Passenger Rights Cleared for Takeoff

(CBS/AP)  The Obama administration has ordered airlines off the tarmac.

After numerous horror stories of airline passengers being stuck in planes on the ground without basic conveniences for hours on end, new rules announced by the Transportation Department give domestic flights three hours to take off or return to the gate, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the three-hour limit and other new regulations are meant to send an unequivocal message to airlines not to hold passengers hostage on stuck planes.

The latest horror story: Air Jamaica flight 40 out of Baltimore was supposed to depart at 7:00 in the morning Saturday, but got stuck heading out to the tarmac, and didn't get back to the gate at BWI until eight hours later.

LaHood said, "This is a way to say to passengers, we are going to avoid these long, long delays sitting on a runway."

After two hours, airlines must provide food and water. The planes must also have working bathrooms.

They must also provide passengers with medical attention when necessary.

Failure to comply will cost the airlines plenty: Fines up to $27,500 - per passenger. On a flight with 150 passengers, that's more than $4 million.

Airlines will also be prohibited from scheduling chronically delayed flights. They must designate an employee to monitor the effects of flight delays and cancellations and respond to consumer complaints. And they would have to post flight delay information on their Web sites. Carriers who fail to comply could face government enforcement action for using unfair or deceptive trade practices.

The new rules will take effect in 120 days. They apply only to domestic flights.

New Consumer Rule Limits Airline Tarmac Delays (DOT, 12.21.09)

The only exceptions to the requirement that planes must return to the gate after three hours are for safety or security reasons, or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she thought the 3-hour rule would not cause any problems for security. "I can't imagine it would. I call it the rule of common sense," she said.

The rules were originally announced and put on the books in November 2007 (having been proposed a decade earlier), but were opposed by the airlines, said former Department of Transportation official Mary Schiavo.

Appearing on CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday, Shiavo said the rules would come into play in a relatively few cases.

"Putting it in perspective, there are 557,000 flights a month, and about 88 on average are delayed over three hours," Schiavo said. "But for those passengers on those 88 flights, it is truly just unbelievably stressful."

She said the rules on providing basic necessities in such a situation are necessary because "the airlines simply would not do it voluntarily, although they promised they would."

According to the new rules, the $27,500 per passenger fine is negotiable. Schiavo said that while she was Inspector General of the DOT, she found that penalties imposed by the Transportation Department and the FAA were usually paid at ten cents on the dollar.

"Everyone's focusing on the airlines paying $27,000 per passenger; not to be overlooked is the fact that the government figured that last year passengers lost $14 billion themselves waiting on the airlines," said Schiavo.

"So this is to even the score a little bit."

Provisions sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, in pending legislation would also impose a three-hour limit, but the new regulations go even farther, giving passenger rights advocates many of the reforms they've sought for years.

"No more will they be able to strand passengers for over three hours in hot, sweaty, metal tubes," said Kate Hanni, founder of Flyersrights.org. Hanni, who called the rules a Christmas miracle, was stuck on an American Airlines jet in Austin, Texas, for over nine hours in December 2006 when storms forced the closure of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, stranding more than 100 planes.

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. In August, 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 because Mesaba employees refused to open a gate so that they could enter the closed airport terminal.

It was the first time the department had fined an airline for actions involving a ground delay. Transportation officials made clear the case was a warning to the industry.

The airline industry said it will comply with the new regulations, but predicted the result will be more canceled flights, and more inconvenience for passengers.

"The requirement of having planes return to the gates within a three-hour window or face significant fines is inconsistent with our goal of completing as many flights as possible. Lengthy tarmac delays benefit no one," said Air Transport Association President and CEO James May.

[quotelawrence]

THIS IS AMERICAS WAY OF SAYING THEY LOVE US, BUY TICKETS TO KEEP THE AIRLINES A FLOAT, AND THEN SIT IN A PLANE THAT WON'T LET YOU OUT IT IS FALSE IMPRISONMENT, I DID NOT BUY A TICKET TO SIT I BOUGHT A TICKET TO RIDE (FLY) THIS IS THE NEW METHOD OF SHIFTING BLAME THE ADMINISTRATION SAYS IT WILL HELP, BUT WHO, AND WHO IS THE JUDGE OF THE TIME, AND SAFETY ISSUES, IT IS ANOTHER CASE OF THE FOX WATCHING OVER THE HEN HOUSE.

[jxknowles]

It's now the era of re-regulation. Putting checks and balances back in place to minimze the abuses that have gone on for too long. I'm all for less government on everyone's back, but not at the expense of being robbed, raped and abused by greedy corporations for a few pennies more. This is a common sense rule that will force the airlines and airports to remodel their businesses to treat paying customers like human beings, not sheep and cattle.

[citizenusa-2009]

Wow. When I flashback to 2007, we were complaining that our rights were continually being violated. Two years later, we have an Administration who is summarily restoring our rights in rapid succession! Hooray!

The banks and the airline companies can kiss my a**! Gee, being held "accountable" is going to be tough for them....

I'm so proud to have voted for Obama and his team! There IS hope for our country!!!

[jsachse]

I wonder if you'll still be so happy when they just cancel the flight instead of sitting for 3 hours...and wait until you try to re-schedule on the next available flight. And that 27k fine doesn't go to you, it goes to the government. In effect, this does absolutely nothing for the flyer.

[hologram5]

That's odd, I have flown between Anchorage and Seattle for a period of 6 years when I fished up there and never had to wait more than say, 45 minutes to get in the air. I don't understand why. Seattle Intl. airport is quite busy and still have never saw waits like that.

[rockcutr]

This is pitiful. 3 hours???? Really? An hour, 1 hour, 60 minuites maximum. The pilot worried about his place in line on the tarmac,,,really, this is your big complaint. Shut the H,,, up. You are paid way too much to whine about this. The jet actually pretty much flies itself these days. All pilots do is take off and land, wear stupid hats and adornments of psudo officers. Not much more than the train conductor that said "all aboard" and close the door. Then these days it is so painful to even take a flight anywhere with all the security fears, some real, most not so much. More it seems about controling one nut out of a hundred thousand travelers. Arrrggg. Stun guns for all flight attendants. a brig on each aircraft for the unruled. Sound proof cabin for babies and screaming adults, and the allowance of deadly force by any flight team. For the money we have to spent to go anywhere this, seems not too much to ask for. The profit of airlines verses the service they provide holds a huge disparity. After many years in the aircraft building industry, I shall never fly on purpose. These are terrible designs, ineffecient powerplants, over sized and incredable poluters. No thing is that darn important to risk it all.

[pete_in_az]

Only in this F'd up world would returning to the gate after 3 hours be an improvement. Food and water? Like a bag of peanuts and a 4 ounce plastic cup of water? We afford better treatment to murderers and rapists in prison. And I like the caveats about returning for safety and security reasons or the ultimate, "it would disrupt airport operations," I see a lot of the aforementioned issues happening starting in 120 days.

Its time airlines stop treating us like $hit.

[jsf14]

Agreed! Does this regulation mean that by default airlines have the right to hold passengers without water or necessary medical attention? Or that even now they have the right to hold you forever (or until you die of that heart attack or dehydration) if returning you to the gate would make the airport run less smoothly? Would any jury actually convict you if you activated the emergency chute after 3 hours?

[thechooch1]

As a retired airline captain, I think this is a good idea overall. But the problem occurs when the three hour time limit expires and you are close to being the next aircraft to takeoff. If you go back to the terminal, you will go to the end of the line, causing more delays for your passengers. Going back could also cause the crew to run out of legal duty time and have to end their duty period, stranding the passengers. Also there is no way for you to cut back in line in front of other aircraft lined up on the taxiway. However in situations where the airfield is shut down this should work.

[jsf14]

Faced with a million dollar fine, airlines MIGHT figure out how to determine that letting a plane get into, or stay in, the takeoff line-up is likely to make the plane go over the three-hour limit. I imagine they now have a way to figure out that the crew will be over their legal duty time. Surely they now calculate whether there will be enough fuel in various circumstances. They can also make these new calculations.

[citizenusa-2009]

It seems to me that we have several uncommon traits operating in this Administration: Common Sense and Compassion. How in the world did the airlines get away with this bizarre treatment of passengers for so long????

I would not and could not sit on a grounded plane for any extended length of time without becoming extremely anxious and uncomfortable. Now add to that, unsanitary conditions, no food or water and fetid air.

Obama's team is fixing the broken and stupid facetS of America. The other "Presidents" could give a flying f**** because they were NEVER one of US to begin with. Has baby Bush ever, ever taken a commercial flight? I think not.