Hostage Release: New Regs Will Limit Wait Times on Airport Tarmacs
This is clearly a case of the airlines bringing regulations down on themselves, despite repeated warnings that continuing such behavior would have this result.
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.
You have to wonder whether the $27,500 fine per passenger is enough to dissuade this sort of thing from happening too often. As with any business, airlines will consider the costs of going back to the gate versus getting a fine. The fewer the passengers on the plane, the more likely they will just go with the fine. So if you are in this situation you probably want to be on a large flight that is full.
The new regulations do not apply to foreign-flagged carriers that do not fly between two U.S. cities. This sort of reform has been threatened before and always failed in the face of strong opposition from the airlines. Then again their case suffers greatly when considering cases like the following one:
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. On Aug. 8, 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 amid crying babies and a smelly toilet because Mesaba employees refused to open a gate so that they could enter the closed airport terminal.
We shall have to wait and see if the regulations will have their desired effect, as regulations not properly crafted have a tendency to backfire. If all goes well, airlines will think twice before trapping passengers in flying subway trains for long periods of time. Then again the airline association had this to say:
David Castelveter, a spokesman for the association, declined to say whether the industry would mount a legal challenge to the federal rules. Castelveter said the association is thoroughly reviewing the 81-page document. “We will comply with the rule, but we cannot rule out our legal options,” he said.
Still we can be assured that the airlines’ lawyers will be earning their salaries figuring out how to avoid the regulations as much as possible. A challenge in court may hold off the regulations for years if done correctly.
And consumers will not be happy they can still spend up to three hours on the tarmac. In the summer three hours can be far too long. However, this is a good start to help persuade domestic airlines to treat their passengers better.
I think it’s an important step forward in our evolving civilization that so many of us are willing to let government bureaucrats control every aspect of our lives. I’m sure you won’t complain, Andrew, when the government tells you exactly how to run your
businessjobfamily.This is what the “conservatives, not Republicans” warned me against. They told me this would happen if I voted for
McCainBushDoleBushReagan.Being a frequent flyer (over 100,000) miles per year for the past 15 years, I can appreciate the frustrations with airline travel. However the legislation just passed only serves to paper over a significant issue that is more often than not the source of a great deal of the problems that we encounter with air travel. For years the FAA has been promising a new state of the art air traffic control system and for years despite millions of dollars having been spent on this endeavor we are no where nearer to a solution than when we started. Instead of passing laws to further regulate airlines (and drive up their cost) the Congress would better serve the citizen air traveler by ending the government run monopoly over the air traffic control system and open it up to private enterprise. With a profit motive to guide their actions – maybe then we will have a more efficient system of air transportation.
Until you have personally experienced the horror of being trapped on an airplane sitting on the ground, with inoperative or full toilets, screaming kids, lack of food and water………and no end in sight, you should not comment against this article. Yes, it would be nice if the federal government had not stuck its nose in this, and it would be even nicer still if this legislation was not necessary. However, it was brought about by airline management who made conscious decisions to treat the passengers as cattle in a truck on the way to the slaughter house…….It is a classic example of the law of the consequences of action working.
My son is an air traffic controller and told me that pilots pull out of the gates when they know they have nowhere to go because they start getting paid as soon as they leave the gate. With a comfortable seat up front and access to a restroom, what do they care about the rest of you?
Because of the economics of airline travel, airlines no longer care about customer satisfaction. People buy based on price, shopped on the internet, and airlines respond by providing discount quality service.
This regulation or something like it is, sadly, necessary.
I have a revolutionary suggestion for increasing efficiency at LAX. Permit pilots taxi up to the gate themselves!! – rather than making them wait or 30 minutes for a tractor to tow them the last few yards.
I mean, what is the reason for this creaky rule, other than a moral certainty that highly experienced pilots who have just flown 500 passengers, say, across the Pacific, in complete safety, are likely to collide with the terminal? Completely bizarre.
No. 4: I am sure your son is a sterling air traffic controller, but that is not how pilots get paid.
No. 6: Last time I flew, the plane pulled up to the jetway on its own power. In fact, it’s been like that every time I’ve flown, as far back as I can remember. Possibly policy differs at some airports or at some carriers.
And my opinion of this regulation: It will lead to increased flight cancellations, lots of folks sleeping in airport chairs after their flights are cancelled, and the airlines will pass the inevitable increased costs on to their customers.
No. 6: Last time I flew, the plane pulled up to the jetway on its own power. In fact, it’s been like that every time I’ve flown, as far back as I can remember. Possibly policy differs at some airports or at some carriers.
I arrived yesterday at LAX (Dec 24) on Air New Zealand flight NZ2 flight from Auckland. The plane was a Boeing 747-400. For whatever reason, they stopped the plane well short of the terminal and a tug took us the rest of the way. I’ve never had this happen on any other airline flight that I can recall at LAX or anywhere else, but it happened yesterday to us yesterday.
My worst horror story happened in 1979. We took off from Atlanta in a Stretch DC-8 and flew to Bangor, Maine to get fuel and food for a flight to Germany. Bangor was fogged in so the pilots shot a missed approach and diverted to Philadelphia. We arrived at about midnight. They wouldn’t let us off the plane nor did they have anyone there to refuel the plane or connect the air conditioning on a hot summer night. There was no food or water, either. We had to wait until about 0800 for the plane to be refueled, then we flew to Germany with no food or water. We received a $10 voucher for food when we arrived. Over the years, I’ve experienced several other delays inside a plane but nothing as bad as that flight.