Transportation Secretary begs European airports: Don’t cut US flights | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, lower numbers of travelers coming into the U.S. have pushed airlines from all over the world to cut their capacities.

Norwegian budget carrier Norse Atlantic Airways redirected a number of its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners (BA) to flights connecting several Scandinavian capitals with Thailand.

It also cut flights from Oslo and Berlin to Miami and London Gatwick Airport to Las Vegas. In addition, the airline’s final flight to JFK and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) is slated to run on Oct. 17.

Icelandic low-cost airline Play Airlines, which launched in 2019 and quickly built a market running flights from the East Coast of the U.S. to European capitals, is suspending all flights between the U.S. and Europe by October 2025 amid low demand.

Play CEO Einar Örn Ólafsson classified the change as “not changing who we are […but] simply focusing on what works.”

“We’re seeing more airports get in the game of trying to restrict air traffic”: Sean Duffy

Attending the annual International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meeting in Montreal on Sept. 24, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called on European governments to not impose restrictions on flights to the U.S. and airlines not to cancel them.

“We’re seeing more airports get in the game of trying to restrict air traffic, which is contrary to the agreements that we have with them,” Duffy told Reuters reporters while singling out airports in Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Dublin.

The biggest limits on gate slots come down to noise restrictions at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and passenger caps in Lisbon and Dublin.

Flights that do not bring in as much traffic, which over the last nine months have increasingly been flights to smaller European cities from other European cities, are among those that get passed down for gate slots.

“It’s important for commerce, for trade, for the movement of people in business, that we keep these flights open,” Duffy said further.

Back in July, Duffy made similar accusations of “anti-competitive behavior” against the Mexican government after it reduced the number of gate slots at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City and sought to move many passenger and cargo flights to the smaller Felipe Angeles International Airport 30 miles outside the city.

In the ensuing months, Duffy has ordered the dissolution of the longstanding flight partnership between Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Aeromexico, while repeatedly threatening further restrictions on Mexican flights coming into the U.S.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has served since January 2025.

Image source&colon; Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Secretary Duffy opposes limits on U.S. airlines’ gate slots

In his brief interaction with the Reuters reporters, Duffy brought up the developments with Mexico to say that the White House was monitoring the situation in Europe as well.

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“I think Mexico is a sign that we’re not going to take that,” Duffy said of the European airports. “We’re not at a place where we need to apply pressure.”

While Duffy did not threaten or allude to specific restrictions at the meeting, the statement was meant to show the White House stance against limits on U.S. airlines and how traffic in busy air corridors is being handled by local European regulators.