U.S. airlines soon will be required to allow passengers to get off of domestic flights that have been sitting on the tarmac for three hours, provided doing so doesn’t jeopardize their safety and security or disrupt airport operations.
The price for ignoring this rule is steep: Airlines face a maximum fine of $27,500 per passenger, said a spokesman for the Transportation Department.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the new rule Monday, saying it was triggered by a series of nightmarish incidents for passengers, most recently a foul-up in August that left 47 people stranded overnight in a small regional jet in Rochester, Minn.
“Airline passengers have rights, and these new rules will require airlines to live up to their obligation to treat their customers fairly,” LaHood said in a statement.
The new rule is tougher than many in the aviation industry expected, and represents a significant victory for passenger-rights advocates, analysts said.
Carriers will be required to provide passengers with food, such as pretzels or granola bars, as well as drinking water within the first two hours a plane is delayed. They also must maintain working lavatories.
They also are barred from scheduling chronically delayed flights, and required to provide passengers with information on the flight’s on-time record.
The final rule, which takes effect in 120 days, provides a victory to passenger-rights advocates who had lobbied Congress and the Bush and Obama Administrations to give some recourse to passengers who are stuck for hours on aircraft.
The rule mirrors Senate legislation, proposed by Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, that would also have allowed passengers to exit a plane following a three-hour tarmac wait unless the pilot thinks the plane could be in the air within 30 minutes. However, that provision is inserted in a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that has been stalled by the health-reform debate.
“This is one of the more stunning announcements out of the DOT that I can remember,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. “The question is going to become: What happens to the legislation in Congress?”
Mitchell predicted that the passenger-rights provisions eventually would be stripped from the FAA bill.
The rule leaves airlines and airports with little time to resolve a host of logistical issues. One problem is that aircraft lined up for take-off can’t easily pull out of the “conga line” of planes when they reach the time limit.
And returning to the gate after such a wait may create a whole new set of headaches for passengers, who may find themselves stranded overnight rather than for several hours.
“We will comply with the new rule even though we believe it will lead to unintended consequences — more cancelled flights and greater passenger inconvenience,” said James May, president and CEO of the Air Transport Association, a trade group representing the largest U.S. carriers. “In particular, the requirement of having planes return to the gates within a three hour window or face significant fines is inconsistent with our goal of completing as many flights as possible. Lengthy tarmac delays benefit no one.”
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Travel forecast
A messy weather system is expected to dump a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain on the Chicago area starting Wednesday into Christmas Eve before finally turning to snow by Christmas afternoon.
The National Weather Service issued a “special weather statement,” warning travelers to watch out for weather alerts this week, as the strong winter storm moves into the Plains and the Midwest from the west. TRIBUNE
