Mar 25, 2008 11:23 am US/Eastern
Appeals Court Rejects Airline Passenger Law
NEW YORK (CBS News) ―
A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a state law requiring airlines to give food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers stuck in delayed planes.
Although the first-of-its kind bill had barely gotten off the ground, the court said the measure was well-intentioned but only the government can regulate airlines, CBS News transportation and consumer safety correspondent Nancy Cordes reports. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said New York's law - the first of its kind in the country - interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.
The law was passed after thousands of passengers were stranded aboard airplanes for up to 10 hours on several JetBlue Airways flights at Kennedy International Airport on Valentine's Day last year.
They complained they were deprived of food and water and that toilets overflowed. A month later, hundreds more passengers were stranded at the same airport after a daylong ice storm.
The law was challenged by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group representing leading U.S. airlines.
The court said that while the goals of the law were "laudable" and the circumstances prompting its adoption "deplorable," only the federal government has the authority to pass such regulations.
"If New York's view regarding the scope of its regulatory authority carried the day, another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on its outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel," the court wrote.
Even some travelers rights advocates aren't surprised it was struck down, Cordes reports.
"We can't have a hodgepodge of state laws," said David Stempler of the Air Travelers Association. "This is something the federal government and U.S. Congress need to legislate at their level."
Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, the prime sponsor of New York Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, said in a statement that the ruling "is a disappointment to anyone who has suffered at the hands of airlines that care more about profits than their customers."
"This is far from over," the Democrat said.
In a statement, the air transport association said the ruling vindicates their position that airline services are regulated by the federal government and that a "patchwork" of state and local measures would not benefit customers.
A recent federal report showed that about 24 percent of flights nationally arrived late in the first 10 months of last year, which was the industry's second-worst performance record since comparable data began being collected in 1995.
Kennedy airport had the third-worst on-time arrival record of any major U.S. airport through October, behind the New York area's other two major airports, LaGuardia and Newark, according to the report.
While congress could move on this issue, Cordes reports, a national passengers bill of rights, which was unveiled to much support and fanfare after the Jet Blue debacle, is now stalled in the Senate.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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