United meltdown prompts call for reform

Uncategorised
Friday, 14 April 2017

A US senator (Chris Van Hollen) is introducing legislation that would “prohibit airlines from forcibly removing passengers after they have already boarded the plane due to overbooking or airline staff seeking to fly as passengers”, writes Jack Handley.

The initiative comes after a United Airlines passenger was dragged off a plane flying from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to Louisville, Kentucky.

In a letter seeking support, Van Hollen wrote:

Dear Colleague,

We were all shocked and outraged this week when United Airlines forcibly and brutally removed Dr David Dao from Flight 3411. That is why I’m introducing the Customers Not Cargo Act to prohibit airlines from forcibly removing passengers after they have already boarded the plane due to oversales or airline staff seeking to fly as passengers.

Department of Transportation regulations make it clear that passengers must be compensated when they are involuntarily bumped prior to boarding, and many airlines offer incentives for customers to voluntarily rebook. These rules and the practice of overbooking should be reexamined to protect passengers. As we do that work, we should act immediately to ensure that airlines cannot force passengers who have already boarded to leave the plane in order to free up seats for others. Instead, they must provide sufficient incentives to encourage passengers to voluntarily deplane.

It is outrageous that airlines can bodily remove passengers after boarding rather than providing appropriate incentives to encourage volunteers. Airlines should resolve these common overbooking issues prior to boarding. I hope you’ll join me in introducing the Customers Not Cargo Act, which would direct the Department of Transportation to update the oversales rule (14 CFR Part 250) to prohibit airlines from doing what United did to Dr. Dao this week. 

Instead, airlines would have to offer appropriate incentives to solicit volunteers, and do so before boarding whenever practicable. This narrowly-targeted update would protect the rights and dignity of passengers while ensuring that airlines retain flexibility to manage oversales.

Overbooking is good practice

Van Hollen's move is not likely to impress airlines. 

Overbooking is a well-established and generally painless industry practice that compensates passengers when they volunteer to leave an overbooked flight and allows the airline to maximise the value of the most short-lived asset it has - an airline seat that, once it flies empty, is a revenue opportunity lost for all time (and if the no-show passenger's ticket is transferable, it passes on a further liability for the airline, which has to accommodate the passenger on a later service).

While the United incident was disgraceful for its violence, the principle of 'bumping' passengers is clumsy but sound. 

A typical flight will have about five per cent of passengers who don't show up for any number of reasons. If there are standby passengers, they are invited at the last minute to take the suddenly-available seats.

Airlines use long-term load data to 'guesstimate' the number of seats likely to be affected on any given flight/day based on historical passenger figures. Those figures are adjusted for one-off events such as sporting fixtures or 

music shows at the destination city. 

In terms of staff duty travel taking priority, a group of four crew means between one and four flights from the destination airport can't operate unless these staff arrive. The cumulative effect of delayed/cancelled services is a lot more expensive and damaging to an airline's reputation than the cost of 'bumping' passengers on the feeder flight. 

If Van Hollen's initiative gains traction, the net effect probably will be more flights taking off with empty seats and therefore higher costs per airline seat, which will translate into higher seat charges for customers. - JH

United meltdown prompts call for reform

Uncategorised
Friday, 14 April 2017

A US senator (Chris Van Hollen) is introducing legislation that would “prohibit airlines from forcibly removing passengers after they have already boarded the plane due to overbooking or airline staff seeking to fly as passengers”, writes Jack Handley.

The initiative comes after a United Airlines passenger was dragged off a plane flying from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to Louisville, Kentucky.

In a letter seeking support, Van Hollen wrote:

Dear Colleague,

We were all shocked and outraged this week when United Airlines forcibly and brutally removed Dr David Dao from Flight 3411. That is why I’m introducing the Customers Not Cargo Act to prohibit airlines from forcibly removing passengers after they have already boarded the plane due to oversales or airline staff seeking to fly as passengers.

Department of Transportation regulations make it clear that passengers must be compensated when they are involuntarily bumped prior to boarding, and many airlines offer incentives for customers to voluntarily rebook. These rules and the practice of overbooking should be reexamined to protect passengers. As we do that work, we should act immediately to ensure that airlines cannot force passengers who have already boarded to leave the plane in order to free up seats for others. Instead, they must provide sufficient incentives to encourage passengers to voluntarily deplane.

It is outrageous that airlines can bodily remove passengers after boarding rather than providing appropriate incentives to encourage volunteers. Airlines should resolve these common overbooking issues prior to boarding. I hope you’ll join me in introducing the Customers Not Cargo Act, which would direct the Department of Transportation to update the oversales rule (14 CFR Part 250) to prohibit airlines from doing what United did to Dr. Dao this week. 

Instead, airlines would have to offer appropriate incentives to solicit volunteers, and do so before boarding whenever practicable. This narrowly-targeted update would protect the rights and dignity of passengers while ensuring that airlines retain flexibility to manage oversales.

Overbooking is good practice

Van Hollen's move is not likely to impress airlines. 

Overbooking is a well-established and generally painless industry practice that compensates passengers when they volunteer to leave an overbooked flight and allows the airline to maximise the value of the most short-lived asset it has - an airline seat that, once it flies empty, is a revenue opportunity lost for all time (and if the no-show passenger's ticket is transferable, it passes on a further liability for the airline, which has to accommodate the passenger on a later service).

While the United incident was disgraceful for its violence, the principle of 'bumping' passengers is clumsy but sound. 

A typical flight will have about five per cent of passengers who don't show up for any number of reasons. If there are standby passengers, they are invited at the last minute to take the suddenly-available seats.

Airlines use long-term load data to 'guesstimate' the number of seats likely to be affected on any given flight/day based on historical passenger figures. Those figures are adjusted for one-off events such as sporting fixtures or 

music shows at the destination city. 

In terms of staff duty travel taking priority, a group of four crew means between one and four flights from the destination airport can't operate unless these staff arrive. The cumulative effect of delayed/cancelled services is a lot more expensive and damaging to an airline's reputation than the cost of 'bumping' passengers on the feeder flight. 

If Van Hollen's initiative gains traction, the net effect probably will be more flights taking off with empty seats and therefore higher costs per airline seat, which will translate into higher seat charges for customers. - JH