U.S. governor moves to protect disgruntled airline passengers

New York's Eliot Spitzer is the first U.S. governor to sign legislation ensuring that airline passengers on severely delayed flights will get their basic needs met, whiletheir plane waitsfortakeoff.

In February 2007, New York-based airline JetBlue cancelled more than 250 domestic and international flights following a crippling ice storm in New York that leftmany passengers stranded on the icy tarmac for more than 10 hours.

In response to that event and others in which passengers were stuck on planes without food or water and had to contend with overflowing toilets and poor ventilation, Spitzer announced he had signedthe legislationlast week.

If the legislationpasses, airlines could face fines of $1,000 USper passenger for failing to providebasic amenities.

"As a major international travel hub, it is our duty to take the lead in adopting measures that will ease air travel for passengers," said Spitzer in a news release. "This law establishes much needed consumer protections that will help guarantee greater passenger safety and comfort when severe delays impact their travels from New York airports."

The legislation saysall airlinesout of New York airports must provide passengers food, water, fresh air, power, and working restrooms on any flight that has left the gate and been on the tarmac for more than three hours.

In addition to providing passengers with basic services, the legislation also establishes other measures to protect consumers meantto:

• Create a consumer bill of rights for airline passengers.
• Establish the office of the airline consumer advocate within the Consumer Protection Board to oversee compliance with the airline passenger bill of rights.
• Mandate that all air carriers provide consumers with notice of complaint contact information to be posted at all service desks and other appropriate areas.
• Provide the public with a New York State-based consumer advocate and contact person who can help to co-ordinate with the appropriate airline industry officials, federal agencies and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the event an incident occurs.

In Canada, the agency responsible for consumer complaints regarding air travelis the Canadian Transportation Agency, whosewebsite does not mentionany specific consumer protections for Canadians on planeswaiting for liftoff.