United Express and American Connection passengers, both flying Trans States aircraft, were left stranded at outlying airports after the flights were diverted from Denver during bad weather on February 8. Nearly 100 passengers were stranded in Scottsbluff, Neb, when crews left the passengers, from Madison, Wis. and St. Louis, behind about six hours after landing. In December, two United Express jets diverted to Cheyenne, Wyo, during Denver’s blizzard and crews left without their passengers.
Trans States Vice President-Marketing Bill Mishk said the pilots took off after they learned buses would complete the passenger’s journey. He apologized for any miscommunication. Passengers reported they received no guidance from the airline. Hertz provided the bus for the nearly four hour trip to Denver. United also provided an apology but American said care of the passengers was not its responsibility, passing the buck on to Trans States.
While mainline and low-cost carriers have been primarily responsible for airline horror stories of late, regional passengers are catching the brunt of complaints as evidenced by the Department of Transportation consumer score card issued monthly on airlines. Most of the problems are beyond regional control but they end up taking the blame for late mainline aircraft and missing luggage. In addition, they are disadvantaged by airline computer programs that impose delays on regional jets before mainline jets.
Meanwhile, the passenger bill of rights is gaining support in Congress. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) and Olympia Snowe (R-Me) have already introduced a bill requiring airlines to release passengers after a three-hour, on-tarmac delay. A broader bill is expected from Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif. since many of his constituents were stranded on American’s (AMR) Austin flight in December.
While airlines are rushing to create their own passenger manifestos, they are dogged by the fact that a similar effort in the late nineties was quickly abandoned by them. Similar mandated efforts in Europe, tougher than the airlines’ Customer Service Commitment, have turned out to be inadequate as well owing to the vast number of exceptions to problems that would trigger passenger compensation.
The Air Transport Association has called on FAA to work with airlines to eliminate the penalties against aircraft that return to the gate. While each airline will review and update its policies regarding safety, security and comfort, ATA wants FAA to allow long-delayed flights to return to terminals, without losing their flight departure sequence, to offload passengers who choose to leave. It also called on DOT to review airline and airport emergency contingency plans to ensure they effectively address weather emergencies and provide passengers with essential needs such as food, water, lavatories and medical services. It also wants the DOT to convene an industry-government meeting to address the problem.