U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg attends a Cabinet meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in the Cabinet Room at the White House on September 20, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Samuel Corum | AFP | Getty Images
Amid growing concerns about price gouging, the Department of Transportation said Tuesday it is communicating with airlines about the affordability of flights in areas affected by Hurricane Helen and preparing for Hurricane Milton. Announced.
“DOT officials are in contact with airlines to obtain more information about flight capacity and affordability in the affected areas.” dot A spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.
During disasters such as hurricanes, there is typically a surge in demand from consumers scrambling for items like last-minute airline tickets and survival supplies, leading to louder alarms about price gouging.
Price gouging is when a retailer artificially increases prices by a large amount when the retailer’s costs have not increased. In times of crisis, urgent demand significantly exceeds supply, making consumers particularly vulnerable to price gouging.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a Monday post on social media platform “I am doing so,” he said.
He added: “The ministry takes seriously all allegations of airline price gouging.”
Florida is preparing for Hurricane Milton to make landfall on the West Coast on Wednesday, deepening the scars left by Hurricane Helen, which struck the southeastern United States about a week ago.
In areas expected to be worst affected by Milton, local authorities urged and, in some cases, ordered residents to evacuate.
Flights to and from tampa international airport It has been suspended since Tuesday morning. nearby orlando international airport Operations are scheduled to cease at 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
American Airlines and United Airlines added flights to help evacuate people from the area. American Airlines also said it has protective fare caps on flights to certain Florida airports.
Nevertheless, demand for airline tickets and other goods has soared, driving up some prices, further raising concerns that companies will take advantage of consumers in a moment of crisis.
The Florida Attorney General’s Office on Saturday extended the state’s Price Gouging Hotline and provided consumers with an avenue to file complaints as the state ramps up efforts to combat Milton.
The attorney general’s office has received more than 450 communications from consumers alleging Helen-related price gouging, “primarily related to fuel,” a spokesperson told CNBC. The office received more than 200 calls related to Milton, most of them related to fuel and water.
Price gouging panic is normal during natural disasters, but with less than a month left until the very near presidential election, the term “price gouging” itself has political overtones.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, acknowledged that most companies do not artificially inflate prices, but as part of her campaign’s economic platform, the federal government bans price gouging in the grocery sector. I am proposing to do so.
“This storm and this hurricane,” Harris said in an interview on “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday. “During an emergency and people are desperate, some bad actors try to jack up prices. We need to go after them.”
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
