Airline passengers are once again stranded in a holding pattern after a federal task force failed to satisfactorily address complaints about their treatment by airlines and airports when planes are stuck on a runway.
The task force came up with voluntary guidelines that stop short of imposing limits on how long passengers can be held hostage before being allowed to leave a delayed plane.
The guidelines released Wednesday naïvely leave it up to the airlines to develop contingency plans, despite the airlines' past indifference to passenger comfort in such situations.
Advocates had hoped for stronger protections for passengers whose planes leave the gate but are delayed on the tarmac. Passengers have been forced to wait for hours, often without fresh air, food or water, or working restrooms.
Given the task force report's shortcomings, Congress needs to assert itself and pass the so-called Airline Passenger Bill of Rights to guarantee fair and humane treatment.
The task force was created last year by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters after several incidents of air travelers being stranded on tarmacs for hours. In one of the worst cases, JetBlue left hundreds of passengers on planes at New York's JFK Airport for 10 hours in an ice storm on Valentine's Day 2007.
Philadelphia International has also had its share of tarmac delays.
The task force developed "best-practice" guidelines, but the recommendations are not mandatory. Among the recommendations, airlines must give delayed passengers an update every 15 minutes, even if there is nothing new to report. The guidelines say that refreshments and entertainment should be provided "when practical" and that "reasonable efforts" should be made to keep airplane restrooms working.
That kind of wimpy language is indicative of the task force's being dominated by the airline industry and airport officials. They made it unlikely that the panel would come up with tough regulations to protect passengers.
The group couldn't even agree on how to define a "lengthy delay" - one hour or two hours.
The airlines don't want to be pinned to a time limit for delaying passengers on tarmacs. They say that could cause unnecessary flight cancellations and ultimately even more delays.
Kate Hanni, founder of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, cast the sole vote against adopting the task force report. "The game is still heavily weighted to business as usual," she said.
Transportation Department assistant general counsel Sam Podberesky, the task force's chairman, said the department may yet issue a rule requiring airlines and airports to have contingency plans and include a time limit for tarmac delays.
Passenger advocates say the delay should be no more than three hours. That's still a long time to sit on runway.