New Tarmac Delay Rule Draws Praise, Criticism
December 22, 2009 — 9:52 am PST
Updated April 27, 2010 — 4:17 pm PDT
Consumer rights advocates are cheering yesterday’s announcement from the Department of Transportation banning tarmac delays of three hours or more (see yesterday’s related post), but others are not so thrilled with the new rules.
Kate Hanni, of the passenger rights group Flyersrights.org, says the new DOT rule is “a wonderful holiday gift”, adding that it’s “a major victory for any airline passenger who has ever been subjected to an unnecessary tarmac delay and has endured endless hours without food, water, or adequate toilet facilities.”
But the airlines and some other industry watchers say the new rules could have a net negative result for passengers.
The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) believes that the new three-hour rule will have “unintended consequences” as airlines cancel more flights to cope with the new guidelines.
“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,” says ATA President and CEO James C. May. “Lengthy tarmac delays benefit no one.”
One of the most popular aviation bloggers, Brett Snyder, writing as the Cranky Flier, points out that if an aircraft has been sitting on the taxiway for 2 hours and 45 minutes, it will be forced to turn around, even if it is next in line for departure:
“Let’s say that there’s a bad thunderstorm that snarls traffic for the day and your airplane has been inching along the taxiway for about 2 hours and 45 minutes. If that plane won’t be airborne by 3 hours, they have to turn around. It doesn’t matter if they were #1 for departure. Under this rule, the airline will be obligated to turn around and head back to the gate. Now we have a ton of problems – they have to let the passenger off, get the bag out and then get right back in the line at the very end. There is no place-holding allowed. Oh, and there’s a good chance the crew will have had too many hours at that point so they’ll need to find someone else to fly the plane. Now you’ll have a lot of unhappy customers.”
