Flying the Less Frustrating Skies

A couple of years ago, reports of tarmac delays of eleven or twelve hours, filled people with dread about the next time they had to fly.  For business travelers, who depend upon the airlines for their livelihood, these reports hit even closer to home.

Last year, in response to these incidents, the U.S. Department of Transportation put into place new rules concerning tarmac delays.  As reported by CNN in April, 2010, the new rules were “designed to prevent planes on domestic routes from sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours with passengers on board.  Airlines who violate the rule could face fines of up to $27,500 per passenger, the maximum allowed for violating any aviation consumer rule.”

It seems those rules are paying off.   March was the fourth month out of the last six that the nation’s airlines reported no tarmac delays of more than three hours, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). A year ago, in March 2010, the carriers reported 25 tarmac delays longer than three hours. Carriers also reported a decrease in the rate of canceled flights in March compared to a year earlier.  March was the 11th full month of data since the new aviation consumer rule went into effect on April 29, 2010.

Great progress!  Now maybe they can start working on getting us through security a little quicker.