William J. McGee

William J. McGee is the Senior Fellow for Aviation & Travel at American Economic Liberties Project, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit think tank. He is also an award-winning investigative journalist and columnist who has written extensively about aviation and travel.

He previously spent 22 years at Consumer Reports, first as Editor of Consumer Reports Travel Letter and then as a consumer advocate for airline passengers.

He was the lone consumer representative on DOT Secretary Ray LaHood's Future of Aviation Advisory Committee and has testified seven times in the Senate and House on airline consolidation, competition, passenger rights, and safety issues.

McGee is the author of Attention All Passengers, a nonfiction exposé of the airline industry published by HarperCollins, as well as the novel Half the Child. He has taught undergraduate and graduate Creative Writing at Hofstra University, Long Island University, and National University Ireland/Galway. He received an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia University and currently lives on Long Island, where he is a member of a boxing club. He has one son.

McGee wrote a monthly travel column for USA Today for 16 years and has contributed to The New York Times, Washington Post, Condé Nast Traveler, Time, Newsweek, CNN.com, Yahoo.com, New York, Good Housekeeping, Parents, Money, New York Daily News, Newsday, Investopedia.com, Zagat, etc. He has spoken about airlines and travel via more than 1,000 media interviews with virtually all major newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, and online media outlets in the US, as well as many more abroad.

Prior to his journalism and advocacy careers, McGee spent seven years in airline flight operations management. He was based in New York (both LaGuardia and JFK Airports), Miami, and Chicopee, Mass., but also worked in dozens of airports worldwide, including extended assignments in the UK, France, Finland, and Thailand. He is an FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher and served ten years as a Flight Release Officer and Communications Officer in the US Air Force Auxiliary. He currently lectures and teaches at Vaughn College of Aeronautics.

He currently lives on Long Island, where he is a member of a boxing club. He has been writing for Frommers.com since 2023.