DHS says it’s ‘drawing up plans’ to ban international arrivals at SFO

In the latest air travel news, the Trump administration’s new Department of Homeland Security chief says his department is working on plans to halt processing of inbound international travelers at major airports in sanctuary cities run by “radical-left Democrats”; SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network wins another major U.S. carrier as a customer for its in-flight Wi-Fi; United Airlines’ CEO says his company won’t be pursuing any mergers in the foreseeable future; another major carrier plans to start flying out of Sonoma County; Southwest Airlines plans to boost its California operations next week; low-cost Breeze Airways starts three transcontinental routes from Los Angeles International Airport and United plans to add one this fall; Colombia’s Avianca launches a new Central America route from San Francisco International Airport; a study finds U.S. airlines last year turned in their worst on-time performance in over a decade; and a pilot program in Massachusetts will let flyers clear TSA screening at a suburban location and proceed to Boston’s airport by bus.

How would your travel plans be affected if the DHS shut down its Customs and Border Protection checkpoints at SFO, effectively blocking all international arrivals, both U.S. and foreign? It’s pretty unthinkable, right? That’s why we didn’t cover a comment back in early in April by newly installed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin when he suggested his agency might use that tactic against so-called sanctuary cities to pressure them to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in rounding up undocumented people. The idea was so outlandish that nobody really thought he was serious.

But Mullin is now doubling down on the threat. After demonstrators protested outside an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey, Mullin appeared on Fox News this week and said his agency is beginning to take steps to adopt the policy. “We’re currently drawing up plans to say, listen, these sanctuary cities where the local radical-left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our jobs and enforce federal laws, then we shouldn’t be processing international flights into their cities either,” Mullin said, according to a report in the Hill.

As Reuters noted, “The move could effectively halt international air travel and commerce at major airports in Democratic states, with millions of foreign tourists expected to stream in for next month’s start of the FIFA World Cup.” In other words, it would create sheer chaos for airlines, airports and international travel in general, and if Mullin proceeds with the plan it would almost certainly face immediate legal challenges. 

An analysis by Simple Flying examined a dozen major airports that could be affected if Mullin’s plan becomes reality, including SFO and LAX. The list includes four of the 10 busiest airports in the country (O’Hare, Denver, LAX and John F. Kennedy), and it includes five United hubs (SFO, LAX, O’Hare, Denver and Newark Liberty). “Because of the global connectivity served by these airports, the removal of customs agents at these gateways can also cause significant disruption [to] the US domestic market,” Simple Flying noted on its site Wednesday.

Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy seemed dumbfounded by Mullin’s proposal. According to a report by PBS News, Duffy told a congressional hearing, “We have people from around the world and around the country that need to be able to fly into all different kinds of places. We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics.”

SpaceX’s Starlink low-earth-orbit satellite network has won another major U.S. airline customer for its in-flight Wi-Fi service. American Airlines said this week it will transition its Wi-Fi to Starlink, but only on its 500 narrow-body Airbus aircraft, including new A321XLRs and A321neos, which account for about half of its mainline fleet. An airline spokesperson told CNBC the airline currently has no plans to switch providers on its Boeing aircraft, which are equipped with Viasat and Panasonic Wi-Fi. The installation of Starlink technology on AA’s Airbus jets will begin in the first quarter of next year, American said, praising Starlink as “the fastest Wi-Fi in the sky.” According to American, “Starlink’s high speed and low latency make the Wi-Fi more reliable, which matters when customers are trying to load pages, join real-time collaboration tools or stay connected consistently throughout a flight. We are excited to bring an at-home level of Wi-Fi experience to our narrowbody fleet, enabling our customers to work, game, stream and scroll endlessly.” Earlier this year, American started offering free in-flight Wi-Fi to members of its AAdvantage loyalty program.
  
Other major U.S. airlines that have committed to installing Starlink Wi-Fi include United, Southwest and Alaska Airlines/Hawaiian Airlines. More than a dozen leading foreign international carriers have also climbed onto the Starlink bandwagon. But both Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways have decided to commit to the rival Amazon Leo service, previously project Kuiper. Like Starlink, it plans to use a network of thousands of low-earth-orbit satellites to provide superior in-flight connectivity worldwide. But while Starlink is fully operational, Amazon Leo isn’t expected to begin offering commercial service until later this year as it continues to put more satellites into orbit. Delta has said it doesn’t expect to begin offering Amazon Wi-Fi to customers until 2028, and initially only on 500 aircraft. JetBlue said it hopes to start providing Amazon’s Wi-Fi on some aircraft sometime in 2027. In a study released in April, Wi-Fi research company Ookla said the availability of low-earth-orbit Wi-Fi is revolutionizing the in-flight experience. “We have reached a point where the quality of in-flight connectivity (IFC) can be a decisive factor for passengers choosing flights and airlines based on their digital experience,” Ookla said. “For airlines, providing high-quality Wi-Fi is no longer just a perk — now it is a critical driver of passenger loyalty.”

There was speculation in recent months about a possible United acquisition of JetBlue, and United itself had floated the idea of merging with American, but this week United CEO Scott Kirby flatly ruled out any possible merger activity for his company. According to a Reuters report, Kirby told an investor conference in Chicago, “I don’t think that United at least is going to participate in any ⁠consolidation for any time I can see in the foreseeable future.” He said the only merger possibility that made any sense to him was with American, but American’s management declared that would not happen. Talk of a United-JetBlue combination was spurred by the latter’s financial struggles and the recent adoption of a loyalty program partnership between the two carriers. But Kirby said this week that a JetBlue deal was not in the cards, saying the carrier would have to increase its profit margin by 25 percentage points to make it feasible — an improvement he called “mathematically close to impossible.”

In domestic route news, the Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa is getting service from another major airline. Last month, Southwest started flying out of Santa Rosa to four destinations (Burbank, Denver, Las Vegas and San Diego), and now Delta plans to start offering two daily Delta Connection flights from Santa Rosa to its Salt Lake City hub on Oct. 8, using SkyWest E175 regional jets, according to Simple Flying. Earlier this month, Alaska Airlines — the largest operator at Santa Rosa — announced plans to start flying the Santa Rosa-SLC route on Nov. 1, but the new Delta service should have a big competitive advantage because it gives customers the opportunity to connect to dozens of other Delta destinations at Salt Lake City.

Southwest is due to increase California service on June 4, boosting its San Francisco-San Diego schedule to as many as eight round trips on peak days and adding a new transcontinental route from San Diego to Boston. In southern California, Southwest is due to add another Hawaii route on June 4 when it launches daily service from Ontario to Honolulu, a route already served by Alaska. Low-cost Breeze will introduce three transcontinental routes from LAX next week, according to AeroRoutes, with three flights a week to Pittsburgh and two each to Norfolk and Providence, Rhode Island, all using Airbus A220-300 aircraft. United will begin LAX-Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood service on Oct. 25, AeroRoutes said, starting with five flights a week but increasing to two a day over the year-end holiday period. The route is also served by Delta and JetBlue.

On the international side, the Colombian carrier Avianca is due to launch seasonal service on June 1 from SFO to Guatemala City, operating four days a week through Aug. 31. According to the Points Guy, the new Guatemala flights will continue on to El Salvador International Airport, although Avianca will continue to offer nonstop SFO-El Salvador service as well.  

A new study from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, part of the Public Interest Network, found that U.S. airlines last year turned in “the worst on-time performance since 2014,” with increases in both flight delays and cancellations. Citing federal data, the group said that during 2025, 1.66 million flights did not arrive on time due to delays, cancellations and diversions. That’s almost one-fourth of all U.S. flights. “While late departures can be annoying, late arrivals are what really matter when it comes to making connections or being on time for other plans,” the group said in the report. “An arrival that’s 60 minutes or more late can cross that threshold. Last year, roughly one in 12 flights on the 10 largest airlines arrived an hour or more late.” The average was 8.1%, but some airlines performed better than others. The carrier with the highest rate of flights arriving an hour or more behind schedule was Frontier Airlines at 11.5%, followed by JetBlue (10.7%), Allegiant (9.7%), American (9.4%), United (8.6%) and defunct Spirit Airlines (8.5%). Airlines with the lowest proportion of flights arriving an hour or more late were Hawaiian (3.4%), Alaska (5.4%), Southwest (6.4%) and Delta (7.4%).  

The U.S. PIRG report also found there was “a huge increase in long tarmac delays” in 2025. The Transportation Department tracks how many flights sit on the tarmac for at least three hours (or four hours for international flights) before taking off or after landing, and the study found that number was up by 63% last year over 2024 levels. “The annual total is the largest by far since the Federal Aviation Administration approved the Tarmac Delay Rule in 2010,” the group said. That rule requires U.S. carriers to report lengthy tarmac delays and develop contingency plans to provide passengers with food and water in the event of such delays.  

In airport news, some passengers flying Delta or JetBlue out of Boston Logan International can skip the airport security line by visiting the country’s first remote TSA checkpoint, located in suburban Framingham, Massachusetts, about 22 miles (or roughly 50 minutes without traffic) from the airport. The remote terminal buses will charge travelers $9 each and start accepting reservations on June 1, and they’ll take passengers past the security checkpoint at BOS, Massport (the Massachusetts Port Authority) said. For now, the option is only available for passengers on a Delta or JetBlue flight occurring between 5:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. “This is all about making the travel experience more seamless and convenient by bringing air and ground transportation together and expanding the footprints of the biggest airports in the U.S.,” David Sunde, co-founder and CEO of the Landline Co., operator of the buses, told the Washington Post. A representative for SFO said it is not currently looking at a remote TSA checkpoint but will watch the Logan Airport program closely as it rolls out.