WASHINGTON - A report released by advocates of plane traveler rights gave failing grades Wednesday to three major U.S. airlines for their treatment of stranded passengers.
The first "Stranding Report Card" from the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights said that statistics published by the Department of Transportation on passengers left stranded on the tarmac are misleading. The statistics, the report said, fail to take into account important data on plane diversions and cancellations involving extended confinements on the tarmac.
The organization was formed by passengers stranded in December on several American Airlines planes in Austin, some for more than nine hours.
American Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways all received an overall grade of "F," and the federal department was also given poor ratings. The group charged that the department is failing to respond to consumer complaints and that its data collection system is flawed. The airlines that fared the best were Orlando-based AirTran Airways and Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which both received a "B."
The group also announced several ratings for worst practices, with American Airlines receiving the most negative rating for having "no food, most known strandings, most known crisis mismanagement and high time-on-the-tarmac statistics."
"We know we need to do a better job at giving customers the services they expect, and work is under way to make this a priority," said United spokeswoman Robin Ubanski in response to the report.
A call to American seeking comment was not returned.
Meanwhile, Transportation Department spokesman Bill Mosley said a public meeting will be held next week to discuss whether changes in the way data are reported and collected are needed.
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters has also ordered an investigation into the issue of aviation delays, Mosley said.
"We expect to see the results of that review in the near future, which will give us a better understanding of whether changes need to be put in place to avoid the kind of delays too many passengers have experienced," Mosley said.
The coalition said the report, compiled from news reports, government statistics and passenger observations, was designed to give a more accurate picture of passenger strandings and to encourage the government to give more protection to passenger rights.
The organization plans to release a report card every six months, said Kate Hanni, its founder.
The Air Transport Association, a trade organization that represents the major airlines in the United States, downplayed the report's significance.
"There are numerous organizations that take it upon themselves to do their own ratings and report cards, and this one is driven by their own agenda to do a passengers' bill of rights," association spokesman David Castelveter said.
The passengers group has been pushing Congress to pass a rights bill when it considers a reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration this summer.
The bill's supporters received a setback this week when Time magazine reported that Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is expected to let the Transportation Department regulate strandings rather than have Congress intervene.
Hanni said her organization would keep fighting.
"We intend to see every congressman on the aviation subcommittee over the next three days, and we intend to let them know that we haven't gone away," Hanni said. "We're going to be in their faces, giving them the information and saying, 'It is not acceptable for you to avoid passenger rights.' "
Copyright 2005 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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