Trump launches into bizarre rant about ‘dirty, crowded’ US airports

Former president says US air hubs ‘don’t know what the hell they’re doing’

Donald Trump has launched into a rant about the US’s airports, calling them a “dirty, crowded mess”.

Speaking at a “Save America” rally in Warren, Michigan on Saturday, Mr Trump lashed out at the country’s aviation hubs.

He complained that air ticket prices are “through the roof” and declared that US airports “don’t know what the hell they’re doing”.

“We are a nation whose once-revered airports are a dirty, crowded mess where you sit and wait for hours and then are notified that the plane won’t leave,” he ranted.

“And they have no idea when they will as a nation, when they will be delivered and when you will be delivered to your destination.

“It’s a nation where ticket prices are through the roof. They don’t have the pilots to fly the plane.

“They don’t want or seek qualified air traffic controllers. And they don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”

Prior to his comments about airports, the former US president had been decrying what he claimed were brutal murders across the country, saying burglars were killing shopkeepers “if necessary, and even if not necessary”.

The campaign-style rally was held at a community college gymnasium in Warren, Michigan, where Mr Trump spoke for 102 minutes, repeating unproven allegations that the 2020 election was “stolen”.

The US is facing a pilot shortage following the travel shutdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the pandemic, many airlines responded to the pause in travel by offering employees attractive early retirement or buyout packages, with more pilots than expected taking up the offer.

About 17,000 Delta employees - 20 per cent of the airline’s workforce - accepted buyout packages or early retirement arrangements, the company reported in August 2020.

On top of this, many retirement-age pilots left the industry at a time when the pilot-training pipeline remained restricted.

In mid-September, US consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimated that the industry is facing a deficit of about 8,000 pilots, or 11 per cent of the total workforce, with analysts predicting that the shortfall could reach 30,000 pilots by 2025.

As in Europe, the US’s airports had struggled to cope with the resurgence in travel demand in spring 2022, as many countries eased their travel restrictions and consumer confidence in travel returned.

Recent data from flight-tracking website Flightaware showed that Chicago Midway International Airport had suffered the most airport delays in summer 2022, with 37.7 per cent of total departures delayed.

It was followed by Baltimore/Washington International, which saw 32.5 per cent of flights delayed; and Orlando International Airport, which saw 32.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport saw the most flights cancelled this summer: 6.7 per cent of its total schedule.