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Newark Delays Trigger Passenger Rights Bill in NJ

Airlines could be fined $1,000 per passenger for delays

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 1, 2007

Those are the key tenets of a Passenger Bill of Rights about to be introduced to the New Jersey State Legislature.

According to its sponsor, Assemblyman Samuel Thompson (R-Monmouth), the bill would hold airlines more accountable to their passengers. He says it’s long overdue.

Newark Liberty International, the state’s biggest airport, led the nation in delays last year.

But that wasn’t the only problem.

Less than two months ago, a Continental flight from Amsterdam made an unscheduled overnight stop because of faulty plumbing, which failed again when the plane left Europe. Toilets overflowed into the cabin and passengers allegedly had difficulty eating and breathing.

Thompson’s bill calls for an Office of the Airline Consumer Advocate to be established within the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs.

A similar bill of rights for passengers has already become law in neighboring New York State, while a federal bill has been introduced to Congress by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). Like the proposed New Jersey legislation, the Congressional version orders airlines to allow passengers to leave any plane that sits on the tarmac more than three hours.

Complaints about cancellations, delays, and diversions are rising rapidly, according to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT). Comparing the months of May in 2006 and 2007, respectively, such complaints rose 78 per cent – even worse than 46 per cent hike in complaints about lost luggage from one May to the next.

In an effort to soothe dissatisfied customers, several airlines have started their own bills of rights for passengers. JetBlue was the first after nine of its planes were caught on the John F. Kennedy tarmac for up to 10 hours during a Valentine’s Day ice storm.

It will disembark tarmac-stranded passengers after five hours, while a new American Airlines policy will let people leave after four.

Many consumers insist that’s still too long: the web-based Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, with 16,000 members, is pushing for a three-hour limit.

Legislated limits are unnecessary, according to the Air Transport Association (AAA), a trade group that represents U.S. carriers. According to ATA spokesman David Castelveter, just 36 departures out of 7.2 million in 2006 suffered tarmac delays exceeding five hours.

The association suggests that airlines are best equipped to improve the flying experience.

Problems persist, however, because of a malevolent blend of bad weather, old technology, shortages of pilots and air-traffic controllers, and a proliferation of planes produced by a new emphasis on small regional jets that consume less fuel, cost less to operate, and provide more schedule flexibility.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is trying to convince airlines to restore larger planes and cut schedules to ease runway gridlock. It is also hoping to replace 50-year-old radar systems with global-positioning satellites – an expensive transition that is years away.

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