Six-hour airline delay…again
The call for a passenger’s bill of rights was boosted after a second six-hour ground delay in as many weeks. This time, it was flight 242.
The latest “nightmare” flight was aboard a Sun Country Airlines flight from New York’s JFK for Minneapolis/St. Paul. The plane was supposed to leave at 11 a.m. but passengers didn’t start boarding until noon and the plane didn’t take off until 6 p.m.
“Travelers were told that construction would cause an hour delay, and were later told weather would delay them even longer," according to wire services.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune says:
“Once Sun Country passengers finally did get off the plane, they complained not only about the delay, but also about that they had been required to buy their food and water from the airline, and that even so, provisions quickly ran out.”
Said Gary Kurth of St. Paul: "It was a nightmare.”
"The series of delays went on and on," said another flight 242 passenger.
“It may now be the airline industry, however, that’s starting to feel some collective anxiety about the latest long ground delays to make the news,” concluded USA Today. “Indeed, the Sun Country delay appears only to be adding to the chorus line calling for action.”
The paper speculated that few incidents fueled more calls for a “passenger’s bill of rights” movement.
Friday’s incident marked the second six-hour delay for Minnesota-bound planes in two weeks. Severe thunderstorms had forced a Continental Express flight from Houston to Minneapolis to land in Rochester, where 47 passengers were stranded on the tarmac overnight. That incident triggered a federal investigation.
New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer pounced on the flight 242 delay as an opportunity to urge support for pending legislation that would give passengers rights in such situations.
"It would say to the airlines you can’t treat people like cattle on a cattle car," he said.
Airlines have resisted a so-called passengers-bill-of-rights for years, insisting that adding federal intervention could produce unintended consequences that become even worse than the problems themselves. The airlines have maintained they could police themselves.
But some newspapers are now saying the political momentum seems to be turning against the airline industry.
“The FAA needs a better system than forcing planes to sit in six-hour conga lines for takeoff. Airlines obviously need to do better; their public-relations promises have been largely hollow so far,” wrote The Wall Street Journal’s blog.
By David Wilkening
David
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