A Regulação da Espera do Passageiro

Os americanos estão mudando seus regulamentos de direitos dos passageiros. E nós, o que faremos?

April 29 Starts a New Era in Passenger Rights, As Airlines are Required to Deplane Passengers Stuck on the Tarmac for 3 Hours
Posted by Arthur Frommer at 4/14/2010 10:51 AM EDT

http://www.frommers.com/blog/

It's a momentous date for U.S. aviation, when a major new regulation goes into effect that will require airlines to return their passengers to a gate (or to an airport area where they can safely emerge from the plane) if they have been kept in the plane, on the tarmac, for three hours. Some airlines have already put the new rule into effect, by requiring their pilots to begin returning the plane to the boarding area if two and a half hours have elapsed and there is no imminent departure expected.


The regulation is enforced by a dramatic fine of $27,500 per passenger ($4 million for the average planeload). The prospect of that immense penalty is so fearful that a major campaign is underway by airlines to threaten that they will henceforth cancel a great many flights if it appears likely that lengthy tarmac delays will be encountered. Other airlines, as I have already pointed out, are more meekly submitting to the new rule and instructing their airplane crews to comply.

The threats of wholesale cancellations are directed to the Department of Transportation, author of the new regulation, in an effort to have it rescinded.

Still other airlines are petitioning the D.O.T. to delay implementing the new rule at JFK Airport in New York, where repairs on a major runway will take it out of commission and undoubtedly create tarmac delays.

So far, however, the D.O.T. is holding firm, and much will depend on whether a storm of public criticism, prompted by a large number of flight cancellations, will pressure the D.O.T. to relax or eliminate the rule. Based on the firmness we've seen so far of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, it doesn't seem likely to me that he will cave in. But all will depend on whether an untenable situation results at the airports where such delays are most frequent.

To most airline passengers, April 29 is a joyous date. It marks almost the first occasion in our history when the comfort of air passengers has been used as the basis for strong airline regulation. And it could be argued that the airlines have brought the problem on themselves, by permitting planes -- in certain well-publicized instances -- to stand on the tarmac for six, seven or even nine hours with captive, claustrophobic, suffering passengers inside. If you have yourself ever experienced such situations, and remember the physical tension and discomfort, the fear and the pressure, you will rejoice that the D.O.T. has acted as it has.

The one surprising element was the choice of three hours as the time period that would require the deplaning of passengers, rather than a more widely expected deadline of four hours. I myself would be happy to see the D.O.T. and the airlines compromise on a rule requiring the plane to return to the gate when it approached four hours of being stranded on the tarmac. Was it really necessary to impose the more draconian limit of three hours, and thus goad the airlines into canceling a great many of their weather-threatened flights?