Aaaarrrrgh…….just when we thought we were making some progress!……According to this AP (Associated Press) story featured on CNN.com, the first ever attempt at legislating some basic decent treatment for airline passengers was repealed this week….here’s the gist of it if you don’t feel like going to CNN.com to read the whole story.
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“A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a state law requiring airlines to give food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers stuck in delayed planes, saying the measure was well-intentioned but stepped on federal authority.
The court ruled that only the federal government has the authority to regulate service on an air carrier.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said New York’s law — the first of its kind in the country — interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.
The law was passed after thousands of passengers were stranded aboard airplanes for up to 10 hours on several JetBlue Airways flights at Kennedy International Airport on Valentine’s Day last year. They complained they were deprived of food and water and that toilets overflowed. A month later, hundreds more passengers of other airlines were stranded aboard planes at JFK after a daylong ice storm.
The law was challenged by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group representing leading U.S. airlines.
The court said that while the goals of the law were “laudable” and the circumstances prompting its adoption “deplorable,” only the federal government has the authority to pass such regulations.
“If New York’s view regarding the scope of its regulatory authority carried the day, another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on its outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel,” the court wrote.”
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Okay I can understand the court’s logic about controlling what laws states can pass in order to prevent a confusing morass of conflicting and potentially silly laws, but then WHO IS GOING TO STEP UP AND TAKE CARE OF US????
We NEED our Federal Government to tell the airlines that they CANNOT abuse the traveling public the way they do now. Write to your Senators, Congressmen and Congresswomen, and any other Representative you can get an address for and ASK THEM to sponsor legislation that will restore decent treatment to travelers everywhere. Do it now.
