No long flight delays while on tarmac in October
The number of flights delayed on U.S. airport tarmacs for more than three hours dropped to zero in October, the Department of Transportation reported Tuesday.
The achievement marks the first time U.S.-based airlines reported no such lengthy interruptions since the agency began tracking them in 2008. The agency reported 11 delays lasting longer than three hours in October 2009.
Passenger-rights advocates attribute the result to penalties adopted last year by the Transportation Department. Since April, airlines that strand passengers on planes for more than three hours without allowing them to return to the gate face fines of up as much as $27,500 per passenger.
Although the department continues to investigate several delayed flights reported in the last six months, it has yet to issue a fine under the new rules.
“The reality of the rule is that it has made the airlines do the right thing and made travel better and more humane for everyone,” said Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org. “It’s proof that protecting passengers can be both efficient and good business.”
Hanni became a vocal airline critic after she and her family were stuck on a plane for nine hours on a tarmac in Austin, Texas, in 2006. She was among many who pushed for the fines last year.
Most major airlines opposed the fines, saying the penalties would prompt carriers to cancel flights to avoid paying the fines.
The federal agency reported that there were only 12 tarmac delays of more than three hours from May through September, compared with 546 during the same five-month period in 2009.
The Transportation Department also reported that cancellation rates for the nation’s largest carriers remained less than 1% in October, up slightly from the previous month and down slightly from a year earlier.
