Will the Airline Industry Step up on a Passenger’s Bill of Rights?
Feb. 24, 2007. There could be nothing more frustrating than heading off to your favorite luxury vacation rental for much –needed rejuvenation only to be trapped for hours on an airplane sitting on the ground. That is the situation that many vacationers have found themselves in with the winter storms that airlines have faced in the last few months.
In the case of Kate Hanni, a realtor who was headed to the gulf coast with her family during for a holiday vacation in December--only to be trapped on the tarmac of an airport in Austin before being allowed to get off and spend the night at a hotel at her own expense--it was a call for action. As reported in the Associated Press, she began a blog that resulted in a petition drive for an airline passenger’s bill of rights.
As shown by this thread of blogs in the Washington Post, it has become a hot topic among airline passengers. The issue came to a head in the recent meltdown of Jet Blue, when some passengers were trapped on airplanes sitting on the ground for as long as ten and a half hours. Members of Congress have begun introducing legislation to provide better protection for airline passengers. Among the authors of legislation are Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, Senator John McCain, and Senator Barbara Boxer.
Clearly there is a sense that airlines can’t be trusted to police themselves, and therefore a new law must be passed. It is clear that a new law will be passed unless the industry shows some leadership and deals with this problem in a meaningful way. The industry trade association, the Air Transport Association, has issued a rather weak statement that seeks in part to shift the blame. However, they did offer one sensible idea, calling on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “to work with airlines to allow long-delayed flights to return to terminals in order to offload passengers who choose to disembark – without losing that flight’s position in the departure sequence.�
However, if the industry is to avoid intrusive Federal regulation that might hamper the efficiency of airlines and cost consumers more in the end, the industry and its trade association must step up and develop their own passengers bill of rights that they will adhere to. This is one of the valuable roles that a trade association can perform-- the development of industry standards. That is the only way that a group of fierce competitors can work together to solve a problem such as this. If there is a concern about antitrust violations the Department of Transportation can act as a partner in the development of industry standards.
We strongly believe that customers of both airlines and lodging operators are entitled to expect certain standards. That is why we established the VRO Standards of Quality for our vacation rental listings. If the airline industry fails to step up and guarantee humane and fair treatment of passengers, they can be sure that thousands of people will join in the grass roots movement for a passenger bill of rights and add their names to the petition found at The Travel Insider.
+
