Senate Passes Bill to Create Airline Consumers Office

The Senate, most of whose members are airborne commuters, passed with relish Monday a bill aimed at improving airlines’ service in California by subjecting the companies to public and state government pressure.

“They obviously don’t give a damn about us up here,” Republican Sen. Ed Davis said of passenger airlines.

The Valencia lawmaker, usually an unflinching opponent of government intervention into the affairs of private industry, added his voice to others who have complained of higher air fares, shrinking schedules, long delays and abrupt cancellations.

Davis charged that since federal deregulation of the airlines in 1978, service has steadily deteriorated to the point “where we can appropriately harass” airlines serving California.

The bill, sent to the Assembly on a 27-9 vote, would create a new airline consumer office at the state Public Utilities Commission. The office would have the power to investigate consumer complaints, scrutinize ticket price increases that appear to be excessive and publicize air fares. But the office would have no enforcement powers.

Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), the bill’s author, conceded that federal laws prohibit the state from taking tougher action such as regulatory steps he proposed a month ago. But he said that making the commission a public forum to vent complaints would put pressure on airlines to improve.

In a preliminary report last month, the commission said that since deregulation 12 years ago, air fares have soared in California 40% above the rate of inflation and demands for air service have doubled while the number of airlines has fallen.

The undetermined cost of the new state office would be paid by a special tax on intrastate airlines whose gross income exceeds $25 million a year. Roberti said he believes the proposed tax could be levied by the state without violating federal law.

The bill was opposed by the Air Transportation Assn., a major industry trade organization, and by USAir. They contend that federal law preempts the state legislation and that consumers are already protected by the airlines and state and federal government agencies.

Roberti and Davis are among an estimated two dozen senators who regularly commute between their districts in Southern California and Sacramento at least once a week and sometimes more frequently. Currently, no state agency monitors airline fares or performance.

Figures provided by the Air Transportation Assn. show that in 1980 it cost an average of $55 to fly from Los Angeles to Sacramento, a sum that rose to an average $97 in 1988, the last year for which its figures were available. The organization said that during the same period the average one-way cost from Los Angeles to Fresno increased from $35 to $91.