3-Hour Limit for Tarmac Delays Gains Steam

Former American Airlines CEO Backs the Measure; Sen. Boxer, Passengers' Rights Groups Push "Bill of Rights" in Congress

(AP)  A former CEO of American Airlines on Tuesday backed imposition of a three-hour time limit on how long airlines can strand passengers on airport tarmacs, but he also warned of unintended consequences.

Robert Crandall parted company from his former industry colleagues and joined passengers rights advocates as they took their case to Congress, staging a hearing in a meeting room provided for the event by a House committee.

Crandall said he supports legislation pending in the Senate that would require that passengers be allowed to deplane after a three-hour wait. The bill makes an exception for instances when the pilot believes the plane will take off in the next half-hour or it might be unsafe to leave the plane.

"I think the airline industry should have led the way in responding to this problem rather than having resisted it," Crandall said. "Every responsible airline executive I know thinks these things are an outrage."

However, he said returning passengers to terminals likely will result in more flight cancellations and modest fare increases.

Since flights are increasingly full or nearly full due to airlines' cutbacks in schedules, passengers who opt to deplane may have difficulty finding seats on other planes and may be delayed longer than if they had continued to wait on a runway, Crandall said.

He recommended an initial four-hour time limit to give airlines time to make adjustments before ratcheting down to a three-hour limit in 2011.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., co-sponsor of a "passengers bill of rights" containing the three-hour limit, rejected Crandall's suggestion. There are "a lot of folks behind the scenes who don't want this legislation," Boxer said. "I'm going to fight for the three hours because it will get watered down - it always does."

The Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines, declined invitations to attend the hearing. The association has warned there will be more inconvenience and delay for passengers if a hard time limit is imposed.

Passengers right advocate Kate Hanni called that assertion a "myth." She said advocates only want passengers to be given the option to deplane every three hours, and that doesn't require the plane to return to a gate. She said airport people movers or other equipment could be used to help people leave planes still in takeoff queues.

Hanni, executive director of FlyersRights.org, pointed to the example of Sun Country Flight 242, which sat on the tarmac at Kennedy International Airport in New York for nearly six hours last month before it was allowed to take off for Minneapolis.

Of the 136 passengers aboard the flight, 96 were connecting through Minneapolis and most likely missed their connections and had to spend the night there before they could get other flights to their destinations, Hanni said. Those passengers might have been better off if they'd had an opportunity to get off in New York after it became apparent they would no longer make their connections, she said.

Two weeks earlier severe thunderstorms forced a Continental Express flight from Houston to Minneapolis to land in Rochester, Minn., where 47 passengers were forced to sit in a cramped plane for six hours overnight amid crying babies and a stinking toilet before they were allowed to deplane.

A Transportation Department investigation found that employees of a Delta Air Lines subsidiary - the only workers still at the airport - refused to make a gate available to the plane because the airport was closed and security personnel had gone home.

[realtexmex]

This is Elementary, We are in the year 2009, and I am being told I have to sit in that over-priced, stuffy, cramped quarters for what reason?....What is wrong with rolling a stairway out there and getting off on to the tarmac??? TSA screeners are not needed to let you off the plane...You are already in a secure area!

Leave me on the plane for 2 hours and you will get to see me hit the emergency doors! If someone wants to press charges, fine, they will have a legal battle on their hands. NO ONE has the right to hold you against your will in an aircraft, on the runway.

[pepperwood2]

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., co-sponsor of a "passengers bill of rights" containing the three-hour limit, rejected Crandall's suggestion. There are "a lot of folks behind the scenes who don't want this legislation," Boxer said.

The interpretation: Look there are a lot of us Liberal Elite & Fat Cats here in Congress that don't want to push for The People receiving the same Passenger Bill of Rights that WE have. These fools know that we are much too important to be required to wait. This is good PR to show the fools that we really are the caring kind. This is the Charge they can count on.

I'd like to give you More Reasons but my Plane leaves in 5 minutes to Kaliphonia. Nice talking to you. LOL cackle cackle cackle.

[rf35]

If I were in first or business class on a medium or large airliner, I don't think I would mind a wait of three hours. But in the cattle section, it is bad. It's bad enough having to sit in coach for a 15 hour trans-Pacific flight; adding hours on the tarmac in unacceptable. cbsblogger is spot-on: coach customers are treated very much like cattle. But since first/business fares are so bloated and ridiculous, coach is the only option for many. My employer wouldn't dream of sending me anywhere other than in coach and I usually can't justify to myself paying for the better seats even for personal travel. And for the long flights where they are most needed, I simply can't afford the $1,000+ extra. The really sad part of this story is the fact that something like this needs to be legislated...the airlines should be doing this kind of thing without being told.

[cbsblogger]

It is outrageous that paying customers are not being treated as customers and instead more like convicts. Ever since 9-11 where airlines were given a level of civil immunity from their customers, the airlines have treated their customers as cattle.

In today's world of haves and have not's our elected officials and the elite mostly all fly via private jet and face none of the security inconveniences, humiliation, headaches, and hardship of flying via the commercial cattle cars. The masses are not deserving of respect.

[straightener--2008]

The ATA's outrageous behavior needs to be legislated into submission.

[pepperwood2]

3-Hour Limit for Tarmac Delays Gains Steam ..... Former American Airlines CEO Backs the Measure; Sen. Boxer, Passengers' Rights Groups Push "Bill of Rights" in Congress.

I wonder how long The Elite Boxer or Pelosi Families have to wait to catch a Flight home to Kalifphonia?

[incog-nito]

LOL. At least the dems are trying to put limit on wait times. With the GOP, it'd be another "voluntary" measure. You people are too funny.

[lloydbest1]

I also think 3 hours is too generous. I was on a United flight to Atlanta and the plane was held up because an indicator lamp in the cockpit said the one of the load bay doors was open. I sat in that plane for only one hour and that was more than I should have.

United was sensible enough to allow those passengers who wanted to leave to do so and they (United) would work with the other carriers to get as many of us to our destinations as possible. I was one of the first to leave and finally did make it to Atlanta at almost the same time I would have had the original flight took off when it was supposed to.

United reacted as well as reasonably expected which proves the airline industry can function at least half way competently when things go weird. I think it is absurd of them to fight this measure; in fact such a measure shouldn't even be necessary.

[rwsmith29456]

Air service, just like the rest of our infrastructure, has gone to crap.

[SusanStoHelit]

I think we need a nice Congressional hearing. Call all the airline executives to it. Let's say it goes for 6 hours - a good working day. When they arrive, direct them to some nice seating of the variety they provide for their customers - a seat in front of them, a narrow seat to sit in, all crowded together with hardly an inch to move. No breaks.

Then we can ask them how long they think the longest is that you should be trapped on the tarmac.

[hissteps4u]

4 Hours I was forced to sit on the tarmac i ORLANDO just 4 months back. It was unacceptable then and now and in the future. There is simply no excuse to hold folks hostage ion such a manner.

To attempt to set a time limit of of 3 hours in simply unacceptable to the flying public.

Mabey (1) Hour at the most. There is no reason to stay out there any longer. We must fight this at all costs, speak to congress if necessary but fight to prevent such a ruleing from becomming law.

Think of the ramifications if passed and anyone spoke out against it while out there it would be a federal violation and a felony at that.

Why would we or should we allow that to happen? UNless most of you out there simply dont care enough to speak out.

[jsd330]

Was it all the airlines fault? The passengers on the Continental flight, from what I read were not allowed in the terminal since there were no TSA screeners available. That being the case the TSA needs to review their policies. It sounds like most of those problems were caused by the Government FAA and TSA.

[culturechang]

I saw 2 hours is long enough.

[incog-nito]

In other news, the airline industry is proposing an alternative solution to the 3-hour limit. "Every plane will be stocked with several buckets, in case of a long delay", says one industry representative.

[thistle42]

Utterly absurd. I'm all in favor of a SHORT time limit (2 hours), but another way to solve the problem, and solve a lot of other problems, would be to pass a law that they owe people $1/minute for stealing people's time. See article at http://critique.org/bcs.ht for the concept.

[Questionews]

Besides jail, can anyone name another instance where you can't leave if you really really wanted to?? (And I don't mean the airplane at 40,000 ft, I mean and still be alive.)

If you are in a non moving object & are being held against your will it's kinda close kidnapping isn't it?

[jsf14]

There's something wrong with the airlines' business model. They are a service industry, but the service they provide is poorly defined. They've spent too many years saying things like "If there's anything we can do to make your flight more comfortable please let us know," when they know they are unwilling to make our flight more comfortable. They've put too little thought into how to get passengers to destination in minimal discomfort.

[SusanStoHelit]

They're responding to our pressure. People shop for flights by price. Nothing else. Not by legroom. Not by comfort. Not by amenities. Just price. What's the cheapest fare to get me to where I'm going. So - they're doing what we ask - finding the cheapest way to fly us where we are going.