The Obama administration said Monday it would begin levying hefty fines against U.S. airlines for subjecting domestic passengers to lengthy tarmac delays, the government’s latest response to a series of high-profile incidents.
The new rule adopted by the Department of Transportation sets fines of as much as $27,500 a passenger when airlines leave fliers stuck on a plane on the ground for more than three hours. Based on a delayed plane carrying 120 passengers, the fine could be as much as $3.3 million. The rule would apply to planes with more than 30 seats.
The Transportation Department has rarely issued fines for tarmac delays. The first case in recent memory came last month when the DOT fined Continental Airlines Inc. and ExpressJet Holdings Inc. $50,000 each, and levied a $75,000 fine against Mesaba Airlines.
…and when it is discovered that a plane crashed due to non-maintenance so it could comply with this edict?
Return the aircraft to the gate and let the passengers off. Airline safety should not depend on keeping passengers locked up for three hours. And more information (the truth) would be helpful too, even is that “We don’t know.”
Then the airlines would be responsible for not adjusting their maintenance procedures accordingly. The article states that the EU has had such rules for 5 years, and a quick scan of the record seems to suggest no great increase in maintenance mishaps.
This seems sensible to me. Ground delays are particularly nuisancesome, as you are typically not permitted to move from your seat, and the crew are typically prohibited from serving food and beverages or showing movies, all of which would make such waits more bearable. In my experience the air controls also don’t work particularly well on the ground either, making it quite stifling even when it is cold outside. I remember a ground delay in Manchester, New Hampshire a few years back. Fumes from the chemical they had used to de-ice the plane made it almost impossible to breathe. And though icy outside it felt at least 80 degrees inside. One of the least comfortable two hours I’ve ever spent (and that is not even covered by this 3-hour rule).
While I am with the stranded passengers here, I’d like to know what law enables our federal government to take such action against the airlines. I don’t remember hearing of any debate on the matter in Congress nor votes taken on the subject. Such power by a federal agency frightens me!
I’m having a lot of trouble understanding why airplane maintenance requires the imprisonment passengers for hours under extremely adverse conditions. How is that even possible? Do they do maintenance work on aircraft that are idling at the end of a runway waiting for weather systems to pass? What am I missing?
Well, I am sympathetic with the sentiments of the bill, but I have trouble figuring out where an industry already on the verge of total economic collapse like the airline industry is going to start coming up with money for punitive tarmac wait fines, unless they pass it right along to consumers, which seems to defeat the ultimate purpose.
Keeping passengers cooped up in the cabin for long periods of time just doesn’t make sense. I’m sure there is concern about security, but it seems to me that passengers can be escorted into a terminal lounge or waiting area……with amenities…..until the aircraft’s maintenance problem is either resolved, or another aircraft takes its place. If the delay is overnight, the airlines should have to provide a hotel room and meals for the passengers. They do the same thing for their crews, so why should hapless passengers be subjected to such bad treatment?
Not only that, but also many of these tarmac holds are caused by a federal government agency itself, the FAA.
Look for airlines simply to cancel outright more flights rather than risking the huge fines.
w.w.
The major reason for tarmac delays is bad weather, congestion and air traffic. Conditions for take off (wind from wrong angle) can change in a fairly brief time. It takes a lot of time to get passengers off a plane and then back on again. If the weather clears up at the airport where you are heading, the crew may have a limited opportunity to take off. Thus, limiting tarmac delays is likely to result in cancelled flights, seriously delayed flights and missed connections.
The airline has no more control over the weather than does the passengers. For this reason, before the use of hub and spoke airlines and the era of cheap fuel, if you wanted to fly to England or Texas you would likely be only able to fly certain days a week and if you needed a connection, you spent the night (or 2-3 nights) at your own expense in an airport hotel. Flying used to be for rich people (aka “the jet set”). I recall, in that era, sleeping on my bags in crummy airports for several days. I recall sitting on a tarmac in Lenningrad for at least 8 hours. It was NORMAL in that era for every major airport around the world to be dotted with small piles of luggage featuring a small child sleeping on top of the bags, covered with his mother’s coat. Back then, nobody whined about it, not every little children, (and I was one). It was understood that if you were a bad travellor you should stay home, or your mommy should teach you to not disgrace them in public by weeping about it.
After the Suez was closed (in the Arab Israeli war) forcing middle class folks to travel by steamer ship around the horn of Africa (and I remember that also), the age of air travel for everyone began. The airlines were by dint of enlarging their airplanes, and by the magic of low priced oil, able to get the price down to permit the use of the air to folks who previously took Greyhound, and for whom a trip to Paris had previously been an adventure of a lifetime.
Unfortunately, the folks they extended air travel to, are lousy travellers who complain and whine when the weather fails to cooperate and somehow feel that the airline should DO something about it, and that Congress should MAKE them if they refuse. Well, Congress has apparently chosen to make air travel the province of the wealthy once more. (Which will definately cut down on the whining I have no doubt). Obviously, if airlines (who are currently at deaths door) are forced to do this, then fares will need to increase to allow for the “hotel room and meals” that Cennydd feels entitled to, not to mention the cancelled flights (and thus fewer flights) that having no tarmac delays will cause.
The good news is that this will seriously cut our carbon consumption and will reduce our use of oil. This will leave more oil for folks like Al Gore to fly his Lear jet to global warming conferences.
Then everybody will be happy.
This is the New York State Legislature’s approach to a problem.
If someone perceives a problem, pass a law. That’ll make the boo boo go away.
New York State has an accretion of laws passed to solve problems and those laws never seem to go away. The effect of those laws has been a nstifling of business and a migration of a significant portion of New York State’s productive population, as compared to its significant non-productive population, out of the State.
A simple “Three Hour Maximum Wait” solution might work, but has anybody done the operations analysis to see what the cosequences of such a solution might be. Probably not, most of our legislators are incompetent practioners of logic and reason. Most of them seem to be ‘motor mouths’ trying to impress the electorate back home and their motives seem to be much more self-focused than focused on ‘defining what the real problem is’ and devising ‘real world’ solutions to that problem.
#8. is correct. The airlines will simply cancel your flight as it approaches the 3 hr limit. To bring the a/c back to the gate to let customers off, reboard and repush now over 3 hrs late is not worth the disruption to the rest of that line of flying. Get ready to spend more time in airport lounge areas or in long ticket lines for seats available in 3-4 days. Brilliant move.
“Probably not, most of our legislators are incompetent practioners of logic and reason.”
I don’t blame the legislators. I blame the American people who, led by the Boomers, have turned into a degenerate, selfish, irresponsible, lazy, and effete lot of crybabies who believe they are entitled to have a “golden retirement”, unlimited health care, a well tuned economy that produces “meaningful” jobs with good benefits and not too much work and apparently even cooperative weather when they fly.
They elect legislators who tell them that like King Canute they can “hold back the tide”. They have elected the government that they deserve. Pity that their children who did not deserve them as parents (those whose parents did not abandoned or abort them) will be stuck with the consequences also.
I need to clarify – I don’t think it is a good move for airlines to imprison passengers – at the same time, I think it needs to be recognized that the airlines might make the foolish mistake to fly instead of fix.