Senate Issues Warning to Airlines on Customer Service Standards

Airlines were put on notice by angry U.S. senators that customer service must improve or Congress will reconsider legislation setting rules for the handling of flight delays and other passenger inconveniences.

Last year, 14 of the nation’s largest air carriers, including AMR Corp’s American Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Continental Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp’s United Airlines Inc., signed a commitment to customers to forestall legislation creating a “passengers’ bill of rights.”

An interim report released this week by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General said the industry has made an effort to improve customer service, but it needs to give passengers more information on flight delays and the lowest available fares.

Donald Carty, chairman and chief executive of American Airlines, told the Senate Commerce Committee that the industry is “not getting all the results that either you or we had hoped for.”

Carty, who was also speaking as chairman of the Air Transport Assn. that represents the major airlines, said the nation’s air traffic control systems have not kept pace with growing air travel and said passenger levels this summer are breaking records.

According to the Inspector General’s interim report, at 28 of the largest airports, delays of more than an hour for flights sitting on taxiway waiting for takeoff increased by 130% from 1995 to 1999.

Complaints about airlines doubled last year to more than 17,000, with a 74% increase in the first four months of this year, the report said. Airlines receive 300 or 400 complaints for every formal protest made to the agency. Flight delays have risen 50% over five years, the IG’s report said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said he expects the industry’s commitment to succeed but warned that if the voluntary effort falls short, he is “committed to move forward with additional, enforceable passenger fairness legislation.”