Flight Attendants Support Passenger Rights Effort

AFA-CWA and the nation's leading airline passenger rights group have joined together to urge Congress to address serious flaws in aviation policy.

"Airlines have repeatedly failed to provide Congress with any sort of deplanement plan, despite a call from several prominent leaders. This arrogant attempt to circumvent Congressional requests is just another example of how airlines continue to leave passenger rights on the ground," said Kate Hanni, president of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights (CAPBOR).

AFA-CWA also supports a bill of rights but President Patricia Friend said "it will be an empty promise until Congress enacts serious aviation policy reforms" that would upgrade air traffic control, improve airports, apply carry-on baggage standards to every airline and improve cabin air quality, among other changes.

Recently, United Airlines unveiled its "new policy" to handle long ground delays, which describes extraordinary delays as "flights of note." Hanni said that "To trivialize both the passengers and the crew on flights held up to 11 hours in deplorable conditions, by calling these horrific flights 'flights of note', is absurd." More about the new organization is online at www.flyersrights.org.