If you have ever been held captive on plane that is going nowhere for the foreseeable future, you know how helpless and frustrated it feels to be trapped in a metal tube with screaming kids, overflowing toilets — and no food or drink. Good news. Starting today, if you find yourself in that situation, you have rights.<\/p>\n
If your plane pulls back from the gate and sits on the tarmac for two hours, the airline must give you access to food, water and the plane’s bathroom. Before three hours have passed, they have to take you back to the gate. Believe me, when I say the airlines will take this seriously. They can be fined $27,500 per passenger. If the plane is full, that could add up to somewhere in the neighborhood of a $3 million dollar fine.<\/p>\n
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood acknowledges that the airlines don’t much like the new rule. LaHood told me earlier this week, “What I’ve said to airline CEOs … is: ‘you should be for the passengers and that’s a good reason to be for this rule.'”<\/p>\n
Some industry analysts believe there could be a downside to all this. Since some flights don’t make a lot of profit, the airline may choose to cancel a flight if there is even a small chance the plane might be held on the tarmac because of weather or air traffic congestion.<\/p>\n
“I am confident that we will see a fairly large number of cancellations through the summer, just to avoid the penalty this rule could impose, ” said William Swelbar, a research engineer from MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation.<\/p>\n
In 2009, there were 903 flights that were held on the ground for more than three hours. Already in the first two months of 2010, airlines were on pace for a worse record.<\/p>\n
Some credit for this new rule must be given to the small grassroots group, flyersrights.org. After getting stuck on a plane in Austin, Texas for more than 9 hours in 2006, Kate Hanni founded the group and began lobbying for a Passenger’s Bill of Rights. She points out that airlines over-schedule the number of flights that can reasonably be expected to take off from an airport — sometimes by as much as 30 percent. She says that means “a certain number of flights … are gonna sit in the penalty box.”<\/p>\n
By the way, I am reporting from JFK airport today in New York, where runway work is expected to create mayhem for travelers during the busy summer travel season. Please take note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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