Aug 24, 2007
New York State has passed an mild "passenger bill of rights" for air travel; when will Congress do more?
In early August, the New York State legislature passed, and Governor Eliot Spitzer signed, a "passenger bill of rights" for air travel, making the airlines send staff to clean the restrooms and provide fresh food and water to any aircraft that has left the gate and then been stranded on the tarmac for more than three hours. This was an obvious slap on the wrist, by a legislature reluctant to trespass more positively in an area of national concern.
Far more forceful are bills introduced in the U.S. Congress that would require planes actually be returned to the gate and passengers permitted to leave if they have been kept on the tarmac for more than three-to-five hours (the hours vary in different versions of the same measure). As you can imagine, airline lobbyists are violently fighting those proposals and demanding that the airlines remain unregulated as far as tarmac tedium is concerned. Trust us, they say.
It's clear to me they can't be trusted. Over and over, Americans read of planes stranded on the tarmac for five, six, seven, eight, and even nine and eleven hours, followed by contrite apologies on the part of the airline. It happened most recently on a JetBlue aircraft, and it is happening constantly for perhaps lesser amounts of time on other airlines. You have to experience such a condition to realize how traumatic it is. I recently underwent a lesser version of that ordeal (and got an inkling of how often it happens) when the plane I was on at La Guardia Airport left the gate and was then kept on the tarmac for nearly three hours before taking off. Its flight crew was obviously reluctant to cause their company added expense, or lose the chance to operate a money-making flight, by returning it to the gate and permitting passengers to deplane.
Someday a tragedy will occur. A passenger stressed by the stale air and claustrophobia of a motionless plane will suffer a seizure or heart attack, or a child will be made hysterical and sick by long hours of enclosure.
In an area where the airlines cannot be trusted, the Congressional version of the "passenger bill of rights" should be passed. I encourage our readers to contact their representatives in Congress.
Write and read comments about this post.
Far more forceful are bills introduced in the U.S. Congress that would require planes actually be returned to the gate and passengers permitted to leave if they have been kept on the tarmac for more than three-to-five hours (the hours vary in different versions of the same measure). As you can imagine, airline lobbyists are violently fighting those proposals and demanding that the airlines remain unregulated as far as tarmac tedium is concerned. Trust us, they say.
It's clear to me they can't be trusted. Over and over, Americans read of planes stranded on the tarmac for five, six, seven, eight, and even nine and eleven hours, followed by contrite apologies on the part of the airline. It happened most recently on a JetBlue aircraft, and it is happening constantly for perhaps lesser amounts of time on other airlines. You have to experience such a condition to realize how traumatic it is. I recently underwent a lesser version of that ordeal (and got an inkling of how often it happens) when the plane I was on at La Guardia Airport left the gate and was then kept on the tarmac for nearly three hours before taking off. Its flight crew was obviously reluctant to cause their company added expense, or lose the chance to operate a money-making flight, by returning it to the gate and permitting passengers to deplane.
Someday a tragedy will occur. A passenger stressed by the stale air and claustrophobia of a motionless plane will suffer a seizure or heart attack, or a child will be made hysterical and sick by long hours of enclosure.
In an area where the airlines cannot be trusted, the Congressional version of the "passenger bill of rights" should be passed. I encourage our readers to contact their representatives in Congress.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
