From Now On, The Maximum Is Four Hours
American Airlines -- fighting the public relations debacle it
suffered in December, when bad weather forced the carrier to ground
dozens of flights for hours at a time -- said this week if such an
event happens again, passengers won't have to wait as long before
they're able to get off the aircraft.
Airline spokesman Tim Wagner told the Dallas Morning News from
now on, the airline won't hold passengers on grounded planes longer
than four hours. If that still sounds like a lot, keep in mind some
passengers were stranded on crowded planes over eight hours on
December 29.
"It's a rule now," Wagner said. "It's a rule that may never be
used again, though."
American certainly hopes it won't ever have to enforce the rule.
Last December's incident stemmed from a series of thunderstorms
over the airline's hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
American routed flights inbound to DFW to other airports in the
area, but kept those planes on ground hold expecting the
storms to blow through. Other planes bound for DFW left the gates
at originating airports, and were then kept waiting on the tarmac
for the weather to clear.
But the storms kept
coming... and thousands of passengers were kept waiting on parked
airliners as a result. Passengers onboard one American Airlines
flight routed to Austin, TX were kept on their plane over eight
hours, without food or access to bathroom facilities.
As Aero-News reported, those
passengers criticized American's handling of the incident, saying
the airline did not have sufficient staff onhand to deal with the
problem, and that staffers on duty did not communicate enough with
stranded fliers. Some are now pressuring Congress to
reconsider the much-bandied "Passengers Bill Of Rights."
Wagner acknowledged 4,600 passengers on 67 planes sat for more
than three hours on that fateful day in December, and many of them
sat longer than four hours. The spokesman said veterans at the
airline couldn't remember a day when weather hurt its operations
more.
Under the new policy, American will also create a position to
oversee diversions, and help schedule flights for passengers
stranded at smaller airports to get back to American hubs faster.
The airline's operations control center in Fort Worth, TX will also
see changes, to better handle diversions and alert dispatchers when
a plane is nearing the four-hour deadline.