WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) led colleagues in demanding answers from Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian after the company announced its plans to ramp up use of AI to set individualized, surveillance-based fares.
“Delta’s current and planned individualized pricing practices not only present data privacy concerns but will also likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer’s personal ‘pain point’ at a time when American families are already struggling with rising costs,” the Senators wrote.
“Consumers have no way of knowing what data and personal information your company and Fetcherr plan to collect or how the AI algorithm will be trained,” they continued. “Prices could be dictated not by supply and demand, but by individual need. While Delta has stated that the airline will ‘maintain strict safeguards to ensure compliance with federal law,’ your company has not shared what those safeguards are or how you plan to protect American families against pricing discrimination in the evolving AI landscape.”
To better protect Delta customers’ privacy and fair pricing practices, the Senators requested answers to a series of questions around what types and sources of data Delta will use to train this AI system, how many passengers and which routes will be impacted, and what steps the company has taken to ensure compliance will follow all applicable federal and state laws.
Read the full text of the letter HERE.
The letter was cosigned by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Mark Warner (D-VA).
7/21/25