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Any beleaguered air traveler who has sat stranded in a terminal — or worse yet, virtually held hostage on the tarmac — as flights are delayed knows the feeling that things can't get worse. Well, think again, say the industry's defenders. Now that some members of Congress have decided to try to fix things by passing a passenger bill of rights, they argue, the situation at the nation's airports could become more maddening and dysfunctional, with more delays and higher fares.

And there's no denying that they're already pretty bad. On Friday, an FAA computer glitch caused massive delays and cancellations for hundreds of planes up and down the East Coast. This came just four days after the Department of Transportation announced that airline delays are at their highest level since 1996, when the government started tracking the numbers. During the first four months of 2007, 27.6% of flights on U.S. carriers were delayed by more than 15 minutes or canceled. That news only confirmed what people already knew after the industry suffered terrible publicity on Valentine's Day, when nine JetBlue planes were stranded on a JFK airport tarmac for up to 10 hours due to an ice storm. Less than two months earlier, on Dec. 29, 67 American Airlines planes across the nation had sat on tarmac for more than three hours because of storms in Texas. Passengers inside those planes would later describe the experience as "inhumane." Toilets overflowed. Cabin temperatures rose. Little food and water was available. Or so passengers contend. Both JetBlue and American Airlines say that toilets never overflowed and water was always available to passengers.

"Mistakes were made on many levels," says David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association (ATA), which represents 90% of commercial airlines in the United States. "But this happens a fraction of a fraction of the time." In 2006, more than 4.5 million flights in the United States departed within 15 minutes of leaving the gate, according to the DOT. Conversely, 224 flights sat on the tarmac for more than 4 hours.

Industry experts say the bad publicity American Airlines and JetBlue received was enough to prevent airlines from repeating the mistakes again. "The marketplace handled this by giving terrible publicity to the airlines," says David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association. "JetBlue became a punch line and lost [millions] in revenue." After the incidents, both airlines sent the stranded passengers travel vouchers and letters of apology. JetBlue also enacted its own "Customer Bill of Rights," which says that passengers will not be stranded on the tarmac for more than five hours. It also entitles stranded passengers to travel vouchers if the cause of the delay was within JetBlue's control (weather problems, which account for about 42% of all the industry's delays, are considered uncontrollable).

Still, some lawmakers want to regulate how long a plane can sit on the tarmac. In March, "The Airline Passenger's Bill of Rights" was introduced in both the House, by Rep. Mike Thompson, a California Democrat, and the Senate, by Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, and Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican. Under the bill, passengers reserve the right to deplane after four hours on the tarmac. Airlines would also be required to keep an adequate amount of food and water on hand, to maintain sanitary conditions and to keep passengers informed of the cause and timing of delays. If airlines fail to meet this requirement, they will have broken their contract with the passengers, who can then take legal action against the airlines. The Bill of Rights would not require airlines to reimburse passengers or provide flight vouchers.

"What we want is a reasonable, predictable event and a consistent time frame when it comes to flying," says Kate Hanni, the founder of The Coalition for an Airline Passenger's Bill of Rights, a grassroots organization that formed after the American Airlines delays and now has 15,000 members; Hanni's coalition is also supported by organizations including Public Citizen and the Aviation Consumer Action Project — both founded by Ralph Nader — and U.S. PIRG (also known as Public Interest Research Groups). According to the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war have better rights than an airline passenger," adds Hanni, whose American Airlines plane was stranded for eight hours last December, during which time she says a dog defecated in the aisle and a mother was forced to make diapers out of clothing. (American Airlines denies both accusations.)

But it is unlikely that the Bill of Rights will become law — at least as it was originally intended. The Senate version of the bill, which is being reviewed now by the aviation subcommittee, has a new clause that essentially acts as a loophole for the airlines. If the airlines file "contingency plans" to the DOT that explain how they will handle future delays, the airlines would not be required to deplane passengers after four hours on the tarmac (though they would still have to ensure sanitary conditions on the planes)."This new wording does seem to negate the original purpose of the Bill of Rights, [which was] to make sure passengers aren't stranded on tarmacs," says John Gentzel, press secretary for Senator Snowe.

It looks even bleaker in the House for Rep. Thompson. His version of the bill likely won't even make it into committee. Rep. James Oberstar, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would rather let the DOT regulate tarmac strandings than have Congress step in, says Jim Berard, the committee's spokesman.

And that's a good thing, say airline industry and experts who argue that Congress' interference would only harm consumers. "We believe a Bill of Rights would create inflexible standards that more often than not create greater inconvenience than they do today," Castelveter says. He explains that if planes were forced to return to the gate after four hours, further delays would ensue. To avoid that, airlines would cancel more flights. "Somebody who has a business meeting would much rather wait on the plane — provided they have humane circumstances — then go back to the gate and be further delayed," he says. Even flight attendants, who suffer the brunt of abuse when a plane sits on the tarmac, aren't on board with the Passenger's Bill of Rights. "We feel the Passenger's Bill of Rights would create this expectation by passengers that management and airlines couldn't possibly meet, and it would then be the flight attendants that have to bear the brunt of passenger's frustrations," says Corey Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), the world's largest union of flight attendants.

Fares would also likely rise if airlines are forced to compensate passengers for a breach of contract or make up for more canceled flights. "There is no free lunch," says Jon Ash, an aviation consultant and former vice-president of TWA. Getting the airlines to actually pay up could also be a challenge. In 2005, the European Union enacted its own Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, requiring airlines to compensate passengers up to $700 for delayed or canceled flights. But an E.U. report released in April showed that only 14% of passengers who had applied for compensation from the airlines had received it. Brian Havel, director of the International Aviation Law Institute, says Congress should take note of the E.U.'s failure and devise a different solution — ideally by providing adequate funds to repair the nation's "antiquated" air traffic control system.

Modernizing the U.S.' air traffic control system, which would include replacing outdated radar systems with sophisticated satellite technology, would cost at least $20 billion, and Congress may approve those funds as early as this September. They may not have a choice, because Congress must reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by Sept. 30, and the FAA is pushing for the funding as part of its reauthorization.

Supporters of the Passenger's Bill of Rights remain optimistic about the bill, particularly because it has been attached as a rider to the Senate's version of the FAA reauthorization bill. "Never again, if this bill passes, will someone have to sit on a plane for hours and hours without access to potable water, food and adequate restroom facilities," says Natalie Ravitz, press secretary for Senator Boxer.

But until that bill is passed, Hanni says passengers should prepare for the worst. She advises that they pack enough medicine and food and purchase enough water before boarding. "You really have to become a savvy traveler because there is no recourse once you are on that plane," she says.

• Tracy Samantha Schmidt/Washington
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