AIRLINES: Well, it isn’t exactly an airline people move, but the American Economic Liberties Project announced that William (Bill) McGee, a veteran consumer advocate and aviation expert with decades of experience standing up against airline industry consolidation and in support of passengers, has joined Economic Liberties as Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel. McGee also has appeared in a number of video interviews on Insider Travel Report over the years talk about airline issues.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the American Economic Liberties Project at a time when the rights of air travelers have never been more threatened and as the airline industry epitomizes all the harmful effects of corporate concentration,” said McGee. “There have never been fewer airlines or more customer complaints in the history of our nation’s airline industry, and numerous challenges await us—from pending mergers to unpaid airline refunds, and from an outbreak of flight cancelations to weakening oversight of safety. Economic Liberties has already shown its willingness to fight for fairness and justice for all Americans and to fight against concentrated market power, which is so blatantly destroying commercial aviation nationwide, and much more unequally in underserved regions. I can’t wait to engage with the gloves off.”

Economic Liberties launched in February 2020 with one critical goal: to arm policymakers to confront concentrated economic power and to hold them accountable when they do not. With a growing network of allies, Economic Liberties is advancing policies at the state, local, and federal levels to reinvigorate competition and combat monopolies and the systems that entrench their power.

McGee spent 22 years at Consumer Reports, first as the editor of Consumer Reports Travel Letter and since 2009 as the aviation adviser for advocacy, testifying before Congress numerous times on airline mergers, competition, safety, and passenger rights, as well as serving as the lone consumer advocate on Transportation Secretary Raymond LaHood’s Future of Aviation Advisory Committee. In addition to a monthly travel column in USA Today that addressed a broader set of issues in the travel industry, McGee has contributed to Condé Nast Traveler, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Money, New York, Parents, Good Housekeeping, and many other magazines, newspapers, websites, and blogs.

While McGee’s recent focus has been on the airline industry, he is also well versed in other issues in the travel ecosystem, including hotels/resorts, cruise lines, car rentals, travel agencies, theme parks, travel insurance, and travel scams. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and is the author of two books, the airline industry exposé “Attention All Passengers” and “Half the Child.”

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