Passenger bill of rights (PBOR) advocates were dealt a blow today, when a federal appeals court overturned New York’s PBOR law. Why? The state law is superseded by the federal Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, so the state legislature is deemed unable to re-regulate the airlines.
The challenge to the New York law was brought by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group that represents many U.S. airlines.
As Sam Glover notes:
While the Second Circuit’s interpretation of the preemption clause in the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 seems at least reasonable, I have to wonder whether the air travel industry would have been better off losing this case. Now they just look like inhuman jerks who do not want to be bothered with giving trapped passengers some very basic creature comforts. Like air to breathe and a place to pee.
Fixing this at a state level may not work, after all. This will require leadership at the federal level. Write your House Representative. And your Senators, too.
(Thanks to Sam and Lar!)
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March 26th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I should see which airlines were represented here, and be sure to boycott them.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Here you go:
From the ATA’s own website, here’s a list.
“The Air Transport Association is the only trade organization of the principal U.S. airlines. We have recently expanded membership to include airline-related companies.”
ATA Airline Members
ABX Air, Inc. (GB)
Alaska Airlines, Inc. (AS)
Aloha Airlines, Inc. (AQ)
American Airlines, Inc. (AA)
ASTAR Air Cargo, Inc. (ER)
Atlas Air, Inc. (5Y)
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CO)
Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DL)
Evergreen International Airlines, Inc. (EZ)
Federal Express Corporation (FX)
Hawaiian Airlines (HA)
JetBlue Airways Corp. (B6)
Midwest Airlines (YX)
Northwest Airlines, Inc. (NW)
Southwest Airlines Co. (WN)
United Airlines, Inc. (UA)
UPS Airlines (5X)
US Airways, Inc. (US)
Associate Airline Members
Air Canada (AC)
Air Jamaica Ltd. (JM)
Mexicana (MX)
Industry Partners
Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Honeywell Aerospace
Pratt & Whitney
Industry Members
Aero Instruments & Avionics, Inc.
Aircraft Inventory Management & Services
Airline Intelligence Systems Inc.
American Express Company
Arch Insurance
ARINC
ATR Aircraft
BAE Systems
Benfield insurance
Bombardier Regional Aircraft
CAE
EmpowerMX
EMS Technologies
ENSCO, Inc.
Enservio
HEICO Corporation
IBM Global Travel & Transportation
IPC (USA), Inc.
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Metron Aviation
Priceline.com
RK Harrison Insurance Brokers Ltd.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, plc
Sensis Corporation
SITA
SolArc
TDG Aerospace
TIMCO Aviation Services
Transtech Airport Solutions
TravelPort
UGS PLM (Siemens)
Unisys Global Transportation
Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP)
USI Insurance
Valcor Engineering Corporation
WinWare, Inc.
World Fuel Services
March 26th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
God damn… even Midwest and JetBlue. Well, I better get used to driving.
May 5th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
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