Originally Posted by
dliesse
The only problem with this regulation is that the burden is placed only on the airline, when in many cases the airline is stuck because the airport can't do anything about it.
On the bright side, airport operators, as a rule, understand that this requires a cooperative effort on the part of all players. The current issue of Airport magazine has an article on how the three major southeast Florida airports (MIA, FLL, PBI) are working with the airlines on developing local plans. The use of buses is specifically included.
The airlines are the ones in the best position to address the issue of passengers stuck on planes for too long; they are not "stuck" as long as they can make arrangements to let passengers off.
What was preventing the airlines from working with airports on these plans prior to the passage of the regulation? I'm glad to see that the law is finally encouraging the airlines to take care of passengers. They should have been doing this all along.
Originally Posted by
FlyingNone
Don't be so quick to blame the airlines. Thanks to Kate Hanni and her passengerrights.org (or whatever). She's the one who really lobbied for all of this and won. Granted she was stuck on an AA flight for eight hours on the tarmac but I feel these (horrific) examples have been far and few between. What this will truly foster are cancelled flights due to WX or ATC with no protection for many hours or even days due to full flights (most of the time). Gate agents will be swamped with needing to rebook (to what ????) hundreds of passengers on any one given 3-4 hour window (possibly multipled x several flights returning to the gate?). I don't relish having to disappoint businessmen returning home, families going on vacation, to weddings, funerals, school, etc. etc. This will be a disaster, I predict.
Cancellations can be dealt with. The disasters, IMHO, were the many cases when the airline left passengers to rot on planes.