Air passengers: seeking more rights than POWs

US air travelers recently stranded in terminals or held hostage on the tarmac can look forward to possible national legislation, but some are arguing that might make the situation even worse, say industry defenders.

“Now that some Congress members have decided to try to fix things by passing a passenger bill of rights, they argue, the situation at the nation’s airports could become more maddening and dysfunctional, with more delays and higher fares,” says Time Magazine.

So what are prospects for legislation?

Pressure on lawmakers has been building. Airline delays are at their highest level since 1996, when the government started tracking the numbers, reported the Department of Transportation.

The industry suffered damaging publicity on Valentine’s Day when nine JetBlue planes were stranded on a JFK airport tarmac for up to ten hours due to an ice storm. Less than two months earlier, 67 American Airlines planes across the nation had sat on the tarmac for more than three hours because of storms in Texas.

Passengers inside those planes would later describe the experience as “inhumane.” Toilets overflowed. Cabin temperatures rose. Little food and water was available. Or so passengers contend. Both JetBlue and American Airlines say that toilets never overflowed and water was always available to passengers.

“Mistakes were made on many levels but this happens only a fraction of a fraction of the time,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association (ATA), which represents 90% of commercial airlines in the United States.

Now, some lawmakers want to regulate how long a plane can sit on the tarmac. In March, “The Airline Passenger’s Bill of Rights” was introduced in both the House and the Senate.

Under the bill, passengers reserve the right to deplane after four hours on the tarmac. Airlines would also be required to keep an adequate amount of food and water on hand, to maintain sanitary conditions and to keep passengers informed of the cause and timing of delays. If airlines fail to meet this requirement, they would have broken their contract with the passengers, who could then take legal action against the airlines.

The Bill of Rights would not require airlines to reimburse passengers or provide flight vouchers.

“What we want is a reasonable predictable event and a consistent time frame when it comes to flying,” said Kate Hanni, the founder of The Coalition for an Airline Passenger’s Bill of Rights, a grassroots organization that formed after the American Airlines delays and now has 15,000 members.

“According to the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war have better rights than an airline passenger,” she added. Her own American Airlines plane was stranded for eight hours last December.

But observers say it’s unlikely that the Bill of Rights will become law — at least as it was originally intended. The Senate version of the bill, which is being reviewed now by the aviation subcommittee, has a new clause that essentially acts as a loophole for the airlines, says Time.

It looks even bleaker in the House, where observers say any proposal probably won’ get as far as a committee approval.

And that’s a good thing, say airline industry and experts who argue that Congress’ interference would only harm consumers.

 “We feel the Passenger Bill of Rights would create this expectation by passengers that management and airlines couldn’t possibly meet, and it would then be the flight attendants that have to bear the brunt of passenger’s frustrations,” said Corey Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA).

Report by David Wilkening