Held Hostage in a Plane?

I heard something interesting on the news yesterday morning and, being the good citizen I am and wanting information to be made public, I thought I’d pass the information on.  I understand it’s unusual for me to do that but hey - I like to keep people informed.

Many are aware that a Federal law passed this past summer that limited the time a commercial plane can sit, fully loaded with passengers, on the tarmac without taking off, to three hours.  This law was supposedly to stop passengers from being inconvenienced by airlines and keep the passengers from basically being held against their will inside a locked plane.

What wasn’t as well publicized was the penalty the airlines would face if they violated this new law and the possible consequences of said law.  The law states that airlines who keep people in the plane longer than three hours could face fines of up to $27,500 per passenger.  So basically, if a plane has 120 passengers on it, the airline could face a fine of up to $3.2 million.  But who does the money go to?  Why, it goes to the Federal government.  Will they (the government) be giving any of it to the passengers?  What do you think?

Most airlines, rather than face such huge fines, are canceling flights if they see their three hour time limit approaching.  I guess the government, in its wisdom, didn’t think about that.  An airline can keep people on a plane for 2 ½  hours then return them to the terminal and there will be no fine.  The passengers can try to sue the airlines but I doubt that will be very successful.  Many will be given alternate flights, and maybe even free air travel at a future date (although that is getting more and more rare) but the Federal government will be the only one who really stands to gain anything if the flight is delayed more than three hours without being cancelled.  It seems to me there are no real winners here, except maybe for the airlines, who have been told “Don’t do that anymore” without a real threat of penalty.

Three hours is too long to be sitting on a stationary airplane on the ground.  I understand the logistics involved in taking a plane back to the terminal, particularly at a busy airport.  But why should paying customers have to be punished because of a weather condition or an air traffic problem?  When you pay for a plane ticket you pay for the ride from point A to point B.  You get a schedule of your departure time and your arrival time and you’re required to abide by that schedule.  You even have to show up two hours early to make sure you get through the security checkpoints in time to make your scheduled departure time.

Yet sometimes you get on the plane, after having done everything correctly and abiding by the schedule you were given, and the airlines keeps you on the ground for hours.  They don’t serve free drinks or free food, you get no amenities, nor do you get, in the case of bad weather, a free ticket for future travel because the weather is out of their control.  So you pay the airlines, you fulfill all your requirements and you get held hostage in a plane on the ground and there’s nothing you can do about it.  And the airlines won’t do anything about it either.  And now the Federal government passed some useless legislation that doesn’t really do anything either, except maybe shorten the time you’ll be held hostage. 

So what’s the solution?  I’m thinking the airlines usually know if the weather, or any other problems, are there before they back away from the gate but to keep things running smoothly they move one plane so they can bring in the next one.  Airlines should be required to not board passengers unless they know the plane is going to depart.  That would solve most of the problems.  If a plane does leave the gate but can’t take off within the hour, it should be returned to a gate and the passengers allowed to deplane.  Paying customers should not be held hostage, period.  And if they are, the government should not be the beneficiary of any fines.  The money should go to the people.  I say instead of paying a fine to the government, the airlines should be required to reimburse the passengers for every hour they sit on the ground.  Full ticket refund for the first hour, twice that for the second and so on.  At least the passengers would get something for their inconvenience.