No help

Angry passengers who have been stranded for hours on airport tarmacs will receive little comfort from a federal task force assembled nearly a year ago to study the problem.

The federal Transportation Department task force was formed in reaction to complaints from passengers forced to wait in planes for up to 10 hours at a time when the absence of basic amenities such as food, water and clean rest rooms made on-board waits intolerable.

The problems drew congressional scrutiny with an unsuccessful push for Congress to enact a federal passenger bill of rights that would mandate airlines and airports to provide adequate food, water and other necessities so passengers can wait in greater comfort.

As an alternative to laws and regulations, the Bush administration created the tarmac task force with the idea of developing guidelines for airlines and airports to address passenger needs during lengthy delays.

With its work completed, the final report clearly favors the industry with loosely written guidelines that are purely voluntary in nature and place no requirements on airlines or airports to do anything.

The report said that airlines should "make every reasonable effort" to keep airplane rest rooms usable, but what constitutes reasonable effort is open to debate. Similarly, the task force said refreshments and entertainment should be provided when practical, which is left open to interpretation.

Last year, the federal Transportation Department's inspector general recommended a limit be set on how long passengers can be kept waiting on planes. The task force set no limits; in fact it could not even agree on what constitutes a "lengthy delay."

Task force member Kate Hanni, founder of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, said the report offered "a set of best practices, but there's nothing enforceable where a passenger can say, 'I won't be held up for more than three hours or five hours or eight hours, or without a glass of water or a sandwich,"'

Airlines have responded with their own plans but anyone looking for stronger government measures will be disappointed. A New York state attempt to enact a passenger bill of rights was rejected on the grounds that the issue was a matter for the federal government.

The task force has left passengers at the mercy of airlines to decide what to do without federal intervention or oversight.