Once-Stranded Passenger Fighting for Fliers' Rights

(Dec. 22) -- In Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's words, it was "President Obama's Passenger Bill of Rights." To Kate Hanni, it was "a complete Christmas miracle."

Since founding Flyers Rights in 2006, she's been the face of a movement urging many of the changes adopted Monday by the Transportation Department.

If airlines don't allow fliers on domestic routes to leave a plane stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours, they could get fined $27,500 per passenger. The same penalty could apply if airline personnel don't provide food, water, medical attention and restrooms before the two-hour mark.

"We should be grateful that this administration has decided to take very seriously the issues that passengers are suffering at the hands of the airlines," Hanni tells Sphere. "The primary obstacle to this happening before was that the previous administration had no commitment to solving the problem."

Although the rule-making began under President George W. Bush, she says that his administration delayed its implementation, leaving it broad enough for the Obama administration to add meaningful details.

She goes further: "They tried every trick in the book to convince airline passengers they were getting relief, like opening up those Thanksgiving holiday corridors in the sky. And the airlines brought in the Rockettes two years ago at Christmas to dance in O'Hare to try to convince airline passengers they were doing something, but they weren't."

Meanwhile, the Air Transport Association, which represents the industry, warned that the new regulations would do more harm than good.

In a statement, ATA President James May vowed to "comply with the new rule even though we believe it will lead to unintended consequences -- more canceled flights and greater passenger inconvenience."

However, Hanni rejects efforts to shift blame for flight delays, saying airlines have refused to manage congestion during peak times. "The airlines," she said, "have imposed this purgatory on passengers."

Hanni seems an unlikely person to head a nonprofit organization dedicated to enacting legislative change. She was a real estate broker for 17 years and is a professional musician, playing with a Motown band.

But on Dec. 29, 2006, Hanni and her family were on an American Airlines flight diverted from Dallas to Austin because of thunderstorms. They were stranded on the tarmac for nine hours without food, water or information about their predicament.

Along with other passengers from the flight, Hanni turned her anger into action, founding Flyers Rights in 2006 to work toward passing the Passenger Bill of Rights. The group has 27,000 members, according to its Web site.

The bill passed Monday is the culmination of 10 years of attempts to provide some protection to airline passengers. A Passenger Bill of Rights was originally introduced into Congress in 1999 but died in committee. It was introduced again in 2001 and 2007 with the same result.

But Monday's success is not the final destination for Flyers Rights. Hanni says there is still much work to be done on international flights, where delays are much worse and which are not affected by the new law.

"Half of the 10 worst travel horror stories from 2009 are international flights that sat for nine, 10, eight hours on the tarmac without relief and they will not be helped by this rule-making," Hanni said. "We have a lot more work to do to protect airline passengers from these egregious events."