Gov't imposes 3-hour limit on tarmac strandings
WASHINGTON
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the three-hour limit
and other new regulations are meant to send an unequivocal message
to airlines not to hold passengers hostage on stuck planes. Coming
on the eve of the busy holiday travel season, the announcement was
hailed by consumer advocates as "a Christmas miracle."
The airline industry said it will comply with the regulations --
which go into effect in 120 days -- but predicted the result will be
more canceled flights, more inconvenience for passengers.
"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," said Air Transport Association President
and CEO James May.
LaHood, however, dismissed that concern.
"I don't know what can be more disruptive to people than to be
stuck sitting on a plane five, six, seven hours with no
explanation," LaHood said at a briefing.
This year through Oct. 31, there were 864 flights with taxi out
times or flight diversions of three hours or more, according to the
Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Transportation officials,
using 2007 and 2008 data, said there are an average of 1,500
domestic flights a year carrying about 114,000 passengers that are
delayed more than three hours.
Last month, the department fined Continental Airlines,
ExpressJet Airlines and Mesaba Airlines $175,000 for their roles in
a nearly six-hour tarmac delay in Rochester, Minn. In August,
Continental Express Flight 2816 en route to Minneapolis was
diverted to Rochester due to thunderstorms. Forty-seven passengers
were kept overnight in a cramped plane because Mesaba employees
refused to open a gate so that they could enter the closed airport
terminal.
It was the first time the department had fined an airline for
actions involving a ground delay. Transportation officials made
clear the case was a warning to the industry.
Under the new regulations, the only exceptions to the
requirement that planes must return to the gate after three hours
are for safety or security or if air traffic control advises the
pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt
airport operations.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she thought
the 3-hour rule would not cause any problems for security. "I
can't imagine it would. I call it the rule of common sense," she
said.
Airlines could be fined $27,500 per passenger for each violation
of the three-hour limit.
The regulations apply to domestic flights. U.S. carriers
operating international flights departing from or arriving in the
United States must specify, in advance, their own time limits for
deplaning passengers. Foreign carriers do not fly between two U.S.
cities and are not covered by the rules.
Tarmac strandings have mostly involved domestic flights, but the
department is studying extending the three-hour limit to
international flights, LaHood said.
"This is the beginning," LaHood said. "We think we owe it to
passengers to really look out for them."
Airlines will be required to provide food and water for
passengers within two hours of a plane being delayed on a tarmac,
and to maintain operable lavatories. They must also provide
passengers with medical attention when necessary.
Airlines will also be prohibited from scheduling chronically
delayed flights. They must designate an employee to monitor the
effects of flight delays and cancellations and respond to consumer
complaints. And they would have to post flight delay information on
their Web sites. Carriers who fail to comply could face government
enforcement action for using unfair or deceptive trade practices.
Provisions sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and
Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, in pending legislation would also impose a
three-hour limit, but the new regulations go even farther, giving
passenger rights advocates many of the reforms they've sought for
years.
"No more will they be able to strand passengers for over three
hours in hot, sweaty, metal tubes," said Kate Hanni, founder of
Flyersrights.org. Hanni, who called the rules a Christmas miracle,
was stuck on an American Airlines jet in Austin, Texas, for over
nine hours in December 2006 when storms forced the closure of
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, stranding more than 100
planes.
Past efforts to address the problem have fizzled in the face of
industry opposition and promises to reform.
Congress and the Clinton administration tried to act after a
January 1999 blizzard kept Northwest Airlines planes on the ground
in Detroit, trapping passengers for seven hours. Some new
regulations were put in place but most proposals died, including
one that airlines pay passengers who are kept waiting on a runway
for more than two hours.
The Bush administration and Congress returned to the issue three
years ago after several high-profile strandings, including a snow
and ice storm that led JetBlue Airways to leave planes full of
passengers sitting on the tarmac at New York's Kennedy
International Airport for nearly 11 hours.
After those incidents, DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel
recommended that airlines be required to set a limit on the time
passengers have to wait out travel delays grounded inside an
airplane.
A year ago, the Bush administration proposed airlines be
required to have contingency plans for stranded passengers, but the
proposal didn't include a specific time limit on how long
passengers can be kept waiting. It was denounced as toothless by
consumer advocates.