Travel

Numbers Don't Lie: Millions of U.S. Travelers Grounded Yearly

posted: 21 February 2007 01:57 pm ET

Millions of airline passengers are stuck in planes on the ground every year at US airports with nearly 60,000 departures delayed between one and two hours in 2006, government figures show.

A couple of dozen flights annually are held between the departure gate and the runway for more than five hours. While inconvenient, they do not approach the service disaster experienced by hundreds of JetBlue Airways passengers stranded for up to 10 hours with an ice storm raging outside their planes in New York last week.

Nearly 400,000, or 5.6 percent, of the 7.1 million commercial flights last year at US airports experienced departure delays of 30 minutes to an hour after pulling away from the gate, according to Transportation Department statistics.

Nearly 60,000 flights, or less than 1 percent of total departures, were held on taxiways for up to two hours. More than 1,000 planes experienced delays of at least three hours and 36 were stuck for more than five hours.

The figures have remained constant for several years and cover the industry's economic boom of the late 1990s and this decade's worst-ever downturn. But financial and schedule pressures on airlines can make it more difficult to cope with weather or other problems, especially at congested airports, experts have said.

JetBlue, in a good public relations move, issued a "bill of rights for its passengers". The airline is also seeking to limit damage to its reputation and head off possible pro-consumer legislation in Washington amid a decline in its share price on Tuesday, offered to financially compensate passengers for delayed flights.

"The marketplace is holding JetBlue accountable, and like competitors before them, the pounding will lead to positive change," said Kevin Mitchell, who advocates for corporate travel managers as chairman of the Business Travel Coalition.

The JetBlue incident, a similar one involving American Airlines in Austin, Texas, in December, and recent statistics showing that airlines mishandled more than 4 million bags in 2006 have boosted pressure on industry to pay closer attention to customer service.

Congress clearly wants airlines to take steps on their own rather than draft legislation. The airlines have been in touch with key lawmakers, a congressional aide said.

"I think JetBlue and American have addressed how to handle these delays and made adjustments to their operational procedures," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the lead airline trade group, the Air Transport Association.

"There will always be room for improvement which should be done cooperatively, not legislatively," Castelveter said.

The reaction by JetBlue's chief executive David Neeleman was favorably received by one key lawmaker.

"This is a positive step by JetBlue to signal that it is taking the events of the past week very seriously," said Rep. Jerry Costello, an Illinois Democrat and chairman of the House of Representatives aviation subcommittee. "It is preferable for airlines to meet this challenge head on, but if they do not, the Congress will take action."

In the Senate, Democrat Barbara Boxer of California and Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine introduced legislation over the weekend that would permit passengers to get off a delayed flight after three hours. The bill would also require airlines to provide food, drinking water and "adequate" restroom facilities during delays.