Even Congress Is Starting to Hate the Airlines
Flying has become a hated means of travel. Ridiculous security lines, the forced strip down, shrinking leg room, paying for on-board sustenance, massive delays…. the list could go on for quite a while. No wonder being a pilot isn’t what it used to be.
But we should move on to the law part of this. This week, American Airlines canceled 2,400 flights, leaving many stranded in cities across the U.S. It must have included some congressmen’s relatives, because Congress is pissed. They are threatening to finally pass the two-year-old air travelers’ bill of rights.
“There are no excuses. Congress has run out of excuses,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, one of the bill’s original authors. The bill would require airlines to let passengers leave a plane after it has sat on the runway for three hours. It also establishes minimum standards for food, water, and toilet facilities for passengers in planes stuck on the ground for long periods.New York State passed a similar law, but it was struck down last month when an appeals court said such matters must be addressed by the federal government, not individual states.
Hello, federal government? Get on it!
Unfortunately, the legislation does not address canceled flights that never board. We’re sure loyal ATL readers were not grounded this week, since we’ve warned you before about flying American Airlines.
Lawmakers Try to Help Airline Passengers [Associated Press]
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Comments
FIRST...
Wonderful, all this will do is increase the cost of flying even more - stupid Congress.
great idea. i do everything i can to avoid flying. Greyhound with wings. The government should let these airlines go out of business instead of always bailing them out with tax dollars.
This sounds like a great idea on paper, but come on. The airlines are losing money due to higher costs and Congress wants to go out and make running an airline more expensive? Not to worry though, the government always gets things right (eh demos?).
Maybe they should fund an update to the air traffic control system instead? Or, stop bailing out failing airlines? The airlines are acting like a spoiled teenager, they bleed money knowing mom and dad (the fed gov) will bail them out when things go bad. Let 'em fail so the market can adapt and take care of itself. If you are a poorly run airline (United), you should fail.
I'm unsure whether going through some form of boarding/deboarding/reboarding is a good way to speed things up at the airport, but something really needs to be done.
I don't remember air travel being like this in the past. What is it that's slowing everything down now?
If we can't even fix our transport system, we may as well accept that the U.S. is destined to become a third world country within the next 50 years or so.
A democratic congress poised to give a boon the trial lawyers at the expense to consumers? no way!
3:17 - credited on United. That is one company that needs to go down hard.
The reason that American canceled all those flights was because of overregulation, not because of underregulation.