Republic Holdings (RJET) CEO Bryan Bedford was philosophic about the delays imposed on regionals during congestion. “The capacity gets allocated based on the best use of the system,” he said. "Regionals take an unfair penalty and that is a fact of life and we have to deal with it. The question is how impaired the system is going to become over time. No matter whose data you use, the system is going to seize up so regionals have to push for solutions that create more capacity. Right now all we are doing is arguing how we get there. We all agree we need a new system and we all agree we need to pay for it. The question is how much and how well will the FAA manage the budget and the program. There is a healthy skepticism on that.” Related Story
SkyWest President Chip Childs indicated that efforts to impose passenger rights legislation would “complicate our ability to take care of the customer,” he said. “I think we are focusing on entirely the wrong thing. We are dealing with a symptom instead of what the real problem is. I’ve seen a lot of additional focus on the problem from our partners but my philosophy is to do what it takes so we don’t have to prioritize in the first place. We need to plan for storms, not gamble on it.”
Regardless, USAToday reported that the latest passenger rights bill to emerge has been weakened to the point that it could get in the way of protecting passengers, especially those held captive aboard long-delayed flights. Aviation Consumer Action Project pulled support saying it would legalize long confinements of up to three and a half hours. The newest bill grants airline exemptions from the rule if they develop a plan for dealing for such long-delayed flights, something a dozen airlines have already filed with the Department of Transportation. Airlines oppose any delay restrictions saying they would force cancellations and more passenger disruption.
Circulating proposals include forcing public disclosure of incidents in which passengters were stranded for hours on aircraft. DOT said last week that some airlines do not disclose flights that depart the gate but do not take off before returning to the gate area. DOT said they report the on-time statistic for the second time the flight takes off masking the inconvenience to the passengers, according to Donald Bright of the DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics who issued a Federal Register notice of a June 20 meeting with airlines to discuss changes in reporting requirements. The meeting will include discussions on whether to add a requirement for disclosing runway delays related to flight cancellations.