American Eagle / American Airlines is being singled out for having (14) 3-hour delays out of a total of 16 in May.   That’s quite a lot and they happened all on one day when there was, so to speak, a perfect storm of weather going on in Chicago.  By all accounts, passengers held on board for 3+ hours were treated very well and that’s the good news from all of this. 

Some would say that American had no choice in this particular instance but I ask everyone to consider what I think are  interesting facts about this particular day in Chicago.   First, it happened at one of the world’s busiest airports, Chicago.  Second, the diversity of airlines at Chicago is exceptional for any airport.  Third, not one but two airlines are hubbed at Chicago’s O’Hare airport: American and United.

I’m not sure I buy that all 14 were unavoidable since by all appearances, most every other airline managed to figure out their problems and take care of them.  It’s worth looking into to find out why American Eagle was so much more impacted by this than, say, United Airlines or its regional airlines. 

I also think that the conditions of weather at O’Hare are exactly what the 3-Hour rule has provided for when it comes to exceptions to it.  The weather would not allow deplaning in several instances (and I do buy this) and the congestion wouldn’t necessarily allow safe and effective returns to the gates either. 

This development isn’t a reason to revisit the rule although I’ve stated before and I’ll state it again:  I think this should be a 4 hour rule.   It would allow more flow of passengers through airports in these situations and fewer cancellations while stopping egregious delays that effectively end up trapping customers in long, thin, metal tubes. 

While I think the rule would be better revised to 4 hours, I also think that before we give American Airlines a pass, a little investigation should be performed to see how the airline was addressing these delays and what, if any, real and practical alternatives were available.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax