A Delta Airlines Boeing 757 approaches San Diego International Airport on May 10, 2025. Kevin Carter/Getty Images

In this week’s air travel news, three U.S. senators are demanding that Delta Air Lines answer some pointed questions about its expanding use of artificial intelligence in setting airfares; Southwest outlines the rules for its new assigned seating system, which begins on flights starting Jan. 27, and unveils new boarding groups, as well as revised credit card fees and benefits; the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection begin testing a fast-track arrivals procedure for international flyers with domestic connections; the Donald Trump administration warns it will crack down on nations that it believes are violating their aviation agreements with the U.S., starting with Mexico; TSA is rolling out separate screening lanes for families at select airports; international route news comes from Virgin Atlantic, Starlux, Gulf Air, Delta and United; Hawaiian Airlines schedules extra capacity to the Hawaiian Islands for the year-end holidays; JetBlue will offer its premium Mint cabins on routes from the western U.S. to Fort Lauderdale; and Frontier Airlines adds a new California route.

Delta Air Lines has made no secret of the fact that it has been experimenting with artificial intelligence in setting airfares, but its planned rapid expansion of that technology is triggering alarm bells on Capitol Hill. Delta President Glen Hauenstein said during an earnings call with airline analysts this month that the airline currently sets 3% of its fares with assistance from AI and hopes to increase that to 20% by year’s end, according to Newsweek. He said Delta is working with an Israel-headquartered AI firm called Fetcherr that uses “millions of data points” to recommend fares that will allow Delta to maximize passenger revenues.

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This week, three Democratic U.S. senators — Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Mark Warner of Virginia and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — sent a letter to Delta CEO Ed Bastian and Fetcherr CEO Roy Cohen raising concerns about the future of airfares if this practice is widely adopted in the industry. They noted that Fetcherr’s website says AI pricing “could increase aviation industry profits by up to $4.4 trillion annually” based on the technology’s ability to predict the maximum amount consumers would be willing to pay for specific fare bundles. Besides the likelihood of pushing up fares overall, the senators said, airlines’ use of AI has “severe” implications for individual consumer privacy. “Consumers have no way of knowing what data and personal information your company and Fetcherr plan to collect or how the AI algorithm will be trained,” they wrote. “Prices could be dictated not by supply and demand, but by individual need. While Delta has stated that the airline will ‘maintain strict safeguards to ensure compliance with federal law,’ your company has not shared what those safeguards are or how you plan to protect American families against pricing discrimination in the evolving AI landscape.” The senators gave Delta until Aug. 4 to submit answers to several questions about its AI pricing, including the sources of data that Fetcherr uses in its calculations.

FILE: The cabin of a Southwest Airlines flight during boarding procedures in Oakland in January 2020. Smith Collection/Gado/Gado via Getty Images

Now that Southwest Airlines’ new fee policy for checked bags is in place, the airline is moving toward the next big piece of its operational overhaul: assigned seating. Southwest said this week that starting July 29, customers who are traveling on or after Jan. 27 of next year will be able to select a seat at the time of booking. “Southwest Customers will be able to choose from various fare bundles, some that offer the opportunity to select a seat during the booking process, as well as access to the different seat types—Extra Legroom, Preferred, and Standard,” Southwest said in a news release. “Customers will also be able to purchase a seat upgrade to elevate their travel experience,” it added, without saying how much upgrades would cost. The airline is in the process of reconfiguring its 737 fleet to add seats with extra legroom to the front of the cabin, but for now, the new seats already installed are still accessible via Southwest’s traditional open-seating process. Under the company’s new rules for assigned seating, A-List and A-List Preferred members of the airline’s Rapid Rewards loyalty program will be able to select a seat at the time of booking regardless of the fare they buy, including the most restrictive Basic fares. Holders of Rapid Rewards credit cards — depending on which version of the card they have — will be able to select a seat during booking or within 48 hours of departure, regardless of fare type.

With the changeover to assigned seating on Jan. 27, Southwest will also overhaul its boarding procedure. Although assigned seating means passengers will no longer have to compete to board early for a better seat, as they do under the current open-seating system, their position in the boarding queue could still affect their ability to find overhead bin space for their carry-ons. Under the new procedure, Group 1 and Group 2 will include purchasers of higher-priced Choice Extra fares, those who buy an upgrade to an Extra Legroom seat, A-List Preferred members, and A-List members who upgrade to Extra Legroom. Groups 3-5 will include those who buy Choice Preferred fares and A-List members who select a Preferred or Standard seat at time of booking. Rapid Rewards cardholders will be in Group 5 “if they are not assigned an earlier boarding position based on seat type, fare type, or tier status,” Southwest said. Purchasers of standard Choice fares will board in Groups 6-8, and those who select Basic fares will be the last to board. Anyone who doesn’t like their boarding group can purchase Priority Boarding 24 hours before departure so they are “among the first to board,” Southwest said, although it didn’t specify the fee for that privilege. Meanwhile, Southwest has revised the schedule of annual fees and benefits for its six types of Rapid Rewards credit cards.

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For months, the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection have been working with Delta and American Airlines to develop a new fast-track procedure for inbound U.S. citizens who have domestic connections from their international flights. And this week, the first pilot test of the new procedure got started for American Airlines customers flying from London into Dallas-Fort Worth. Called “One Stop Security,” the process would eliminate the steps currently required for arriving passengers with connections, i.e., clearing customs at the federal inspection checkpoint, claiming their checked bags and rechecking them for the next flight, and then clearing airport security. Instead, connecting flyers will clear customs at the arrival gate, their checked bags will be automatically transferred to their next flight, and they won’t have to go through a domestic security check. A similar procedure for Delta passengers arriving at Atlanta from London is expected to roll out soon.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy testifies before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on July 16, 2025, in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Trump administration is cracking down on nations that it alleges are “disregarding the terms of our air transport agreements,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement this week, and the first target is Mexico. In 2022, Mexico applied slot restrictions limiting the number of flights at its crowded Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) serving the capital city, but Duffy now says that by imposing those restrictions, Mexico “has broken its promise, disrupted the market, and left American businesses holding the bag for millions in increased costs.” Following a common theme among members of the Trump administration, Duffy blamed former President Joe Biden and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who he said “deliberately allowed Mexico to break our bilateral aviation agreement.”

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Duffy said if Mexico fails to resolve DOT’s concerns, the agency “reserves the right to disapprove flight requests from Mexico.” He also threatened to revisit the antitrust immunity granted to the Aeromexico-Delta joint venture partnership and said the two carriers might have to discontinue some activities allowed by that immunity, including cooperation on pricing, joint management of transborder routes and revenue sharing, although they would still be able to code-share and offer frequent flyer program reciprocity. DOT said the administration is also keeping its eye on “multiple other countries that are disregarding the terms of our air transport agreements” and is determined to enforce those agreements “to ensure that aviation markets are fair and pro-competitive.” According to Reuters, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said this week that the two governments have started negotiations to discuss Duffy’s concerns. She said Mexico is prepared to make compromises if necessary, and she predicted the situation would be resolved in a matter of days.

The Transportation Security Administration is introducing a new initiative geared toward families traveling together. Dubbed “Families on the Fly,” the program will create separate security screening lanes just for families at select airports and dedicated TSA PreCheck lanes for active service members and their families. The agency said it will also soon offer discounted PreCheck membership fees for families. The effort currently includes family screening lanes at Orlando International in Florida and Charlotte Douglas International in North Carolina, with plans to expand the program to John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Danile K. Inouye International in Honolulu. In addition, “‘Families on the Fly’ will roll out at select airports including Charleston International Airport (CHS), Jacksonville International (JAX), Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (PVD), Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU), and Tampa International Airport (TPA) with additional airports slated for addition in the coming months,” TSA said. The agency has also introduced expedited screening for military members by inviting them to use TSA PreCheck lanes at select airports near large military bases. TSA noted that military personnel and civilian employees of the Defense Department can get free TSA PreCheck by using their DOD ID number as their Known Traveler Number when booking flights.

A passenger reclines in a JetBlue Mint seat on an Airbus 321 at Logan Airport in Boston in March 2016. MediaNews Group via Getty Images

In international route news, Virgin Atlantic Airways is trimming its schedule between San Francisco and London Heathrow this fall and winter. During November, Virgin is slated to cut its SFO-London schedule from twice-daily departures to one a day, and from December through February, it plans to operate seven flights a week instead of the previously scheduled 10. Virgin will also reduce its Washington Dulles-LHR schedule from daily service to five flights a week in January and six a week in February and March, according to Simple Flying. Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines has set Jan. 15 as the launch date for its new route from Phoenix to Taipei. Starlux is slated to fly the route three days a week with an Airbus A350-900. Bahrain-based Gulf Air, which stopped flying to the U.S. in the 1990s, will revive service here starting Oct. 10, according to Aeroroutes. Gulf Air plans to fly nonstop between Bahrain and New York JFK three days a week with a 787-9. Delta plans to expand its code-sharing partnership with Virgin Atlantic to the latter’s South Africa routes. Starting Aug. 7, Delta’s code will go onto Virgin’s London Heathrow-Johannesburg flights, followed on Oct. 13 by its LHR-Cape Town service. United Airlines has told the Transportation Department that it plans to suspend its only service to Cuba — a daily flight from Houston Bush Intercontinental to Havana — effective Sept. 2, according to Simple Flying.

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