New bill gives airline passengers new rights

Passengers to be protected from agonizing hours in delayed aircraft.

Travel Insurance News - 03/05/2010

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US airline passengers no longer risk being trapped in delayed aircraft for hours without food, water or access to bathroom facilities. In response to several incidents that saw passengers stuck in stationary aircraft for up to 11 hours, the US Department of Transportation implemented a new 'passenger bill of rights'.

The new rules say that passengers on a delayed flight must receive water, snacks and access to a bathroom two hours after an aircraft’s doors close. If the delay lasts three hours, the plane must return to the gate to let passengers deplane.

In 2001, delays on the tarmac left hundreds of passengers stuck on a JetBlue aircraft for 11 hours. In March, passengers on a Virgin America 'flight from hell' endured seven hours on the tarmac and two-and-a-half hours in a bus with little water and just a handful of crisps.

Air passengers are relieved the ‘long overdue’ regulations finally arrived. Airlines call the rules a huge overreaction to a tiny problem. They say less than 0.02 per cent of flights last year experienced delays of three hours or more.

Over ten million scheduled flights passed through US airports last year, so that ‘tiny’ percentage still amounts to more than 2,000 flights being delayed by at least three hours each. Statistically, that means in excess of 150,000 passengers may have experienced the travel horrors the new regulations seek to avoid.

The new rules provide for fines of up to $27,500 per passenger. A fully-loaded Boeing 737 could cost an airline around five million dollars in penalties. The CEO of American Airlines says a three-hour window is very difficult to manage and the result is likely to be a huge increase in the number of cancelled flights.

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