House Hearing on Airline Delays, Strandings

[Right: Kate Hanni]

The House aviation subcommittee is holding a hearing Wednesday -- house-hearings-apr-9.pdf -- on airline delays, cancellations and the absolutely inexcusable number of instances where passengers have been stranded on planes parked on tarmacs, without adequate food, water and sanitary conditions, for eight and more hours at a stretch.

A federal appeals court, known as a patsy for corporate interests, recently overturned the New York State Passengers Bill of Rights and that, too, is to be a subject of the hearing.

The witness list is impressive:

Calvin L. Scovel III, the Transportation Department’s no-nonsense inspector general; D.J., Gribbin, general counsel of the Transportation Department; Gregory Principato, the president of the Airports Council International North America (who has been leading the way to have airports step up to the plate in times of crisis, even if airlines will not); James C. May, the president of the Air Transport Association, the airline trade group; Gary Richards, the chief dispatcher for Delta Air Lines and my pal the incomparable, indefatigable Kate Hanni, founder of the grassroots Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights.

###