The August 7 tarmac delay of a Continental Airlines flight operated by regional carrier ExpressJet has for the first time brought together the U.S. Transportation Secretary, a leading passenger rights advocate and the Executive Director of the Business Travel Coalition with a single message: the time has come for Congress to pass passenger rights legislation.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Kate Hanni who is the founder of the Coalition for Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, and Kevin Mitchell representing the business travelers are on the same page this time around. All three seem to believe that the Rochester, Minnesota delay on-board a tightly packed 50-seat regional jet may just be the impetus needed to get the bill moving.
“I think it’s the final push the passenger rights legislation needs,” said Mitchell. ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) has long been a proponent of legislation in this regard. Both houses of Congress have tarmac-delay rules included as part of the FAA funding reauthorization package for next year.
Hanni’s organization has been pushing for Congressional action for years. Flyersrights.com is the reason that the Transportation Department added tarmac delays to its monthly reports, and past errors in the reports have been recalculated because of pressure from the organization. She believes that airlines and the DOT are regularly under-reporting flight delays to the government.
The flight that has brought this issue back to the forefront was scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis/St. Paul shortly before midnight but diverted to Rochester due to thunderstorms. The passengers remained on-board for six hours with no food or beverages and one smelly and dirty lavatory. There were two babies on the flight as well. The delay and why the passengers were not deplaned into the airport terminal until 6 a.m. is being investigated by the Department of Transportation as well as Continental, which has issued a refund to each passenger as well as a voucher for future travel. The flight finally arrived in the Twin at 10:13 a.m. on Saturday, August 8, after a new flight crew arrived to operate the aircraft. The flight crew from Houston had lost their flight legality during the course of the delay.
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