Sean Duffy Wants Travelers to Leave Their PJs at Home

Sean Duffy’s ‘Golden Age of Travel’ Push: Less Pajamas, More Politeness in the Skies

A New Civility Campaign Takes Off

The secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, has launched a new etiquette-focused initiative aimed at America’s travelers, urging them to rethink not just what they pack, but how they act — and even what they wear — when they fly.

The campaign, titled “The Golden Age of Travel Starts With You,” debuted Wednesday with a retro-style public service video. It blends glamorous footage of early commercial aviation — passengers in suits, dresses and pillbox hats — with today’s all-too-familiar scenes of midair fistfights and airport meltdowns, all set to Frank Sinatra’s “Come Fly With Me.”

As the holiday rush ramps up, the message from the Transportation Department is clear: grab your passport and suitcase, but leave the chaos, rudeness and loungewear at home.

From Pillbox Hats to Pajama Pants

Alongside the video, the department issued a news release that criticized more than just physical altercations on planes. It scolded passengers for neglecting basic courtesy, such as saying “please” and “thank you,” and for refusing to assist older travelers or pregnant people with lifting bags into overhead bins.

In the video, Duffy presses travelers to examine both their manners and their wardrobe. He asks whether people are dressing “with respect,” keeping their kids under control, and behaving in ways that make sharing cramped cabins more tolerable for everyone.

In an appearance on Fox Business, Duffy argued that reviving a sense of decorum would improve the flying experience across the board. He suggested travelers take a cue from the past and said it might be time to move away from wearing pajamas to the airport and on flights.

Rollback on Passenger Protections

The civility campaign comes just days after Duffy’s decision to shelve a proposal that would have forced airlines to compensate passengers for major disruptions within the airlines’ control, such as widespread delays or cancellations.

Abandoning that proposed rule is the latest in a series of moves by the Transportation Department that scale back consumer protections and reduce regulatory pressure on airlines to improve customer service.

The department’s release cited Federal Aviation Administration data showing that serious in-flight incidents have risen sharply — by roughly 400 percent since 2019. Many of those cases erupted during and after the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, as people returned to travel after long lockdowns and encountered airlines trying to claw back profits with tighter schedules and fewer buffers.

Viral Air Rage and Online Spectacle

The modern flying experience is increasingly shaped by social media, where passenger misbehavior often becomes instant content.

Clips of travelers bare-footed with their socks off, reclining into others’ space, or fighting in the aisles routinely rack up millions of views. Duffy’s new video leans into this phenomenon, featuring some of those viral moments — including one shot of a passenger using their toes on an in-flight entertainment screen.

The department frames the civility push as a response to both the rise in unruly behavior and a broader erosion of manners in public spaces.

Strain on the System

Beyond etiquette, air travel has been under pressure from more structural problems. Highly publicized crashes and near misses have highlighted a shortage of air traffic controllers and growing concern about fatigue and workload inside control towers.

During the recent government shutdown, Duffy ordered widespread flight cancellations to relieve some of the burden on unpaid controllers, many of whom had taken second jobs to make ends meet.

Those deeper system issues get only a brief mention in the Transportation Department’s announcement, which promises an “all-new air traffic control system” and expanded hiring efforts. The core message of the campaign, however, focuses squarely on traveler behavior.

‘Civility’ as the New Travel Buzzword

In the video and accompanying statements, Duffy repeatedly returns to one theme: civility. He frames the project as an effort to restore old-fashioned manners, suggesting that a more respectful culture in airports and on planes would make flying feel less stressful and more enjoyable.

The campaign’s closing message is that a new “golden age” of travel won’t come from new planes or fancy lounges alone — it will start with how individual passengers show up, speak to one another and, yes, what they wear when they head to the gate.