Airline passengers are people, not cargo
I’ve been stuck in a plane for an hour or longer, waiting for takeoff, and it wasn’t any fun. The fact that airlines have the legal power to keep you on that plane, on the runway, within sight of the terminal, for four, five six or nine hours if it suits their needs is just ridiculous. If you complain too loudly, they have you arrested.
That has to change, but it seems unlikely anytime soon.
From a press release from FlyersRights.org:
“Legislation scheduled to come before the House of Representatives this week would let commercial airlines themselves decide how long to force passengers to remain in their aircraft on the tarmac, according to Kate Hanni, Executive Director of FlyersRights.org, America’s largest consumer organization representing airline passengers.
“The Federal Aviation Administration bill is cleared for takeoff, but passengers have been left at the gate,” charged Hanni, who is concerned that “the bill gives the airlines the legal authority to keep us stranded on the tarmac for as long as they want.”
“Both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-sponsored legislation to impose a 3-hour limit on tarmac delays when they were in Congress, but House leaders didn’t get the memo. Their bill does force airlines to at least have adequate food and water on board should a tarmac stranding occur, but that’s small comfort when you’re sitting in an economy-class seat for 7, 8, or even 9 hours — and that’s exactly what this legislation lets the airlines do.”
Hanni, who founded FlyersRights.org after she herself was stranded on an American Airlines flight from San Francisco to Dallas in 2006, said “there is nothing so frustrating as to be held hostage inside a locked tube for over 9 hours on the ground in an economy seat.”
“The least Congress should do is to mandate a ‘bright line standard’ requiring airlines to allow passengers off the aircraft and back into the relative comfort of the terminal after 3 hours.”
Amen, sister, amen. As the release points out, the Canadian Parliament is considering a law imposing a one-hour maximum wait. In response, “four leading Canadian commercial airlines have voluntarily agreed to self-impose a 90-minute limit, Hanni said.”
So a three-hour limit hardly seems extreme.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
118 comments Add your comment
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 20th, 2009
8:36 am
Oh good, a government take over of the airline industry.
In 1913, for instance, thinking it was being overcharged by the steel companies for armor plate for warships, the federal government decided to build its own plant. It estimated that a plant with a 10,000-ton annual capacity could produce armor plate for only 70% of what the steel companies charged.
When the plant was finally finished, however — three years after World War I had ended — it was millions over budget and able to produce armor plate only at twice what the steel companies charged. It produced one batch and then shut down, never to reopen.-WSJ
The grass is always greener on the other side, at least until you get to the other side, then it’s greener back where you were before, so you go back, and then the grass looks greener over yonder, liberalism, insaaaaaaaannnnnity.
eeewwww.
ty webb
May 20th, 2009
8:43 am
I agree with the Canucks. It shouldn’t be longer than an hour.
Taxpayer
May 20th, 2009
8:50 am
Well, I think this is one scenario where the free market will find a way to deal with it. Irate former customers and a competitor advertising no such frustrating waits along with plenty of advertisements, nasty e-mails, etc., should do the trick.
Bud Wiser
May 20th, 2009
8:51 am
Obozo spreads his wings all over the country, and no, we don’t like the way he flies. Adored by the sycophant and non-functional media and the slobbering masses, he pushes crap down the throat of America on a daily basis. Look at the stat sheets – the airlines have been bleeding billions for over a decade now, and that is when they are being run allegedly by airline people. And the federal government is on its way to bleeding trillions (that’s with a T), and someone wants them to take over? Puhleeze.
BTW, anyone notice the new taxes coming every day as well? Obozo wants to allow the credit card companies to be able now to start charging interest against YOUR borrowing from the moment your card is swiped. Of course, the revenue generated is going back to the fed to pay back the billions sent out in TARP and elsewhere, so even the basic village idiot democrat should be able to see this is nothing more than an additional tax. And this is from the liar, Mr “Hope and Change”, saying still that 95% of Americans will pay lower taxes?
If you do not feel totally stupid and duped by now, then there is no hope for you. Dr Kervorkian is out of prison, give him a call.
Functional brain Americans will continue to fight this socialized takeover of our country. The rest of you go crawl back under your rocks, or just sit at home and watch those ‘Good Times’ reruns.
ByteMe
May 20th, 2009
8:56 am
People need to stop acting like penned sheep in these circumstances and risk arrest by having a mass fake epileptic fit at the 90-minute mark. If everyone on the plane does it, the CDC will get involved and claim it’s a health risk to keep people trapped in a hollow aluminum tube with only Dasani water and pretzels.
Paul
May 20th, 2009
8:56 am
Good luck. I’m leaving tomorrow. Only consolation is it’s a direct flight so the opportunities to get hosed are reduced.
And thanks for one more example where the Party of the Common Man complains loud and long about an issue… but fails to pass legislation to correct the problem or to keep a bad situation from happening again.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 20th, 2009
8:57 am
So a three-hour limit hardly seems extreme.
Now now, Jay. Forcing our Godly Free Innerprize job-providers to be even half as humane as those Crypto-Commies to the North is obviously going to break the back of the airline industry.
Why do you hate our way of life?
Redneck Convert
May 20th, 2009
8:57 am
Well, I see they found this little critter they claim is the link between us and monkeys. I expect if they look a little harder they’ll find the mud pit where God made Adam and maybe a piece of the rib God used to make Eve. They might could even find the stump of the apple tree where Satan tempted Eve and maybe a part of the bones of the snake he used for a disguise. There’s so much Truth in the Bible story of how humans got here on earth. It figures the first wife would sneak away from her husband and go raid the Frigidaire and get in trouble. She was probly counting on coming back and whining to Adam about how much weight she was gaining and how she didn’t hardly eat nothing and how everything she touched turned to fat.
Anyhow, that’s the kind of science I want schools to teach the kids. We don’t need a bunch of pinheads in white coats in a lab to explain how things are. If we prayed hard enough maybe God would send back Oral Roberts or maybe Bennie Hinn as a pinch hitter to say Heal! and we wouldn’t need hospitles and doctors and all that stuff. And the only place we’re going to get that kind of science is private Christian schools.
Anyways, there’s a easy way to deal with the problem of flying. Just don’t do it. I don’t need to be trapped in a plane for hours or put next to a guy in a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt with his nekkid hairy feet in sandals and sticking out. If you can’t drive your truck to a place, just don’t go there. I been thinking about a vacation to California or maybe Hawaii but I plan to drive there. You won’t see me on a plane. If God had of wanted us to fly, you would of been born with little wings on your back.
Have a good day everybody.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 20th, 2009
8:59 am
trapped in a hollow aluminum tube with only Dasani water and pretzels.
if you’re lucky.
TW
May 20th, 2009
9:01 am
Can’t imagine the CIA lying.
The flawless performance leading up to 9/11, and then the WMD abortion really serve to lock up their crediblity…flawless…
geez
Taxpayer
May 20th, 2009
9:04 am
Let’s get the government off the backs of airlines (as long as I’m not lined up with one of their flight paths) and make our GOPers a little happier. Let’s see, no rules or regulations — the GOP way. No more government-mandated inspections of people or baggage or anything. No more FAA. No more government involvement in air traffic control. No more government rules regarding the inspection of airplanes. Don’t worry about those little cracks — they’re hardly visible. A little paint will cover them up. Fly the friendly skies of Andy’s Airways. Shudder!!!!
georgian by birth floridian because I'm lucky
May 20th, 2009
9:04 am
Can’t imagine a grown up who thought we won the Alamo, but stuff happens.
RW-(the original)
May 20th, 2009
9:07 am
Why is the answer always government intervention? There couldn’t be a much more perfect scenario where free market forces would provide a better fix. If airline A says stfd and stfu while airline B says you won’t ever be trapped on our planes for more than a reasonable time without ample compensation airline A will be soon be selling what’s left of its fleet to airline B.
Off to the forest. See y’all upstairs later.
Davo
May 20th, 2009
9:07 am
Next column by Bookman…
‘What’s the Govt going to do about my stinky butt?’
Grow a pair why don’t ya.
ByteMe
May 20th, 2009
9:08 am
DBG: I’m on a flight tonight about 9 pm that’s supposed to be 4 1/2 hours long and I might get Dasani and pretzels… but they’ll happily sell me food on it! As Andy says: ewwwwww…..
Taxpayer
May 20th, 2009
9:10 am
‘What’s the Govt going to do about my stinky butt?’
What they always do. Brown nose right before election time.
Mrs. Godzilla
May 20th, 2009
9:17 am
How long have passengers been complaining about this? YEARS.
If “free market” forces were going to solve the problem, should not the problem have been solved by now?
Regulate the damn airlines. Now.
Taxpayer
May 20th, 2009
9:17 am
I was thinking about starting up a company that makes meals, for airline passengers, that can be purchased from vending machines or WalMart, etc. They’re ultra light weight and compact. Just add water to the collapsed bottle of de-hydrated Desani (natural dried fruit flavors available for an added charge), for instance, and enjoy a refreshing drink any time.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 20th, 2009
9:25 am
If airline A says stfd and stfu
Such vulgarity!
Taxpayer
May 20th, 2009
9:27 am
We should have high speed rail for at least the short trips. Making those stupid trips by plane from Atlanta to Birmingham, for example, for a two-hour meeting was crazy. I think we need tunnels with passenger ‘cars’ that move using air flow — like the tubes used in the drive-throughs at banks. Whoosh!
TW
May 20th, 2009
9:28 am
“Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that current Speaker Nancy Pelosi should resign, saying the California Democrat had destroyed her credibility by saying the CIA has repeatedly misled Congress.”
And speaking of crediblity…
Doggone/GA
May 20th, 2009
9:32 am
I’ve NEVER had a problem with being stuck on an airplane. Never. Of course, I never fly either.
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
May 20th, 2009
9:42 am
Jay, your new, more lenient filter wrongfully snared me – what word am I using that reduse my work to a 50% post rate?
Red
May 20th, 2009
9:47 am
By now, we should have already had the tired old conservative argument affirmed: get a good job and fly first class and you won’t need to worry about being stuck on the tarmac for 9 hours.
So now that ‘hearts have been broken’ so to speak, I’m with Doggone-I never fly anymore. Used to be a Gold Medallion flyer with Delta, but now that the TSA has a scanner that lets them see your naughty parts, I refuse to submit.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 20th, 2009
9:47 am
Obviously, if US carriers were to voluntarily agree to such a standard without having it mandated by law that works too. There are a lot of sticks that the Feds could use to effect this change.
We haven’t had the little chat about taxing frequent flier mile rewards from business travel as income lately, for instance.
Bosch
May 20th, 2009
9:49 am
I want to live in RW’s world where everything works out and nothing bad ever happens – and unicorns run around in my yard.
Bosch
May 20th, 2009
9:50 am
Red,
I don’t have a problem with such a scanner – they wanna see my naughty parts – go for it. I’ll walk through there naked without the scanner if they want me too.
Midori
May 20th, 2009
9:50 am
TW,
check out the putz’s appearance on The Daily Show last night: http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Bosch
May 20th, 2009
9:51 am
DB,
“We haven’t had the little chat about taxing frequent flier mile rewards from business travel as income lately, for instance”
Shut up!!!
DB, Gwinnettian
May 20th, 2009
9:54 am
“By now, we should have already had the tired old conservative argument affirmed: get a good job and fly in a corporate jet and you won’t need to worry about being stuck on the tarmac for 9 hours.”
Fixed your typo.
By the way, the resident conservatives appear to be slipping. Used to be whenever airplanes were mentioned they’d be ready with the usual Pelosi Jet urban legends.
sd
May 20th, 2009
9:59 am
I start to panic if we sit on the tarmac more than 10 minutes. I can’t imagine being trapped in that plane for hours upon hours.
I might freak out and get arrested to be honest.
I feel like if a passenger asks to get off that plane and the airline knows that it will be more than 30 minutes before take off, they should let the passenger off. Its false imprisonment to keep someone against their will.
godless heathen
May 20th, 2009
10:00 am
I’m all for less government regulation, but the reason that the FAA should smack down the airlines on this issue is because the government is really the entity that won’t let you off the d*mn plane. It’s a crime to get off or to raise hell about it If it weren’t a crime, when you got tired of waiting, you could say “Scwu it, I’m outta here.” Pop that EE and slide down off the wing,
Red
May 20th, 2009
10:00 am
Cheers to ya DB, I’m just too plebian to suppose on such a grand scale.
cranky old man
May 20th, 2009
10:02 am
I work for an airline, and I don’t think going back to the gate after 3 hours is necessarily an unreasonable expectation. There are a few things to bear in mind, however:
1. At a major airport where take-offs have been delayed, but landings have continued for a couple of hours, there may not be enough gates available to accomodate this rule. While it’s possible to roll out stairs and disembark on the tarmac, this creates a new set of headaches, including safety issues.
2. Forcing a plane back to the gate after 3 hours will probably delay that flight for several additional hours, when it might have actually been another 30-60 minutes from take-off. In many cases, it can cause a complete cancellation due to the crew coming up against their mandatory rest requirements.
3. One major airport delaying or cancelling flights more than absolutely necessary will cause a massive domino effect throughout the country, as each of these planes will now be out of position to make its next scheduled flight.
Bosch
May 20th, 2009
10:03 am
Is it still a rule when flying into National Airport at DC (or is that Ronald Reagan Airport) that you can’t stand up or get out of your seat 30 minutes before landing or taking off?
TW
May 20th, 2009
10:04 am
Thanks, Mid – I think the DNC is paying him
Yes, we need More Laws
May 20th, 2009
10:04 am
Do we really need YET ANOTHER law for something the paying public and easily influence? If the airlines set the rules themselves and public complains, the are more likely to change and extremely more likely to change quickly. I’m sure it’s aim of all the “Evil” corporate airlines to hold you against your will. Quit your b!t**** and vote with your dollars.
El Jefe
May 20th, 2009
10:08 am
Why is it that only 2 sectors of our economy treat the customer like dirt?
Airlines and new car sales
Both charge whatever they want, same plane, same flight, 15 different prices for the same coach seat.
Send ten folks in to buy a car and you will find 10 differnt prices for the same make and model.
Out of this mess, we have two sectors that try to work outside capitalism, and both are failing.
Hmm, this might be a trend as to how the government is being run.
jewcowboy
May 20th, 2009
10:08 am
I’ve had to start flying quite a bit more for work, and I’ve found why you pay for business or first class and it has nothing to do with the actual service or flight. It has everything to do with sitting on the tarmac for 3 hours while a ground stop is in effect for Toledo, when you are at LaGuardia flying to Miami. I’ve found these delays are quite common, with the average being about an hour. I can imagine being in a coach seat for 90 minutes extra would be really intolerable.
I’m lucky my organization still springs for Business/First, but quite frankly, it’s hit or miss on the service aspect; I just do it for the legroom.
Joey
May 20th, 2009
10:09 am
The carbon footprint of the Air Transportation Industy is reprehensible. In order to save Earth we must adopt new regulations for airlines as well as private air transportation.
* No flight may load passengers until tickets sales equal 80% of the plane capacity. Combine flights if necessary. (Why can’t 45 Air Tran passengers to Detroit be carried by the half empty Delta plane that leaves 22 minutes later? Saves fuel, saves time. Income is the same so even the flight crew could be paid. For connections and continuing flights; we have computers. It can be figured out.)
* If the time between gate departure and take-off will be more than 30 minutes, the flight must be rescheduled at another time. Ideally it would be an off-peak time. We must end the grid-lock at our airports.
All I have time for now.
This pollution from air traffic is destroying Earth.
Bosch
May 20th, 2009
10:09 am
“If the airlines set the rules themselves and public complains, the are more likely to change and extremely more likely to change quickly”
What frakkin’ planet do these people live on? Not Earth.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 20th, 2009
10:10 am
2. Forcing a plane back to the gate after 3 hours will probably delay that flight for several additional hours, when it might have actually been another 30-60 minutes from take-off. In many cases, it can cause a complete cancellation due to the crew coming up against their mandatory rest requirements.
If this is an insurmountable issue due to real-life congestion, perhaps some kind of mandatory refunding mechanism (sliding scale based on >3 hr wait; say, would be an alternative? Just thinking out loud.
And before the Ayn-Fanboys start freaking, duh, if you can get industry to do this voluntarily that’s swell.
Nancy Pelosi
May 20th, 2009
10:11 am
What’s it like to fly in a commercial airplane?
Please answer in 20 words or less. With all of my limo riding, bob-bon eating and pedicures, I don’t have much time for reading responses from the plebes.
md
May 20th, 2009
10:11 am
For many of the big airlines, its too many planes and no where to put them. Your plane is not the only one flying around out there, its a big domino effect usually created by mother nature and the airlines have no control. Like atl “slinky” traffic, you stop on the freeway because grandma changed lanes 2 hours before. For every plane sitting on the ground, there are even more in the air that have to come down before they fall out of the sky. It is not an easy solution.
Having said all that, there should be a time limit, but the airlines are afraid of losing their place in line when they bring the plane back to the gate, then you sit in the terminal for 2 days.
And I hope many of you know you can take your own food onboard. We always pack snacks in a carry on, make sandwichs for longer flights, or hit the Chic-fil-a or burger doodle on the way to the gate and take it with for consumption a little while later. Beats the heck out of the airline snacks and a lot cheaper too.
jewcowboy
May 20th, 2009
10:14 am
Yes, we need More Laws.
“If the airlines set the rules themselves and public complains, the are more likely to change and extremely more likely to change quickly.”
That really cracked me up. You obviously do not fly often. Deregulation has done almost exactly the opposite of its intention. Yes, fares are lower, but airlines have an almost monopolistic grip on most hubs, and routes. Try flying from Atlanta to Omaha. A 30-day advanced coach ticket is about $1300. You can fly another airline for about $800 less, but it takes you about 17 hours to get there, because of connections.
jewcowboy
May 20th, 2009
10:18 am
Nancy Pelosi,
The fact you doesn’t fly commercial doesn’t have anything to do with fact that you are 2nd in line of Presidential succession does it?
jewcowboy
May 20th, 2009
10:19 am
“The fact you doesn’t”
Oh, my English teacher would be shaking her head right now!
chuck
May 20th, 2009
10:20 am
Why would ANYBODY fly to B’ham from ATL? That’s crazy. It takes longer to find a place to park and go through security than it does to drive to Birmingham.
Nancy Pelosi
May 20th, 2009
10:21 am
jewCB writes: “Try flying from Atlanta to Omaha. A 30-day advanced coach ticket is about $1300.”
Does this include the penalty for wanting to fly to Omaha? Or is that self-imposed by the boredom tax in Omaha?
jewcowboy
May 20th, 2009
10:22 am
Joey,
Air transport is about 1.6% of worldwide GHG emissions and about 3.3% of US GHG emission. Your commute to work accounts for more than triple that amount.