One has to wonder as they were diverting planes this morning because of the fog in LaGuardia if the passengers and crew were going nuts saying please, don't let me still be here till tonight, any airport but this one.

A couple of senators are trying to get some action on the tarmac delays, asking the DOT to actually impose fines on airlines (to date, no airline has been fined even though there have been delays, which is not a shock, there are way too many loopholes in the rules), and explain why there have not been any fines yet.

From their press release

Nov 11,2011 - Boxer, Snowe Urge DOT to Enforce New Rules on Tarmac Delays

Recent 7-Hour Tarmac Stranding Highlights Need to Enforce Penalties Under DOT Rules

Washington, D.C. � U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sent a letter urging the Department of Transportation (DOT) to diligently enforce the agency�s rules on tarmac delays, which include fines against airlines that violate regulations on extended tarmac delays.

dot dot dot

In the letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Senators Boxer and Snowe wrote, �While the rule has been successful at reducing these incidents so far, it is troubling that even though there have been several cases in which extended tarmac delays have occurred, so far no fines have been levied against airlines that have violated the rule. In circumstances where the airline was in fact the cause of an extended tarmac delay we are concerned that if the rule is not enforced, we risk having more incidents such as the recent extended tarmac delays.�

The Senators asked the agency to provide updated information on other incidents where violations may have occurred. Senators Boxer and Snowe also pointed out that their legislation includes a key consumer protection the rule does not � a requirement that airports have contingency plans in place to prevent extended tarmac delays � and asked the DOT to review whether this requirement could have helped the stranded passengers on Jet Blue Flight 504.

A bit of info from JetBlue

JetBlue Airways met with U.S. transportation officials this week over why five of its flights were diverted to Hartford, Connecticut and 550 passengers were stuck on the ground for hours during October's freak Northeast snowstorm.

dot dot dot

``Nothing was resolved - and we didn't expect anything to be resolved. The DOT will continue their investigation on their own pace and we will participate as requested and needed,'' JetBlue spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said.

The U.S. Transportation Department declined to discuss Tuesday's meeting with JetBlue operations personnel.

And the lawsuits have started

Syracuse, NY -- JetBlue is being sued in Syracuse by passengers who got stuck on a tarmac in Connecticut while flying to New York City and New Jersey during a snowstorm that socked in much of the East Coast in late October.

The suit is filed here because the United State District Court for the Northern District of New York is a bit less congested than some others, said Peter Cambs, of Parker Waichman Alonso LLP, which filed the suit. Cambs said the suit could be filed anywhere JetBlue does business.

JetBlue landed six planes at Bradley International Airport, outside Hartford, Conn., during the storm, according to the lawsuit. Passengers were stuck on the plane for more than seven hours, as water and food supplies ran out, toilets failed and "rolling power outages" left passengers in the dark, the lawsuit says.

One of the plaintiffs "suffers from anxiety, depression and claustrophobia," the lawsuit says. She was unable to get to anti-anxiety and anti-depression medications which were in her stowed luggage.

There was an article today in The Hartford Courant: http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...,7177828.story

The plane crammed with hundreds of passengers Oct. 29 could have been accommodated at other airports if airlines had known so many flights were going to Bradley, Babbitt said. Instead, travelers were stuck on planes, some for more than seven hours, after 28 flights were diverted to Bradley because of weather and equipment problems at New York area airports.


Gee, you think?

What the hell is wrong with New York airports?

Fixed?

http://www.masslive.com/business-new...lan_shoul.html

As reported, the plan will address the short comings that led to issues when 29 planes got dumped on Bradley during the October storm
- creating a new sterile area with 2 refurbished gates in the unused terminal B w/bathrooms & supplies.
- better and backup communications
- Policy changes from all the 3 lettered organizations to allow this

Also reported was the plan was put into effect during a diversion during a January snow storm

Terminal B is supposed to be torn down and replaced, funding permitting, so this is temporary, but it's temporary to the extend that the state doesn't have the funds for the terminal B project either.

I think having a drive by gate to get people off a plane is a great solution, hopefully something other airlines will also consider. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, even an area they can move a stairway up to the plane and just walk people inside, move the plane and do the next one.

Hopefully good will come out of it and it can be implemented in other airports, though of course the real solution is to not send too many airplanes into the same airport, no matter what the weather is.

My conjecture is they are using the entire Terminal B so they can lock down International Passengers. I'd go further and say that if they had one international flight in there already, they would probably divert the any domestics to Terminal A and hope there's a gate.

I think that was the communications part of the plan.

I'm not confident there but I wouldn't mind being wrong. BDL happened to have Terminal B lying around. I don't think there's too many airports that have that 'luxury' so to speak. The plan itself and the compromises that all the 3 lettered organizations had to make might bode well though, towards some future sanity. Likewise for the communications part of the plan -- these days few folks seem to have viable disaster recovery plans. They're on paper, but I don't know how many survive first contact with reality.

I personally find BDL easy. Not crowded and such.

Why is BDL SOOOO much more expensive....especially than PVD?
I'm flying out of PVD for Jul4....driving from Hartford, parking, and am going to save almost $250!
BDL is NOT competitive lately. They're milking their "convenience" to the extreme.

Maybe the previous post should be a new thread -- this thread relates to last year's winter storm diversions to BDL.

Simple

Because they can.

People are more than willing to pay the extra not to go to the other airports.

That and JetBlue is rarely the most competitive on price to most of its destinations. And if there is ever and IRROP it's really just hope for the best.