My recent holiday trip started early at Gatwick airport. Heading towards the gate I kept checking the info-screens still showing the on-time departure of my flight. I soon found myself sitting happily in a not-so-badly-pitched seat watching the crew locking the cabin door, and noticing how my worries about a highly probable delay of this flight almost completely vanished. Right at that moment a mildly apologetic voice announced that we were about to leave the gate on-time but will be moved to a remote stand to spend two hours waiting for the departure. Here we are, I thought, listening to nervous comments of passengers probably never trapped on tarmac (new breed of delays at overcongested airports).
‘Cheats!’ muttered the lady seating next to me. To soften her mood, I tried to explain that this is in our best interest (on safety grounds!), but she wouldn’t buy it. The fume of politely-angry passengers started to spread around the cabin. But suddenly, like orchestrated, everybody decided to calm down, probably dreading that any additional problem can prolong our hostage experience. Who knows how many people have already been in similar or even worse situation. Has anyone yet been compensated for delays that haven’t been recognised in the UK and Europe? On-time departures are measured by time an aircraft leaves the gate. Our flight left the gate at time shown in airline schedule, so it won’t be counted as delayed. Taking a deep breath I surrendered to the general mood and tried to relax. After all, it was not my first tarmac.
One thing is reading about tarmac delays and completely different having a firsthand experience. I found myself thinking about my meeting with a highly ranked EU official responsible for airline policy earlier in the year. He insisted that there are no tarmac delays in Europe (administratively). This practice of willful ignorance has ended in US following several extreme ‘tarmac’ incidents, and huge public pressure. Not only that the Air Transport Association have introduced new reporting rules, but DOT introduced fines ($27,500 per passenger) for airlines that keep passengers stuck inside an aircraft on the ground for three hours or more. How extreme do the tarmac incidents have to be to force European airlines and regulators to do something to stop these harmful events from spreading more widely and becoming a practice?
