Originally Posted by
Teacher49
To have people sit on the tarmac for so long is absolutely inexcusable. Offloading planes by rotating them to the gate would be expensive and a PITA for the airlines both for off-loading and re-boarding, for sure. But there must be a time limit on such things.
One of the things that scares me about any legislation is that sometimes it pushes obligations on the wrong place. Here AA had the option of the PITA route but didn't take it. A point I made in another thread here is what would have happened if, say, an Lufthansa A340 ended up in AUS because of bad weather? Does the obligation fall on ABIA and the City of Austin to provide a gate for an un-familiar aircraft, operated by a carrier with no local base? How should the passengers be quarantined for immigration purposes? As an Austin taxpayer I feel some responsibility to help out the weary traveller because I hope they'll do the same for me some day, but how much compulsion do you write into a bill?