Coalition for an Airline
Passengers' Bill of Rights
Dear
Council 89 Members,
Coalition for an Airline
Passengers' Bill of Rights (CAPBOR) Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA)
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE 5 June 2007
CONTACT: Kate Hanni, CAPBOR, 707-337-0328
Corey Caldwell, AFA-CWA 202-434-0586
Washington, DC - The leading airline passenger rights
group and the world’s largest flight attendant union
have joined together to urge Congress to address serious
flaws in current aviation policy.
"Passengers are continually frustrated at airline
management’s inability to handle long ground delays and
are therefore urging Congress to pass the Passenger Bill
of Rights," said Kate Hanni, CAPBOR President. "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."
"A Passenger Bill of Rights will be an empty promise
until Congress enacts serious aviation policy reforms
such as substantial investments to update and upgrade
our air traffic control system; increases in funding for
Airport Improvement Projects (AIPs); a carry-on baggage
policy that applies to every airline and every flight;
ensuring Essential Air Service (EAS) to small
communities; improving cabin air quality for crewmembers
and passengers; and providing a safe working environment
on board aircraft for flight attendants," said Patricia
Friend, AFA-CWA International President.
Recently, United Airlines revealed its “new policy” to
handle long ground delays, which describes extraordinary
delays as "flights of note."
"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. Management took 'flights of notoriety’ and
minimized them as 'flights of note' and it struck the
wrong chord!” said Hanni.
"For far too long airline executives have dictated
federal aviation policy resulting in passengers and
aviation employees having to take a back seat," added
Friend. "Congress and consumers may want a Passenger
Bill of Rights, but management has to ultimately enforce
the law and airline executives have historically shown
that customer service is a convenience for them if it
does not impact the bottom line. A Passenger Bill of
Rights may set high expectations for passengers and when
airline management drops the ball, flight attendants
will bear the burden."
CAPBOR (www.flyersrights.org) has 15,120 supporters. It
was founded by Hanni and hundreds of other passengers
who were stranded on several American Airlines planes
for up to nine hours at Austin International Airport,
December 2006.
For over 60
years, the Association of Flight Attendants has been
serving as the voice for flight attendants in the
workplace, in the aviation industry, in the media and on
Capitol Hill. More than 55,000 flight attendants at 20
airlines come together to form AFA-CWA, the world’s
largest flight attendant union. AFA is part of the
700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America
(CWA), AFL-CIO. Visit us at www.afanet.org.
