Sun Country to limit waits on planes to 4 hours
MINNEAPOLIS - MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Sun Country Airlines, under fire for keeping 150 passengers on the tarmac for nearly six hours, says it will start sending planes that sit on the runway for four hours back to the gate to let people off.
While passenger advocates said the move is a beginning, Kate Hanni, executive director of FlyersRights.org, said four hours is still too long. Lawmakers and several groups like hers are trying use a series of similar incidents this summer to build support for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights that is pending before Congress.
Sun Country's Flight 242 from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Twin Cities International Airport had been scheduled to take off about 11 a.m. last Friday. It started boarding at noon but then didn't take off until after 6 p.m. because of airport construction and weather delays.
Stan Gadek, chief executive of Mendota Heights-based Sun Country, called that delay unacceptable. He said Monday that the airline's new policy is modeled on the proposed legislation, which is aimed at ensuring that people aren't trapped on airplanes for long periods without adequate food, water or restrooms. It would limit such delays to three hours.
Gadek said Sun Country could live with a three-hour limit anywhere but JFK, which has chronic problems with long delays.
"Until airlines start imposing some discipline on themselves, these events are going to continue to occur," he said.
Gadek said Sun Country won't necessarily wait four hours before making a decision. A plane might head back to the gate after two hours if the flight crew determines they probably won't be able to make the four-hour deadline, he said.
Sun Country is not the first airline to set a time limit for getting people off delayed planes, though Gadek said other airlines' policies strike him as "wishy-washy." A 2007 report by the Transportation Department inspector general said eight airlines it checked had limits for departing flights that varied from two to five hours.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who sits on a Senate committee that oversees the air travel system, said she would continue to push the legislation. Friday's delay also led U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and New York State Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, D-Queens, to call Sunday for it to be passed.
Government statistics show that from January to June, 613 planes nationwide were delayed on tarmacs for more than three hours and their passengers were kept on board.
Friday's incident marked the second six-hour delay for Minnesota-bound planes in two weeks. Severe thunderstorms had forced a Continental Express flight from Houston to Minneapolis to land in Rochester, where 47 passengers were stranded on the tarmac overnight. That incident triggered a federal investigation.
Hanni expressed hope that the recent incidents will boost the chances for the passengers rights legislation.
"We need to take these discretionary decisions out of the hands of airlines and their employees," she said.
The Business Travel Coalition also said the incidents should improve prospects for the proposal. "It would appear that unstoppable momentum is building behind passenger rights legislation," the group said in a statement this weekend.
___
On the Net:
Sun Country Airlines: http://www.suncountry.com
FlyersRights.org: http://www.flyersrights.org
Business Travel Coalition: http://businesstravelcoalition.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
