, and
you need to get out now,” said
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Pinellas County emergency management director Cathie Perkins. Roadways
are clogged, despite waived tolls and highway shoulders opened to
traffic.

But many people simply can’t afford to evacuate ahead of extreme
weather – no matter if they want to leave by road or by air. “A
2023 estimate by the Federal Reserve
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indicated that nearly 40% of Americans couldn’t cover a $400
emergency expense in cash,” The Guardian reports
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“and a 2021 study found that people who evacuated from the Texas
Coastal Bend during Hurricane Harvey spent about $1,200 on average
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on evacuating – more if they had to stay in hotels.”  

So many price-gouging allegations were reported as Milton approached
that top federal officials began publicly warning airlines against
taking advantage of those fleeing the storm.

Even President Joe Biden took notice. “I’m calling on the airlines
and other companies to provide as much service as possible to
accommodate evacuations and not to engage in price gouging – to just
do it on the level,” Biden said
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at an October 8 press conference on Milton.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat’s candidate for
president, made price gouging  during hurricanes and wildfires a
campaign issue
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“When people are desperate in emergencies, some bad actors will jack
up prices. We need to go after them,” Harris said in an interview on
Tuesday with Howard Stern
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“The Department takes all allegations of airline price-gouging
seriously. We are keeping a close eye on flights in and out of areas
affected by Hurricane Milton to make sure airlines are not charging
excessively increasing fares,” Secretary of Transportation Pete
Buttigieg posted
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media on October 7.

Several airlines have vigorously disputed the allegations, with United
telling the Associated Press
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they’d already moved to cap airfares from Florida. “We implemented
fare caps on Sunday. Since then, the average price paid for a one-way,
economy-class ticket to our hubs from the impacted Florida markets was
below $500,” United spokesperson Leslie Scott told AP News. American
Airlines told AP they’d added thousands of additional seats on
flights from Florida and Delta said it had also capped airfares.

Still, reports of sky-high airfares continued even after some airlines
said they’d implemented price caps — though some reports suggested
prices appeared to be in more normal ranges
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federal officials warned airlines against gouging.

While the federal Department of Transportation oversees airline price
gouging, Florida state law forbids price gouging for other services
and goods. The Florida Attorney General’s Office said the state’s
Price Gouging Hotline
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had received over 200 complaints
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as Milton approached, mostly related to fuel and water.

Gas station groups also have a history of lobbying against climate
action, with the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association, for example,
opposing
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the Inflation Reduction Act back in 2022.

Sharon Kelly is an attorney and investigative reporter based in
Pennsylvania. She was previously a senior correspondent at The Capitol
Forum and, prior to that, she reported for The New York Times, The
Guardian, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other
print and online publications.

DeSmog was founded in January 2006 to clear the PR pollution that is
clouding the science and solutions to climate change. Our team quickly
became the world’s number one source for accurate, fact-based
information regarding global warming misinformation campaigns.

* price gauging
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* Florida
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* Climate Change
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