Passenger Bill Of Rights Makes Progress

By Josh Simeone J.Simeone@krdotv.com

COLORADO SPRINGS – Airlines may soon have to offer customers left sitting on a delayed airplane with new perks based on a bill that received approval from the House of Representatives.

The Passenger Bill of Rights received approval Thursday, but has already made headlines long since its consideration.

The bill has even gotten attention in Colorado Springs, after a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles was diverted to the Colorado Springs Airport in August. Passengers claim they were left sitting inside of the airplane for nearly three hours without food or water.

The bill would require airlines to provide passengers on delayed flights left sitting at the gate or on the tarmac with food, water, and other basic conveniences. The bill also requires airlines to create a plan that allows passengers to de-plane after three hours.

For passengers departing from the Colorado Springs Airport, a passenger’s bill of rightsis long overdue.

“You’re held hostage, there’s nothing you can do,” Elaine Kennick says. Kennick and her husband Steve are returning home to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Elaine’s husband Steve says being stranded on a plane is nothing new.

“It was Dulles, last year for about 45 minutes to an hour trying to get to a gate,” Steve Kennick says.

Kennick says the bill comes at a great time because he believes departure and arrival times have gotten worse in the airline industry. “You’d expect a half hour, 45 minute delays here and there, but now, half hour, 45 minute delays are short.”

For many passengers, this bill would be an obvious benefit, as they believe it acknowledges basic passenger’s rights in need of representation. However, for airports across the country, it isn’t so simple.

In a statement sent to NEWSCHANNEL 13, Colorado Springs Airport Director of Aviation Mark Earle says; “We have not been directly involved in the debate because, once on board, the passengers are fully under the airline’s control and the airport has no authority over them.”

Earle continues to say the airport is watching the debate closely because it has the potential to affect passengers and airlines within the Colorado Springs Airport.

Earle says most of the airport’s gates are leased to airlines.

Still, the Kennick’s don’t want to blame anyone; they just want someone to look out for them the next timetheir flightis delayed.