Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy recently lamented the rise of casual dress among airline passengers, calling for travelers to "go back to an era where we didn’t wear our pajamas to the airport.” However, recent YouGov polling finds this is not among Americans' major concerns when it comes to air travel: Passengers dressing too casually ranks last out of 26 issues for the share of Americans that considers each to be a major problem.
The most pressing concerns about air travel in the U.S. — among the 26 asked about — are high ticket prices (63% say this is a major problem), air-traffic-control staffing shortages (55%), extra or hidden airline fees (52%), cramped or uncomfortable seats (50%), and flight delays and cancellations (50%). Many also believe long security lines (42%), difficulty getting refunds (41%), and overbooked flights (40%) are major problems.
Only 8% of Americans say passengers dressing too casually is a major problem. Slightly more say that restrictive passenger dress codes are a major problem than say casual dress is (12% vs. 8%). Other air travel problems cited by Duffy — rude or disruptive passengers and disruptive children — are identified as major problems by 36% and 21% of Americans, respectively.
Of the 26 problems asked about in our survey, the ones most likely to be encountered by Americans who have flown in the past year are high ticket prices (49%), cramped or uncomfortable seats (42%), flight delays and cancellations (36%), and long security lines (35%). Only 11% of flyers in the past year cite passengers dressing too casually as a problem they've encountered when flying in that time.
Americans are divided on how Duffy is handling his job as secretary of transportation: 29% strongly or somewhat approve and 28% disapprove. Many — 42% — are not sure. People who have flown on a plane in the past year are somewhat more likely to approve than disapprove of Duffy's job performance (39% vs. 31%) even though they're no more likely to be Republicans than people who haven't flown in that time. (Overall, Republicans are about three times as likely as Democrats to approve of Duffy's job handling.)
Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of how Donald Trump is handling air travel (42% vs. 30%). Disapproval of Trump's handling of air travel is also higher than approval among people who have flown in the past year, though by a smaller margin (43% vs. 37%).
More Americans think that air travel has gotten worse than better since the start of Trump's second term (42% vs. 16%); 22% think it has not changed.
Related:
- In-flight drama: Where Americans sit on airline etiquette
- How do Americans feel about ticket-price transparency for airline flights?
- How do Americans feel about walking, driving, and other ways they get around?
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This YouGov poll was conducted online on November 25 - 29, 2025 among 1,108 U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4 percentage points.
Image: Getty
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