Includes '7 Hours on the Tarmac' Video
Flying the busy US skies is taking more time than ever. Apart from the already high number of ‘regular’ flight disruptions, there is now a new breed of delays called ‘tarmac’, ‘onboard ground’, or ‘runway’ delays. These are mainly a product of overscheduling at congested airports, where little or no space is left for soothing the effects of internal inefficiencies and unpredictable events like bad weather. Until recently, tarmac delays have not been recognised in official statistics, and have often been recorded as ‘on-time’ departures, despite their length which has so far reached record high in May 2007 when passengers spent 13 hours onboard the plane waiting to depart (theoretically, there is no legislative limit on how long passengers can be kept ‘imprisoned’ in the plane). Take another widely publicised example, where on Valentine’s Day 2007, about 130,000 JetBlue passengers were held ‘hostages’ at JFK for up to 10 hours before flights were cancelled due to bad weather. Not much has been done since then to limit the time passengers could be kept on board, which was evident several days ago, when passengers were stranded aboard the Continental Express Flight 2816. The flight left Houston at 9:23 p.m. Friday 7Aug but didn't arrive at its destination in Minneapolis until after 11 a.m. Saturday, with no food and no working bathroom on board during the extended stay. The difference this time was that action of outraged proponents of passenger rights legislation has prompted the government investigation.
It seems that Congress has finally gotten the message. Legislation that would let passengers get off planes delayed on airport tarmacs is moving through the House and Senate as part of a bill reauthorizing and funding the Federal Aviation Administration. A Senate committee has recently voted to require airlines to let passengers get off planes that are delayed for more than three hours. The House has passed a less specific version. It requires each airline to submit to the Transportation Department a plan to allow passengers to get off planes with long delays. For many irate fliers, action seems overdue, says USA Today. The article 'Fliers trapped on tarmac push for rules on release' describes this problem from various perspectives and sheds more light on the power struggle between the advocates of ‘humanity’ of air travel and business interests. For the convenience, I have rearranged the text to reflect the standpoints of each of the sides involved.
Airlines
The airlines say that long delays are rare and result mostly from bad weather and a backed-up air-traffic-control system. They warn that forcing them to return planes to terminals after three hours could often make matters worse.
Continental has revised its procedures for long-delayed flights and now gives passengers the option of getting off a plane after a three-hour wait.
When planes are backed up for takeoff or landing, there may be no empty gates or equipment available to deplane passengers, the airlines say.
Mechanical and other safety concerns also contribute to delays. And the airlines say crowded airports and backed-up traffic often make it impractical for pilots to return to terminals.
"Because of the antiquated air-traffic-control system in which we — and every airline — operate, we're restricted as to the operational improvements we can make," says Bryan Baldwin, spokesman for JetBlue Airways.
Air Transport Association (ATA)
The airlines oppose a hard and fast law that forces them to let passengers off planes that are stranded three hours or more. They prefer letting the airlines decide, says Castelveter of the Air Transport Association. Forcing planes to return to the gate to let passengers off after three hours "would be highly disruptive to airport and airline operations," he says. "Airlines need operational flexibility in order to get passengers, crewmembers and aircraft to their destinations."
"Such a rule would result in numerous unintended consequences that ultimately will create inconveniences for passengers and lead to more flight cancellations," says David Castelveter, vice president of the Air Transport Association of America, which represents U.S. airlines. The airlines oppose a hard and fast law that forces them to let passengers off planes that are stranded three hours or more. They prefer letting the airlines decide, says Castelveter of the Air Transport Association. Forcing planes to return to the gate to let passengers off after three hours "would be highly disruptive to airport and airline operations," he says. "Airlines need operational flexibility in order to get passengers, crewmembers and aircraft to their destinations."
Aviation consultants
The airlines aren't blameless, other aviation consultants say. They overschedule flights at hub airports, which creates a situation in which there are too many planes and not enough gates, says Barbara Beyer, CEO of Avmark, an airline consulting company. Fredrick Foreman of Metron Aviation, who wrote an April report on long ground delays for the FAA, says it's all about money."Airlines don't want to deplane passengers because they will lose money," Foreman says. "It's not about weather — it's all about profit motive."
Statistics
The USA TODAY analysis of delays that the airlines report to the Transportation Department finds that long delays are rare. Between October and May, when 19 big airlines operated 4.3 million domestic flights, the 577 delays of three hours or more translated into a rate of 1.35 flights per every 10,000.
About 200,000 domestic passengers have been stuck on about 3,000 planes for three hours or more waiting to take off or taxi to a gate since January 2007, a USA TODAY analysis of Transportation Department data shows. Between October 2008 and May 2009, there were 577 planes that sat for that long.
‘We don’t know how many additional flights are stranded each year other than passenger accounts related to us through our petition, press articles, and media releases from airline spokespersons. We don’t know the extent to which the airlines are hiding these events’ (from Coalition for an Airline Passenger’s Bill of Rights, 2007)
The American Society of Travel Agents
The American Society of Travel Agents initially agreed with the airlines, but now supports congressional action. Paul Ruden, the society's senior vice president, was on a Transportation Department task force last year that recommended airlines keep passengers informed about delays and establish time limits at each airport for deplaning passengers. But that hasn't worked, he says, and Congress now needs to set "a clear standard for the airlines to follow."
Nancy's story
Nancy Whitehead of Orange, Calif., says she and seven family members and friends endured on a delayed Delta Air Lines flight from the Turks and Caicos islands of the Caribbean to Atlanta on April 10. The flight from the British territory was unable to land because of bad weather in Atlanta. It was diverted to Columbia, S.C., for refueling. There, passengers sat on the plane for at least five hours because of weather, a flight crew that reached its duty-time limits and no U.S. Customs facilities to process any passengers who might want off the flight to make other travel arrangements. Whitehead, 43, an office manager at an elementary school, says passengers weren't served any food or drink. Toilets backed up, she says, adults got angry, and babies were crying. Eventually, she says, passengers were allowed to leave the plane and led to a small room at the terminal that had few chairs. Security guards kept an eye on them, security tape blocked access out of the room, she says, and no food was available. Passengers spent an hour in the hot and humid room before they were moved to another area in the terminal where food could be bought. About 2½ hours later, Whitehead says, passengers boarded the plane for a flight to Atlanta.
FliersRights.org
"Passengers don't want to be treated like cargo — they want to be treated like paying passengers," says Kate Hanni, who founded FlyersRights.org after her family spent more than eight hours on the tarmac. "Passengers feel completely powerless trapped in a sealed metal tube with no access to goods and services, and no way to get off."
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Well, lots of views and conflicting interests without tackling the root cause of problem. It doesn't seem the solution is in sight.
To see how it looks being trapped on the tarmac for 7 hours watch this video.
