Santa Rosa Press Democrat -- North Coast advocates push for airline passenger rights bill
January 30, 2012
By Guy Kovner
A House-Senate conference committee is expected to decide within a few weeks whether a time limit for airline passengers to remain on delayed flights becomes federal law.
The right to get off a grounded plane after three hours “is really the holy grail for airline passengers,” said Kate Hanni of Napa, who has lobbied for air travelers' rights for five years.
Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, included the three-hour limit in the Senate version of a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill, officials said Monday.
But the House version of the FAA bill included no time limit, the position favored by the $120 billion-a-year airline industry.
“Worse than that,” Hanni said, the House bill “would allow airlines to set their own time limit.”
Hanni's 50,000-member organization, FlyersRights.org, cranked up an online campaign over the weekend to lobby federal lawmakers for the three-hour limit, Hanni said.
“We must not sit idly by now because long tarmac delays could once again become a way of life,” the website says.
In a phone news conference organized by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, on Monday, air traveler Brent Stanley recounted his seven-hour tarmac delay on a flight from Paris that was diverted to Hartford, Conn., during a blizzard in October.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood included the three-hour limit, with fines of up to $27,500 s stranded passenger, in Transportation Department rules implemented in 2010.
In November, the department fined a regional unit of American Airlines $900,000 for keeping 608 passengers on board 15 different flights for more than three hours at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May.
Airlines for America, the industry's trade group, sees no need for congressional action in light of the government rule-making.
“The rule is in place; the airlines are complying,” said Steve Lott, a spokesman for the group. Lengthy tarmac delays “have essentially been eliminated,” he said.
Lott also noted a Government Accountability Office report last year found that airlines became more likely to cancel flights after the rule took effect.
“We think the increase in cancellations harms the consumer,” he said.
Thompson said Monday it is important to get the rules codified in law.
“Regulations can be changed,” said Thompson, who introduced a passengers rights bill, including the three-hour limit, in 2007.
“We have always had to fight hard to get good language (in the bill) in the House,” he said.
The conference committee is expected to begin meeting today and complete its work by Feb. 17, Thompson said.
Hanni said she had been assured by a former House aviation subcommittee chairman that the tarmac limit would be included in the FAA bill and learned otherwise just a week ago.
“Something has shifted in the last couple of weeks â€" dramatically,” she said.
The right to get off a grounded plane after three hours “is really the holy grail for airline passengers,” said Kate Hanni of Napa, who has lobbied for air travelers' rights for five years.
Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, included the three-hour limit in the Senate version of a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill, officials said Monday.
But the House version of the FAA bill included no time limit, the position favored by the $120 billion-a-year airline industry.
“Worse than that,” Hanni said, the House bill “would allow airlines to set their own time limit.”
Hanni's 50,000-member organization, FlyersRights.org, cranked up an online campaign over the weekend to lobby federal lawmakers for the three-hour limit, Hanni said.
“We must not sit idly by now because long tarmac delays could once again become a way of life,” the website says.
In a phone news conference organized by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, on Monday, air traveler Brent Stanley recounted his seven-hour tarmac delay on a flight from Paris that was diverted to Hartford, Conn., during a blizzard in October.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood included the three-hour limit, with fines of up to $27,500 s stranded passenger, in Transportation Department rules implemented in 2010.
In November, the department fined a regional unit of American Airlines $900,000 for keeping 608 passengers on board 15 different flights for more than three hours at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May.
Airlines for America, the industry's trade group, sees no need for congressional action in light of the government rule-making.
“The rule is in place; the airlines are complying,” said Steve Lott, a spokesman for the group. Lengthy tarmac delays “have essentially been eliminated,” he said.
Lott also noted a Government Accountability Office report last year found that airlines became more likely to cancel flights after the rule took effect.
“We think the increase in cancellations harms the consumer,” he said.
Thompson said Monday it is important to get the rules codified in law.
“Regulations can be changed,” said Thompson, who introduced a passengers rights bill, including the three-hour limit, in 2007.
“We have always had to fight hard to get good language (in the bill) in the House,” he said.
The conference committee is expected to begin meeting today and complete its work by Feb. 17, Thompson said.
Hanni said she had been assured by a former House aviation subcommittee chairman that the tarmac limit would be included in the FAA bill and learned otherwise just a week ago.
“Something has shifted in the last couple of weeks â€" dramatically,” she said.