Passenger Bill of Rights Gains Support

In the past, America's airlines could count on some major business organizations to help them fend off a proposed "Passengers' Bill of Rights."

That support, however, appears to be eroding.

The National Business Travel Association and the Business Travel Coalition have switched sides, and now support the establishment of federal rules which would allow passengers trapped for hours on a jetliner stuck at the gate or on an airport taxi-way to get off.

And now, former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall has joined the cause.

Crandall told a meeting on Capitol Hill he supports a Senate bill that would require airlines to give passengers the opportunity to deplane from a long-delayed jet. The former airline executive suggested modifying the bill, however. The proposed legislation would give the passenger an opt-out opportunity for a jet delayed more than three hours.

Crandall suggested that, for the first year of the law, the trigger be four hours' delay. That, he said, would allow the airlines time to get used to the rule. After one year, Crandall suggested the rule then be reduced to three hours' delay.

A group called FlyersRights helped organize the meeting. It's Executive Director, Kate Hanni, got trapped on a delayed airliner in 2006. She and her family were on the tarmac in Austin for nine hours and 17 minutes.

"It was sickening... the toilets were all overflowing," recalled Hanni. "Women were making diapers out of t-shirts for their babies. They had run out of diapers, run out of formula. No potable water was on the plane for the last six hours. No food. And no help. And no hope."

That's when Hanni became and activist.

The Air Transport Association (ATA) has successfully fended off a Bill of Rights law for ten years. ATA spokeswoman Elizabeth Merida said some airport taxi-ways are not designed to turn around a plane for a return to a gate.

She also pointed out if a passenger demands to get off, and the plane goes back to the gate, that jet loses its priority number in the queue on the taxi-way. That, she said, would delay the remaining passengers.

California Senator Barbara Boxer appears ready to deliver legislation mandating a passenger opportunity to leave a delayed jet. The House has already passed a bill, and Boxer and her allies plan to have the Senate pass stronger legislation.

Differences would be ironed out in a conference meeting later.