Word: tarmac
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...JetBlue airplanes sat on the tarmac at New York's JFK Airport for more than nine hours. That incident came less than two months after over a hundred American Airlines and American Eagle planes sat on tarmacs throughout the South for up to 10 hours. Uproar by angry passengers ensued and lawmakers threatened legislation to prevent further "tarmac strandings...
...defense, the airline industry pointed to the official data on tarmac delays as recorded by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the federal agency responsible for tracking delays on behalf of the Department of Transportation. According to that data, 36 planes sat on the tarmac for more than five hours in 2006. "We have 7.2 million flights in the United States each year. This kind of a thing happens a fraction of a fraction of the time," David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association (ATA), which represents 90% of consumer carriers in the U.S, said...
...aviation subcommittee, has a new clause that essentially acts as a loophole for the airlines. If the airlines file "contingency plans" to the DOT that explain how they will handle future delays, the airlines would not be required to deplane passengers after four hours on the tarmac (though they would still have to ensure sanitary conditions on the planes)."This new wording does seem to negate the original purpose of the Bill of Rights, [which was] to make sure passengers aren't stranded on tarmacs," says John Gentzel, press secretary for Senator Snowe...
...looks even bleaker in the House for Rep. Thompson. His version of the bill likely won't even make it into committee. Rep. James Oberstar, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would rather let the DOT regulate tarmac strandings than have Congress step in, says Jim Berard, the committee's spokesman...
...would cancel more flights. "Somebody who has a business meeting would much rather wait on the plane - provided they have humane circumstances - then go back to the gate and be further delayed," he says. Even flight attendants, who suffer the brunt of abuse when a plane sits on the tarmac, aren't on board with the Passenger's Bill of Rights. "We feel the Passenger's Bill of Rights would create this expectation by passengers that management and airlines couldn't possibly meet, and it would then be the flight attendants that have to bear the brunt of passenger...