3 hours or you’re off’ law might cause problems
Whenever the government gets involved in micromanaging a business, there’s the risk of unintended consequences for the public.
That’s what I’m worried about with this new three-hour tarmac rule, which goes into effect Thursday.
The rule says that any plane sitting on the tarmac for three hours without giving passengers a chance to get off will face heavy fines.
That seems right. Nobody wants passengers stranded on planes with overflowing toilets, crying babies and a wait with no end in sight.
On the other hand, most airlines would never choose to let a plane sit for hours. So if it does, there’s usually some kind of problem, probably weather-related or traffic delays. Problems at airports are like dominoes — they cascade. Pretty soon the whole thing’s a mess.
Nightmare onboard
We all know that the airlines did this to themselves. Mesaba Airlines ruined it for all carriers when its ground crew in Rochester, Minn., refused a Continental Express jet’s plea to disembark passengers on a dark and gloomy night last August, forcing passengers and crew to sit overnight onboard. That was the last straw for the Department of Transportation, which laid down the new regulations in December.
If airlines and airports can’t behave with common sense, there has to be a law. The regulation is 81 pages long.
It’s too bad the law can’t be one sentence: Common sense should rule.
Now, it’s likely airlines will use the law as an excuse to cancel most bad-weather flights in advance to avoid possible penalties, which run $27,500 per passenger if the plane isn’t off the tarmac in three hours.
With fewer flights overall, more passengers will find they can’t rebook anytime soon.
I’m also afraid the airlines will cancel instead of delay any flight that goes back to the gate.
And who knows what will happen to checked luggage in the cargo hold if some passengers want to get off a flight and others do not?
Food, water, toilets
The rule does have loopholes that could still leave planes stranded in the next blizzard. There are exemptions for “safety or security or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations,” DOT regulations say.
That’s kind of a large loophole.
About 900 flights last year sat on the tarmac for three hours or more, according to the DOT.
All my worries aside, the new regulations do have some great provisions in it for, um, provisions. It says airlines must provide adequate food and drinking water within two hours of a tarmac delay — plus keep bathrooms operable and have medical attention available.
In addition, starting on June 29 airlines will have to post flight delay information on their Web sites.
Let’s hope the three-hour tarmac delay regulation turns out to be one of those good, consumer-friendly government rules and not a dud.
