This aviation law column typically addresses the important legal issues that arise from aviation accidents, which thankfully have become rarer over the past decade. But while the rate of aviation accidents has decreased, passenger service complaints remain a recurring problem. These complaints range from serious claims of discrimination after an airline refuses to board certain passengers because of alleged security concerns to mundane claims involving missing bags.
Long delays at airports are a familiar problem to any traveler, and passengers rarely know their rights when faced with unexpected delays, cancellations or overbooked flights. After the much-publicized tarmac delays during a blizzard in 2007 that left hundreds of passengers stranded in airplanes for up to 10 hours without adequate food, water or functioning lavatories, Congress took action by passing the Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012,1 and the Department of Transportation (DOT) issued rules guaranteeing specific rights to passengers. Nevertheless passengers’ rights in the United States still lag behind those in the European Union, and a federal court struck down New York’s effort at legislating passengers’ rights as preempted by federal law.
