Nearly two years after sharply criticizing the federal transportation department for failing to respond to thousands of consumer complaints against airlines, the Biden administration inked an agreement with several states, including Colorado, to allow local officials to investigate alleged violations of consumer rules.

The agreement does not give states enforcement authority — powers that dozens of attorneys general specifically asked Congress for in 2022, when they expressed frustration that the U.S. Department of Transportation was “unable or unwilling to vindicate the rights of consumers and to hold airline companies accountable for irresponsible actions.”

Instead, the partnership signed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg gives the state official the ability to investigate complaints against carriers and ticketing agencies, with the explicit aim of assisting consumers in resolving issues.   

Under the agreement, Weiser’s office could make a “preliminary” determination whether the case points to a potential violation of federal aviation consumer protection requirements. If so, the attorney general could refer the matter to the federal transportation agency, which promises to prioritize reviewing those cases. 

Weiser is one of 18 state attorney generals that signed agreement. 

“We now have a system in place that will help us more effectively protect consumers,” Weiser told reporters, noting how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, his office and the federal transportation agency were “besieged with complaints.” 

In particular, Weiser said complaints against Frontier Airlines “rose to the top of the charts,” and his office sought answers. 

“Without this protocol in place we didn’t know what the status was, and it did take years to get a resolution,” Weiser said.

Buttigieg, who came to Denver to announce the new partnership, described how the country saw an “explosion in complaints” during the pandemic and as America emerged out of it.

“And that’s why it’s so important for us to have allies and resources to augment that small but mighty federal team that handles all of that,” he said.

The announcement by Buttigieg and Weiser of the “Airline Passenger Protection Partnership” stood in stark contrast to the frustration Weiser and other attorneys general expressed and directed toward the federal agency in 2022.

Back then, Weiser and then Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told congressional leaders that federal law places the central responsibility for addressing alleged violations by airlines of consumer protection rules with the transportation department, and how the states have little to no authority to hold airlines accountable. 

And while the states relayed those consumer complaints to the federal agency, the latter “failed to respond and to provide appropriate recourse in those cases.”

“It is time to authorize state attorneys general, and perhaps a different federal agency, to enforce consumer protections for airline travelers,” they wrote.

Tuesday’s agreement explicitly allows the states’ attorneys general to contact and request airlines and ticketing agents to respond to complaints. And if airlines or ticketing agencies fail to respond, the states may refer the matter to the federal transportation department “for action.” 

Also, in the case that a state attorney general submits a referral identifying more than five similar consumer complaints against an airline, the federal agency will send a letter of inquiry to that entity and loop the state office in the communications.

The federal agency will also consult with the attorney general over next steps in case the former determines that an airline or ticketing agency has violated a consumer protection statute or regulation.

The agreement clarified that the federal agency retains the discretion to determine which investigations or enforcement actions to pursue.

Weiser said he still believes that Congress should give states power to enforce airline consumer protection laws, but that “we didn’t wait for Congress to act.”

Consumer advocacy groups, which have been pushing to expand that enforcement power to the states, praised the agreement.

“This is the next best thing,” said William McGee, an aviation expert at the American Economic Liberties Project, which opposes industry consolidation. “We don’t look at this as a threat to DOT’s authority. We look at it as the states assisting DOT, which doesn’t have the staffing to handle all the complaints they get.”

The agreement will last two years. Colorado and the DOT may agree to extend it at two-year intervals after the agreement ends.

California, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, plus the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands all signed the agreement.

A December 2023 report on federal data from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that consumer complaints against U.S. airlines were on track to break records in 2023. 

Despite 2022 being a record-breaking year for consumer complaints against airlines — with 47,591 complaints — the first five months of 2023 saw a 109% increase from the same period in 2022, according to the report.

Travelers filed 38,135 complaints against American and foreign airlines during that period, the report said, adding that nearly 35% of those complaints involved flight issues, such as cancellations and delays. Around 20% involved refunds — or lack thereof. 

The full year of consumer complaint data has yet to be released by the federal agency due to a “high volume of complaints against airlines and ticket agents received by the OACP,” the agency said, referring to its Office of Aviation Consumer Protection.

During his trip to Colorado, Buttigieg also met with Gov. Jared Polis to see the I-70 Floyd Hill Project.

The project — stretching 8 miles from from west of Evergreen to eastern Idaho Springs — includes rebuilding the portion of Interstate 70 to reduce bottlenecking traffic and improve infrastructure.

Construction, which began in October 2022, was made possible by state and federal investments, including a $100 million grant from the Biden administration, according to a news release from Polis’ office.

“Traveling into the mountains, whether to hike, kayak, ski, visit family or explore our great communities, is an important part of the Colorado way of life,” Polis said in the news release. “These improvements will help create easier access to our beautiful high country and I thank Secretary Buttigieg and the Biden Administration for their continued partnership on this important effort.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.