I have been writing about tarmac delays for a decade now, from the debacle with Northwest Airlines back in 1999 to last week’s Continental Airlines absurdity of keeping a planeload of passengers overnight within feet of a terminal. The airlines have had their chance to fix the problem. Now we need firm legislation.
It’s time to hold airlines accountable. Apply major fines for tarmac delays of more than three or four hours. To make enforcement more stringent, look at perhaps putting airline CEOs in jail for one day for every hour over those four hours that they keep passengers on the tarmacs. Additional time should be served when it is found that the airplane lavatories are not functioning and that the plane does not have adequate food and water.
It has been a decade of delay for passenger rights. Now, it is time that Congress makes it clear that they will not put up with airlines acting stupidly. There must be clear rules, time limits and consequences. Congress needs to be on the side of the people, not the industry.
Way back in the year 2000, the airlines managed to convince Congress that they could police themselves. I’m not sure what the congressional reasoning was other than campaign contributions, but Senators like John McCain, once a stalwart advocate for passengers, turned into an airline pussycat after a closed-door meeting.
We’ve been here before. Congress caved to the power of money or misdirected logic insuring passengers another decade of delays and tarmac horror stories.
Back in then, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced legislation to get the industry’s attention. They held highly-publicized hearings in March aimed at improving airline passenger service. The McCain-Wyden bill would have require airlines to warn passengers if a flight is oversold and give them 48 hours after buying a ticket to ask for a refund.
Another bill introduced by Representative Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), a Passenger Bill of Rights, would go further, requiring airlines to compensate passengers for twice the value of their ticket if they are kept waiting on the runway for more than two hours, with compensation increasing proportionately for each extra hour.
All, eventually, to no avail. The airlines were left to their own devices. The congressional efforts and hearings were dismissed as simply political window dressing.
The airlines issued “Customer Service Commitments.” These commitments turned out to be worthless; paraded across newspaper pages and in TV news stories but never enforced by the airlines. Just in the last two years, more than 200,000 passengers have been stuck on the runways more than three hours since the airlines issued these commitments.
Today, a decade later, Congress stands at a crossroads of airline customer service. Senators and Representatives now have a clear record of airline incompetence when it comes to getting passengers off the runways when faced with long delays. As soon as an airline finished whining that regulation will make the problem worse, they strand another planeload of passengers, with no legal ramifications.
The issue has been studied by the DOT ad nauseum, with no action taken against any airline. The House version of the FAA Reauthorization Act allows airlines to set timelines, but even self-imposed timelines with DOT enforcement is unacceptable to airlines. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee marked up their version of the bill with a three-hour tarmac delay limit.
The airlines have had their chance — 10 years of chances. It is time to hold their feet to the fire and force them to do what they are incapable of doing on their own.
(Photo: caribb/Flickr Creative Commons)
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What happens if the delay creates a medical emergency
I’m a diabetic and my wife has to take a shot has to take an injection of LOXEN befor a flight. LOXEN is an anticoagulent; this is due to the fact that at one point several years ago she suffered from mutiple pulmenairy embolisms.
Obviously we have the appropriate medical documentation with us.
Sincerely
Why is the refusal of the Continental Express crew to allow passengers to leave the plane not a criminal matter?
If I invited 47 people to my house for a 3 hour dinner party, and then locked the door and refused to allow them to leave for an additional 9 hours, I would surely be arrested and charged with kidnapping and/or false imprisonment.
Why is this not the appropriate response to this matter, and also the most just, in terms of respecting the rights of the victims?
Hopefully there were no children on board….
Force all members of congress, including Ms. Nancy Pelosi, the first speaker to have her own private 747, to fly COACH in commericial jets.
See how fast those laws get passed.
How is it that no one simply demanded to be let off the plane, or at bare mimimum got on their cel phones, called 911, CNN, local news stations, or even the police to DEMAND that someone come help them. Was no one on Twitter for God Sake? It staggers the mind that this could actually have happened? I am shocked that no one just plain panicked and absolutely demanded to be let off the plane or even got creative and “faked” an emergency. How shameful this airline / airport let this happen.
Sadly, the airline did not decide to keep people on the plane all night. What I’ve read and surmised from various reports is that once they landed, there was a series of “imminent departures” that kept everyone in place. First, they were told a new crew was coming, then they were told a bus was coming, then they were told that they couldn’t leave the aircraft because there was no secure place for them to go. There may be more and who told them these various things is in question.
Passengers, at least at the time this is going on, tend to be sheep. Most will take their direction from the crew, as they should, and don’t speak up for those rights. And speaking of rights, you pretty much have none on board. Good luck with a lawsuit – you will lose.
Just in the last two years, more than 200,000 passengers have been stuck on the runways more than three hours since the airlines issued these commitments.
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The industry has 35 THOUSAND FLIGHTS PER DAY in this country. Most MAJOR AIRLINES have over 50 MILLION PASSENGERS “per year” on their planes……………….and this airline site is up in arms over weather related delays. I keep hearing the complaining, yet, interestingly I never see REAL SOLUTIONS being discussed. Go back to the gate and……………………? would that be cancel? Cancel the downline flights as well? Strand you at the aiport? Book you on the next “available flight” <———that could mean hours if not days. I'm NOT HEARING BETTER SOLUTIONS, just journalistic whining.