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 That wait is likely to continue, despite a court ruling that the federal government
-- not the states, must be responsible for regulating the airline industry.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a New York state law requiring that airlines provide basic services to passengers cooped up for hours on tarmacs. That shifted attention back to Congress, which was already considering legislation to protect travelers from the indignities of long hours in cabins with stale air, overflowing bathrooms and little food and water.
The court's decision, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.," reinforces the need to move forward at the federal level to protect the flying public." Last year, Boxer introduced a passenger bill of rights bill with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine,
The House last September approved, as part of a major bill to finance and modernize the Federal Aviation Administration, measures demanding that airlines draw up plans to allow passengers to deplane following excessive delays. The Transportation Department would be given authority to fine carriers that don't adhere to contingency arrangements.
But a Senate version, which includes passengers rights provisions, is stalled by disputes between the Finance and Commerce committees over how to pay for modernizing the FAA. Chances of the Senate taking it up in this election-year session are shaky and the White House has threatened to veto the House-passed bill over policy and money issues.
Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., who chairs the House Transportation subcommittee on aviation, said he hoped people would tell their senators to act quickly to pass a bill so the House and Senate can work out a compromise.
With every passing day, he said, the air traffic control system that causes the delays becomes older and people "lack the consumer protections that are in our bill and we think they are entitled to."
Kate Hanni, a California real estate agent who formed the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights after sitting aboard a grounded plane for more than eight hours, said she's still hopeful Congress will act this year, either with a separate passenger rights bill or as part of the FAA package.
"I do believe that Congress is going to take it up. I think they realize that enough is enough," she said. And "the airlines are tired of seeing themselves in the evening news."
She said that at a House Transportation Committee hearing on flight delays next month she plans to play some of the anguished calls her coalition's hotline gets from people stranded on runways.
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 Hanni's congressman, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., is the sponsor of bill of rights legislation in the House that was incorporated in the FAA bill. He said that despite the New York decision he expected states, including California, to legislate their own rights laws. Bans on cigarettes in planes, he said, originated at the state level.
Any legislation is sure to meet resistance both from the Bush administration, which doesn't like adding to federal regulations, and the airline industry, which says it is already addressing the issue.
David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the airlines' main industry trade group, said that "voluntary measures are the best choice because they do not result in unintended consequences for passengers," such as forcing a plane back to the boarding gate after a three-hour delay even if it is within minutes of being cleared for takeoff.
He said the Transportation Department recently created a task force to look into ways to reduce tarmac delays and improve service in the event of delays. "It just can't be a mandatory rule. We've got to have flexibility built into the process so that if we need to wait it out for the right reasons we have the ability to do that."
There was a similar debate in 1999 when Congress moved to pass a passenger bill of rights after foul weather in Detroit resulted in people sitting in a plane for more than seven hours. Lawmakers put off a vote after the industry outlined plans for voluntary steps to improve service.
Castelveter said that, while more needs to be done, the industry is following through because "if we fail our customers, we lose our customers."
But the last time the industry promised to handle the problem, "they failed to do so and the FAA failed to make sure they did so on a voluntary basis," Costello said. "It's time for Congress to act."
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On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/
Air Transport Association: http://www.airlines.org/
Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights: http://www.flyersrights.org/
[Associated
Press; By JIM ABRAMS]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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