Airlines May Be Forced to Foot This Travel Bill

Relief may be at hand for weary air travelers beset at every turn by takeoff delays, canceled flights, missed connections, lost baggage and a very obvious deterioration in airline service standards.

Hope comes in the form of a bill now before Congress, the Airline Passengers Protection Act, which contains the toughest consumer rights measures yet proposed. Some of its requirements are so tough that the author of the bill, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), isn’t certain that they’ll all be adopted.

Under terms of the Boehlert bill, a passenger whose baggage is lost for just two hours would be entitled to a free one-way ticket. Bags lost for more than 24 hours would earn the owner a free round trip.

Boehlert admits that it’s a “going-in” position which may be softened during the joint House/Senate negotiations pending. But it does indicate the depth of his frustration, both as a traveler and as a legislator.

Subcommittee Approval

And it gained the approval of Boehlert’s House aviation subcommittee, so presumably there is some support among our lawmakers for taking a strong stand in an effort to force the air transportation industry to put its house in order.

The bill addresses a wide variety of passenger concerns besides lost baggage compensation, from on-time performance to airline bankruptcies. Here are some of the changes that would take place in the proposed Boehlert law:

--The Department of Transportation would be required to publish a monthly report on how the airlines are doing. The DOT issues a report similar to the one suggested by Boehlert, specifically in the area of on-time performance, but that’s a voluntary effort. Boehlert would make it mandatory, and would increase its scope. The law would require, for example, that the DOT set up a toll-free telephone line so consumers could call for the information, rather than go looking for the written report.

--At the heart of many air passengers’ problems are flight delays. The carriers give you a hundred reasons why these can’t be avoided and, from their point of view, they’re right--you can’t avoid delays when a dozen or more airlines schedule flights at exactly the same minute. Boehlert’s bill would require the Secretary of Transportation to set capacity limits. A recent DOT survey of airports found 22 flights scheduling the same departure time from Los Angeles International.

--Another frustrating practice of airlines is to cancel flights at short notice because they don’t think the passenger load justifies operating. The announcement you hear is always to the effect that “mechanical difficulties” have forced the cancellation, but nine times out of 10 it’s economics, not mechanics, that dictates the move.

Boehlert and his House aviation subcommittee want that to stop. The bill stipulates fines of $10,000, plus immediate reimbursement to affected passengers, in the event of an “unreasonable” cancellation. The message to the airlines is clear: If it ain’t broke, fly it.

--Boehlert would give the airlines 30 days to settle passengers’ claims for compensation for lost or damaged baggage, ticket refunds, etc. If you’ve been involved in a situation like that in the last year or two, you know that getting a settlement from some companies routinely takes three to six months.

--One of the most important aspects of the bill is the protection it mandates for passengers who buy tickets on an airline that goes out of business before they can use them. Boehlert wants to move the risk from the consumer to the industry. The airlines would have one year from approval of the law to devise a plan acceptable to the DOT. Failing that, DOT would implement its own plan.

At the least, the Boehlert bill demands that anybody holding a ticket on a failed airline be transported on another at no additional charge, on a space-available basis.

The importance of that clause can hardly be overemphasized. Since deregulation in 1978 more than 160 airlines have ceased operation, with or without benefit of formal bankruptcy filing.

Prepaid Millions

The last 16 of those left combined debts to passengers in excess of $150 million. On any given day, any one of the major air carriers will be holding an average of $240 million-plus of passengers’ prepaid money. Consumers are among the largest creditors of the airlines, but little has been done to look after their financial welfare in the last decade.

Healthy airlines, of course, argue that the imposition of such a protection requirement would mean that they in effect would be forced to act as guarantor for the performance of their less-healthy rivals.

Boehlert doesn’t see more airline bankruptcies as desirable, although it is a constant danger in this volatile industry.

Ironically, deregulation was meant to further the public interest by making the airlines more responsive to market pressures, by making them sharpen their service techniques, mindful that in a free enterprise marketplace the buyer is king.

Wrong. Its supporters invariably claim that deregulation produced lower fares in many parts of the nation, but that it has led directly to a deep decline in passenger-handling standards.

Increased competition from “no-frills” (read: no service) carriers has forced all the airlines to lower their fares, has depressed yields and has put the customer on the receiving end of much grief and aggravation.

Many observers believe the chances are good that the Airline Passengers Protection Act will get Congressional approval, substantially unchanged from its present form.

And why not? All it does is restore some rights to the people who pay the bills.