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Transportation Secretary Duffy Celebrates Alaska Airlines and Boeing's Historic Deal

January 8, 2026 · US Department of Transportation · 0:01:04

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy celebrated Alaska Airlines’ deal with Boeing in a Department of Transportation video, saying American manufacturing is back.

Duffy said that whether in aviation or automotive, the goal is to make the best products in the world in America and sell them around the world, showing the work American men and women do, as he put it. He said the announcement — over 100 airplanes, as he stated the order — shows the confidence Alaska has in Boeing, America has in Boeing, and the Department of Transportation has in Alaska, as he stated it.

Duffy said the administration has announced a brand-new air traffic control system moving from 1970s, 1980s and 1990s equipment into the modern era, which he said will let the airspace operate more efficiently and make air travelers happier, as he described it. He said the sector’s success requires the department and the FAA to deliver that system, and closed that it is time to reclaim America’s heritage as a nation of builders, as he put it.

Why it matters

The celebration uses a single airline order to make the administration’s manufacturing case, while tying aviation’s future to the air traffic control modernization Duffy’s department must deliver.

Sources: US Department of Transportation, “Transportation Secretary Duffy Celebrates Alaska Airlines & Boeing’s Historic Deal”, 2026-01-08 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-01-08). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.