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Winter weather traps travelers on runways, highways

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 16, 2007

WASHINGTON - After being stuck for 11 hours on a parked airplane during a winter storm, JetBlue passengers found there's nothing they can do about it.

There are no regulations limiting the time an airline can keep passengers on grounded aircraft.

The airlines' voluntary code of conduct simply says that during such extraordinary delays, they will make "reasonable efforts" to meet passenger needs for food, water, restroom facilities and medical assistance.

Airlines have blocked attempts to set minimum legal standards for customer service by agreeing to a voluntary code of conduct that they have not always followed.

On Wednesday, hundreds of JetBlue passengers were stuck for as long as 11 hours in parked jets at John F. Kennedy International Airport during the winter storm.

The airline acknowledged that it hesitated nearly five hours before calling for a fleet of buses to unload at least seven jets that spent the day sitting on runways because of the weather.

In the late 1990s, the nation's 14 largest airlines joined to block a drive by Congress to enact legal protections for passengers after a series of travel problems.

Instead, the airlines agreed to an Airline Customer Service Commitment and incorporated it in their customer agreements, which are legally enforceable.

The airlines said they would notify customers of delays and diversions, try to deliver baggage on time and meet customers' essential needs when they were stuck on parked airplanes.

The airlines, though, didn't agree to limit the time they could keep people inside airplanes that aren't going anywhere.

The storm also stranded hundreds of motorists on a 50-mile stretch of highway in Pennsylvania.

National Guardsmen on Thursday ferried food, fuel and baby supplies to the motorists, who were stuck on the icy, hilly section of Interstate 78 in eastern Pennsylvania. The state shut down a large section of I-78 about 8 a.m. to try to clear snow and ice, leading to the traffic jam.

The traffic jam started to ease by Thursday afternoon, but drivers were still seething.

"How could you operate a state like this? It's totally disgusting," said Eugene Coleman of Hartford, Conn.

[Last modified February 16, 2007, 01:17:34]