A great Christmas gift from the Obama Administration is the announcement by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that no longer will airlines be allowed to keep passengers on planes on tarmacs longer than three hours without providing relief.
It has been an outrage that passengers have been kept locked in planes on tarmacs for up to 12 hours without any provision for food, water and clean bathroom facilities.
This is a long overdue move that will have unanimous support from everyone, as airlines have been abusing their passengers. Now they will be forced to accomodate passengers or face fines.
Specifically, they must provide food and water after two hours and allow passengers off the plane after three hours, or face fines per passenger of $27,500!
On the average, 1,500 flights per year in domestic travel have had this problem, and about 114,000 passengers have been inconvenienced. The new rules take effect in four months, and hopefully there will be few abuses on this issue until it goes into effect.