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New Tarmac Rules Cause Spike in Terminal Delays, Flight Cancellations

July 15, 2010 at 3:46 PM | by | Comments (0)

Good news and bad news from the world of tarmac rules and unintended consequences. The good news is that there were only 5 tarmac delays of three hours or more in May 2010, down from 34 similar delays last year. The bad news is that many of the people who would have been sitting on the tarmac were instead sitting in the terminal. Because their flights got delayed and then canceled. Predictably.

Two points need to be made here. First, the increase in flight cancellations was as dramatic as the decrease in tarmac delays. May 2009 saw 4,792 cancellations, while May 2010 had a whopping 6,716 canceled flights. Second, this isn't a matter of "well, passengers are going to sit on the tarmac or sit in the terminal, so we might as well have them sitting in the terminal." The numbers released by the Department of Transportation show that, on balance, the net delay per passenger was longer by hours and sometimes even days.

Ultimately this is a question of priorities, and people are going to differ. Would you rather be stuck on a tarmac for more than 3 hours, with the promise of eventually getting to your destination, or would you rather have your flight canceled? We can see arguments both ways.

Not up for debate, though, is that the government has all but gone out of its way to screw up these rules. There was plenty of space for sensible regulation, up to and including changing how airplanes wait in line to take off. Instead we got this set of confusing incentives, where the possibility of a complete crapshow is always hovering in the background. Airlines now have the choice between canceling their flights or risking massive corporation-threatening fines.

But at least the government wants to expand tarmac rules while demanding higher compensation for passengers who got bumped because of the tarmac rules in the first place. At least there's that.

[Photo: Hayabusa future / Wiki Commons]

Related Stories:
· Airlines Ground Thousands of Passengers to Avoid Tarmac Fines [ABC News]
· Airlines [Jaunted]
· Airline News [Jaunted]

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