Lawmaker to ask for FAA intervention over alleged price gouging

Rep. José Aponte Hernández

By The Star Staff

Rep. José Aponte Hernández lashed out at executives of American Airlines, Delta and Southwest, among others, on Tuesday for “indiscriminately” increasing ticket prices from Orlando International Airport, as well as others in the state of Florida, to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan.

Aponte also called for intervention by the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Michael G. Whitaker, to stop the exaggerated increase in prices.

“It is an act of insensitivity and an attack on the Puerto Rican consumer that airlines such as American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest, to name a few, have raised the price of a ticket from Orlando to San Juan by up to $3,800,” the former speaker of the island House of Representatives said. “What they are doing is taking advantage of the situation with the passage of the powerful Hurricane Milton. They are making money off the suffering and desperation of thousands of people who want to leave the area in the face of the imminent impact of this [storm].”

“This is a disgrace. What these airlines are doing is an abuse against our people, American citizens as well,” the veteran New Progressive Party lawmaker added. “We all know the large number of Puerto Ricans who live in the Orlando and Kissimmee regions. Raising the price of their tickets by over 2,000 percent is an abuse. We will be writing to the Administrator of the FAA so that he takes notice and acts proactively to prevent these unscrupulous actions by these airlines.”