Passenger Advocates Push for Three-Hour Limit on Tarmac Delays

9/9/20098:42:22 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Airline Passenger Rights, Airlinie Tarmac Delays

ASTA, the Business Travel Coalition and FlyersRights.org are continuing their push for a three-hour limit on tarmac delays as laid out in language in the Senate Federal Aviation Administration bill authored by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). Representatives of the three groups held a conference call on Sept. 8 to discuss the results of a month-long survey of travel industry professionals and business travelers regarding proposed passenger rights legislation, as well as to discuss their continued advocacy efforts. These include a hearing scheduled for Sept. 22 in the Hart Senate Office Building. The hearing will feature representatives of consumer groups and travel industry organizations discussing airline passenger rights.

Witnesses will include passengers and airline, airport and association executives, as well as functional-area experts from academia and industry. Witnesses will present five-minute statements. After all statements have been presented, questioners will address their queries to each of the witnesses. Questioners will include corporate travel managers, airport executives and functional-area experts as well as members of the press, to provide an extra measure of impartiality.

Participants will include Kate Hanni, executive director, FlyersRights.org; Kevin Mitchell, chairman, Business Travel Coalition; Robert L. Crandall, former chairman and CEO, American Airlines; and others. Questioners will include Jay Boehmer, senior editor, Business Travel News; Colin Tooze, vice president, government affairs, American Society of Travel Agents; Jennifer Michels, deputy editor, Aviation Daily; William McGee, contributor, Consumer Reports; and others.

During the conference call discussing lobbying for a bill to limit tarmac delays, Tooze said that ASTA had participated in the 2008 Tarmac Delay Task Force and voted on the final report issued by the task force. Tooze said that it wasn’t perfect, but was a meaningful step in the right direction. He said that ASTA is supporting the three-hour back-to-the gate measure in the Boxer bill.

The bill’s language includes an option for passengers to disembark after three hours of onboard delay for domestic U.S. flights, should the captain decide it is reasonable and safe to do so. The survey showed that the industry support for this language. Eighty-two percent of travel industry professionals and business travelers support the legislative language in the Senate bill. Tooze said that ASTA is supporting the BTC and FlyersRights in their efforts to reduce the length of time of tarmac delays. For more information, visit www.flyersrights.org, www.businesstravelcoalition.com or www.asta.org.