It’s not likely to be a booming news day, but this change from the Department of Transportation would certainly qualify as good news for this Christmas traveling season … if it actually applied to it. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a series of regulatory changes today sought by air-travel consumers, the biggest one of which requires airlines to release passengers from their jets if they sit on the tarmac for longer than three hours. The new regs also require the planes to have working toilets while on the tarmac, and to supply food and water at the two-hour mark:
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Under the new regulations, airlines operating domestic flights will be able only to keep passengers on board for three hours before they must be allowed to disembark a delayed flight. The regulation provides exceptions only for safety or security or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations. …
Airlines will be required to provide food and water for passengers within two hours of a plane being delayed on a tarmac, and to maintain operable lavatories. They must also provide passengers with medical attention when necessary.
From January to June this year, 613 planes were delayed on tarmacs for more than three hours, their passengers kept on board.
It follows a decision by DoT to fine three airlines a total of $175,000 for forcing passengers to remain on a plane for over six hours in Rochester, MN, when airline employees refused to open a gate so the passengers could deplane. This happens more frequently than people realize, and it’s become enough of a problem to finally get some attention.
There will be a few hundred more, apparently. The new regulations don’t take effect for 120 days. Presumably LaHood cannot act any quicker than that because of the rules for creating new regulations, but it’s difficult to understand why airlines wouldn’t comply immediately — and why they didn’t avoid the new regulations by treating their customers right in the first place.
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