Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week: "You gotta realize the frustration - you can look out the window and you can see, there's the gate, and if you let us off the plane, we can walk there" and "They had to open the door every 20 minutes just so we could get air" comments by JetBlue passengers who were stuck on a plane for 11 HOURS!!! Some in congress are calling for a Airline Passenger Bill of Rights

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter #416.........................................................................February 18, 2007 Past newsletters can be accessed at: http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm The PASSUR airport flight tracking system at many major U.S. airports http://www.passur.com/sites.htm (you must have Java installed to view it). If you want to get the newsletter sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy rockaway@prodigy.net

As Bill Sees It: (Editorial): Congressman Calls For Airline Passenger Bill Of Rights!!! I'm happy to see that airline passengers are up in arms about the way they were treated during the recent snowstorm. JetBlue kept their passengers trapped on their planes for as much as 11 hours!!! This is apparently nothing new for the airlines. Only six weeks ago passengers on an American Airlines plane had a similar experience, which prompted a woman named Kate Hanni to call for congress to pass a

passenger bill of rights. Congress (of course) dropped legislation after the industry agreed to a voluntary 12-point "customer service" plan. The recent snowstorm showed that the airline "voluntary" plan was just a ruse to get the heat off the airline's political hacks. We'll see what happens now. You can read the story and see a video on the story here. Anti-aviation noise (and air pollution) activists may be approaching the Aviation Cabal from a different angle than passengers, but I think we have a common enemies; the FAA, the airlines and their bought-off political enablers (the Aviation Cabal) who listen only to what the airlines want. What we need to do is develop our own AVIATION POLLUTION VICTIMS BILL OF RIGHTS!!!! Airline Passengers Start A REAL Organization And Blog To Fight For Rights!!! Thanks to the Internet a "real" airline passenger association and blog has been created. I say real because there is a group called the Airline Passengers Association (which I believe now is called the "International" Airline Passengers Association) that seems more interested in selling insurance and travel discounts than being concerned about airline passengers. This group used to be the first one called when the media wanted to get the opinion of the air travelers on the latest airline outrage. Now however, thanks to the Internet and people like Kate Hanni, a REAL organization of airline passengers has formed!!! Last week I wrote about a alleged

"anti-noise" organization that very carefully avoided even mentioning aviation noise. The International Airline Passengers Association belongs with this kind of bogus organization. If it weren't for the Internet these kind of

deceptive groups would exist and flourish without ever being exposed for the phonies I believe they are. Maybe the media will now call Kate Hanni when they want to know about what airline passengers think. FAA's Blakey Wants To Increase Taxes On Aviation: The FAA is coming to the realization that there is only so much airport and pollution they can jam into communities and have apparently decided to try to regulate expansion by taxing it more. I say it's about time. Britain recently tripled the fuel tax on aviation in an effort to try to reduce the greenhouse gases the airline polluters produce. Of course, getting the airlines to pay more taxes is being vigorously fought by the aviation polluters and there political agents. It is not expected to pass congress.

11 Hour JetBlue Nightmare For Passengers Sparks Petition Drive!!! NEW YORK (AP) - JetBlue Airways Corp. tried to calm a maelstrom of criticism Thursday, after passengers were left waiting on planes at a New York airport for as long as 11 hours during a snow and ice storm. The airline said 10 incoming and outbound flights at John F. Kennedy International Airport were "significantly delayed" with customers on board during Wednesday's storm. Reasons included congestion, frozen equipment and an effort to keep planes ready to go in case the weather broke, said JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin. "They had to open the door every 20 minutes just so we could get air," said Sean Corrinet, 29, who was on a flight bound for Cancun, Mexico. It was delayed for at least eight hours, Baldwin said. http://www.komotv.com/news/national/5842366.html Congress To Get Air Passenger Bill Of Rights!!! To Cheryl Chesner, 26, "unacceptable" was hardly the word for the 11 hours she said she and her husband, Seth, 27, spent trying to take a JetBlue flight to Aruba for their honeymoon. "It was the worst. It was horrific," she said. Cheryl and the other passengers

stuck in hell

at JFK may be the latest recruits to a web site devoted to ending this kind of misery. The Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights is commited to solutions for promoting airline passenger policies that forward first and foremost the safety of all passengers while not imposing unrealistic economic burdens that adversely affect airline profitability or create exhorbitant ticket price increases. The campaign, led by Napa real estate broker Kate Hanni (pictured at right), includes a petition drive going, and the web site carries blogs by suffering passenger from near and far. One for example, is Hanni's account of a "coalition of airline passengers" traveling on American Airlines flights from San Francisco to Dallas recently who were "stranded for over 8 hours with no food or access to bathroom facilities." The coalition has roped in Rep. Mike Thompson, (picture above right) a Northern California Democrat, who said today he would introduce legislation incorporating many of the issues raised by the coalition. http://www.townhall.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?contentGUID=af4f6f5e-c487-4124-a010-13ea1c23ad39

USA Today: Airlines Hot Topic In Global Warming Debate!!! Just a few decades from now, people may look back at the early 21st century with both fondness and horror as the Era of the Cheap Airline Flight. They may wax nostalgic for the days when visiting distant relatives and taking vacations in exotic locales were easily affordable for the masses. But they also may be alarmed at how long it took the world to realize the havoc that unfettered air travel was wreaking on the world's climate. Jet engines burn kerosene, which gives off carbon dioxide (CO2), a leading cause of global warming. Airline flights today make up less than 3 percent of man-made CO2 emissions, though they also spew nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, soot, and water vapor that may double their total warming effect on the climate. Now two factors are conspiring to make airline travel a hot topic in the global-warming debate: If current trends continue, the number of airline tickets sold per year will double to more than 9 billion by 2025, according to a new study by the Airports Council International. At the same time, experts see no viable jet-fuel alternative to kerosene. While some modest fuel-conservation measures still can be taken, more and more people are concluding that fewer flights may be the only way to cut airline emissions significantly. In Britain, a prosperous island country that makes heavy use of air travel, CO2 emissions from flights will surpass those from automobile trips in the next six to eight years, says Alice Bows, a senior research fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-02-12-flying-clean-skies-emissions_x.htm

FAA Blakey Wants To Raise Taxes On Aviation Fuel: FAA Administrator Marion Blakely finally unveiled the Bush Administration's detailed plans for financing FAA over the next decade, a sweeping array of much higher fuel taxes and a raft of new or sharply higher fees for everything from getting a pilot's license to registering an aircraft or getting a new model certificated by a manufacturer. Couching the new fee proposals as necessary to fund the Next Generation air traffic control system, Blakey touted announcement of the plan as "A big day for aviation...the taxpayers and the flying public." FAA even showed reporters a slick new video, with a number of different business jets prominently featured, that attempts to position the new fee system as the only viable choice to avoid aerial congestion and airport gridlock in the future. Blakey is scheduled to present her plan to Congress this afternoon during a hearing before the House aviation subcommittee. Organizations representing business and general aviation have been waging a concerted effort on Capitol Hill against the FAA plan. That campaign is expected to increase in intensity now that details of the financing proposal are finally available. It is believed Blakey's plan will face strong congressional opposition, particularly from House members. While Blakey tried to appear upbeat about the need to adopt the plan during her remarks Wednesday morning, even agency officials acknowledge privately that there is almost no chance Congress will sign off on her proposal. http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/BLAK02147.xml

N.Y. City: Delays And Increased Pressure To Expand LaGuardia Airport: WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 — The Bush administration wants to auction off all landing rights at La Guardia Airport, hoping to use the free market to improve sharing of a scarce resource. But the airlines that land there say the plan amounts to government expropriation of their property and will lead to higher ticket prices. The debate resembles a dispute over rent control, with the airlines arguing that they should be allowed to continue to buy, sell or sub-let to each other their landing rights, known as slots. They will probably fight the plan in Congress. But the federal government says that the slots are a public resource, and that regulations should not give too much advantage to the airlines that have had them for years. The Federal Aviation Administration asserts that auctioning the slots will ensure that they are distributed in a way that will be better for consumers. The dispute has been developing since 2000, when Congress passed a law intended to gradually lift decades-old limits on traffic at La Guardia and other busy airports, by phasing out so-called slot rules. But when the Transportation Department began approving new flights to La Guardia in 2000, the airlines added 300 a day, on top of the existing 1,100, causing the average delay for all arriving flights to grow to 38 minutes from 16 minutes. And planes leaving La Guardia late arrived at their destinations late, so the delays rippled through the national system. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/nyregion/18laguardia.html?ref=nyregion

After nasty flights, passengers want a bill of rights

SAN JOSE, Calif. - It's been six weeks since Kate Hanni, her family and several thousand other fliers were stranded on the ground on American Airlines planes for up to eight hours - forced to endure foul restrooms and stale air and given little food and water. Six weeks, and they're still angry.

Now, Hanni is pushing Congress to pass an airline passengers' bill of rights - an effort others have unsuccessfully tried. The bill would include limiting to three hours the time an aircraft can sit on the tarmac, and notifying passengers within 10 minutes of flight delays, diversions and cancellations.

The Napa, Calif., woman has gone to Washington once and plans to return next week to meet with lawmakers, including Rep. Mike Thompson from her district, to rally support. Several other members of Congress have promised to back the effort, Hanni said.

"I think it's in the airlines' best interests, as well as the passengers,'" said Thompson, a Democrat, who plans to introduce legislation in the House. "If a law was already on the books, we wouldn't have this situation today."

Airlines successfully beat down a similar bill after a Detroit snowstorm in 1999 left thousands stranded on Northwest Airlines jets. Congress dropped legislation after the industry agreed to a voluntary 12-point "customer service" plan.

But supporters of a bill of rights claim carriers have failed to follow their own guidelines. And the events of Dec. 29, they say, prove it.

It was not just a nightmare for passengers bound for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, but also for American, the nation's largest carrier. With a series of thunderstorms sweeping across Dallas, the airline was forced to send its planes to other airports - including Austin, Texas; San Antonio; Little Rock, Ark.; and Tulsa, Okla. - to wait out the weather.

Airline officials acknowledge that 121 American and American Eagle flights were diverted that day, including 67 that waited on the tarmac for more than three hours. Some, including Flight 1424 from San Jose and Flight 1348 from San Francisco, which carried Hanni, her husband and two sons, were grounded for at least eight hours.

"Other airlines were busing people where they needed to go," said Hanni, a real estate broker, "but the American jets sat without food and with toilet problems of varying degrees - they either just stopped working or were overflowing.

"I went forward at about the seventh hour, and the pilot was coming out of the restroom. I said, `I need to go in there.' He was holding the door shut. He said, `Go in there at your own risk.'"

When passengers got hungry, flight attendants passed out bags of peanuts and tap water from restrooms. Sue Petersen of Morgan Hill, Calif., trying to reach Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a family reunion cruise, said an elderly woman sitting next to her asked for something to eat after their flight had sat for five hours.

American has called the events of that day an "anomaly," saying that most thunderstorms pass through the region and allow planes to resume their routes. Had planes pulled into gates, spokesman Tim Smith said, crew members could not have returned to work if the weather cleared because of union and Federal Aviation Administration work rules.

With most planes flying full because of the holiday period, it's likely passengers would have been stranded for several days.

Instead, Smith said, operations managers opted to wait, "hoping against hope that this is the last thunderstorm wave and that we'll get them on to where they're going. The reality is, it never happened.

"If there's something we did wrong, it was probably not explaining the process."

But it went far beyond that, passengers said. When they were finally permitted to deplane, there was little information available.

"The airport was closed, there was no food and nowhere to stay because there was a bowl game in town," said Melissa Moe, who was stranded in San Antonio. "Many people slept on the floor of the airport. Some elderly people were helped out by the Red Cross and given shelter and food because American did nothing."

Some passengers were told they could pick up their luggage at baggage claim, but after waiting 2 1/2 hours, it never arrived. Most were left on their own to find food and hotels.

"And you should have seen what it was like Saturday morning," said Susan Robertson, who was trying to reach New Orleans for a vacation. "Your jaw would have dropped. There were lines of people and no information from anybody at the airline, no flights listed on the board.

"What they did to us was shameful, and they're not taking responsibility for what happened."

American said it has revised its policy and will no longer allow aircraft to remain on the ground for more than four hours. It also is developing "automation tools" to inform managers when passengers have been left on planes for too long.

The airline has sent out more than 4,600 letters of apology and given travel vouchers worth $250 or $500, depending on how long a passenger's plane was grounded.

But Hanni and others aren't satisfied. That's why she's collecting signatures in support of a passenger's bill of rights on her Web site (http://strandedpassengers.blogspot.com). More than 2,100 have signed it.

Congressman Thompson said he's not interested in legislation that would punish American or other airlines; he wants to ensure that passengers are protected in the future.

"In no way, shape or form is this retaliatory," he said. "The situation on this flight was terrible. I don't believe it's anybody's fault, but some bad judgments were made. I want to make sure we can pass a bill that can get signed into law and give a greater degree of comfort to airline passengers that doesn't damage the airlines."

Under the proposed Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, U.S. airlines would have to:

Notify passengers within 10 minutes of flight delays, diversions and cancellations via announcement in airport or on aircraft.

Return passengers to the terminal gate when their plane sits on the tarmac for longer than three hours.

Provide for the essential needs of passengers during air- or ground-based delays of longer than three hours, including food, water, sanitary facilities and access to medical attention.

Compensate "bumped" passengers or those delayed by flight cancellations or postponements of over 12 hours by refunding 150 percent of ticket price.

Respond to passenger complaints within 24 hours. Resolve all complaints within two weeks.

Airlines at La Guardia Fight Bush Administration Proposal to Auction Off Landing Rights

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 — The Bush administration wants to auction off all landing rights at La Guardia Airport, hoping to use the free market to improve sharing of a scarce resource. But the airlines that land there say the plan amounts to government expropriation of their property and will lead to higher ticket prices.

The debate resembles a dispute over rent control, with the airlines arguing that they should be allowed to continue to buy, sell or sub-let to each other their landing rights, known as slots. They will probably fight the plan in Congress.

But the federal government says that the slots are a public resource, and that regulations should not give too much advantage to the airlines that have had them for years. The Federal Aviation Administration asserts that auctioning the slots will ensure that they are distributed in a way that will be better for consumers.

The dispute has been developing since 2000, when Congress passed a law intended to gradually lift decades-old limits on traffic at La Guardia and other busy airports, by phasing out so-called slot rules.

But when the Transportation Department began approving new flights to La Guardia in 2000, the airlines added 300 a day, on top of the existing 1,100, causing the average delay for all arriving flights to grow to 38 minutes from 16 minutes. And planes leaving La Guardia late arrived at their destinations late, so the delays rippled through the national system.

“It’s insane, the demand out there,” said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

La Guardia handled 400,000 flights last year, compared with 378,000 for Kennedy International, although La Guardia is 560 acres, compared with 5,000 acres at Kennedy. Kennedy has two sets of parallel runways; LaGuardia has two runways, and they cross each other, so they cannot be used simultaneously.

To fix the problem in 2000, the government stepped in with a series of “temporary” limits on flights into La Guardia, which have changed slightly but are still in force. But last week, the administration proposed maintaining a cap on the total number of flights and auctioning the slots, as part of a complicated bill on a new national financing mechanism for air traffic control.

Marion Blakey, the F.A.A. administrator, said the purpose of the auction was “using the market to ensure we’re making the most of this very popular resource in New York.”

The language in the administration’s bill is not specific, but Nancy D. LoBue, the deputy assistant administrator for aviation policy, said that the auction would be done in a way that gives new competitors a chance of getting slots at La Guardia.

The bill calls for the Port Authority to run the auction. Mr. DiFulco said his agency might also try writing provisions into the gate leases or instituting congestion charges, requiring airlines to pay more at peak periods. La Guardia, however, has very few off-peak periods; most of the day it is near its limit, defined as 75 scheduled flights per hour, plus 6 nonairline flights. The airlines dislike the nonairline flights, and argue with the precise overall limit.

And they dispute the authority of the F.A.A. to tinker with control of the slots.

For example, last August the F.A.A. said it wanted a rule at La Guardia that would prevent airlines from obtaining monopoly power over certain routes.

But the airlines say that since their business was deregulated in 1978, the F.A.A. should not be in that business. The F.A.A.’s role should be limited to safety and efficiency, the airlines say.

They also assert ownership rights. Delta, for example, says it paid Pan Am for slots when Pan Am ceased operations, and then upgraded the Marine Air Terminal at La Guardia to handle its planes.

But the airlines are not united in this view. The Air Carrier Association of America, which represents small carriers, complained that at the moment, small carriers have only 20 slots, while “many legacy carriers have that many slots in single markets.” The group also complained that some big carriers were hogging slots, by flying many small planes to major hubs, when they should be making fewer trips with bigger planes, opening slots to their competitors.

At the F.A.A., Nan Shellabarger, the director of aviation policy and plans, said there was broad consensus that some controls were necessary, and that Congress had “tolerated” the F.A.A. stepping in to reimpose landing quotas in 2000, and thus was likely to approve some system now. She said that the Secretary of Transportation had authority beyond the F.A.A. administrator to regulate flights.

An auction, F.A.A. officials say, would not allocate landing rights on a purely economic basis. Just as the current system does, it would probably include provisions to encourage service to rural areas, since companies flying small planes to those places might be less able to compete in bidding against airlines flying bigger planes.

Sametta Barnett, the director of government affairs for Delta, said that when that provision was first enforced, “we weren’t thrilled with it.” But now, she said, “Our bread-and-butter is small communities. We’re glad to do it.”

The F.A.A.’s proposal is a small section of a huge bill introduced by the Bush administration to change the way travelers pay for air traffic control. That proposal faces tough questioning in Congress, but some action is likely, because the existing taxes expire on Sept. 30.