"Economic Cancellations: U.S. airlines may be stranding passengers to save cash"

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Airlines may be stranding passengers to save cash
"To the airlines, economic cancellations are like the mafia -- they don't
exist"
Consumer advocacy groups question whether airlines practice 'economic flight
cancellations' -- stranding customers to save cash.
BY JUDY HOLLAND
Hearst News Service


WASHINGTON -- Congress is getting an earful from angry airline customers who
are furious with carriers that cancel flights at the last minute because
they don't have enough passengers aboard to turn a profit.

The airlines customarily deny that they cancel flights for economic reasons
and, instead, often blame cancellations on bad weather, mechanical failures,
or time-maxed flight crews -- all assertions that are nearly impossible for
passengers to challenge.

Passenger-rights advocates are asking lawmakers to step in and clamp down on
airlines.

Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., is among lawmakers who suspect that financial
motives lead airlines to cancel half-full flights.

'It seems flights that are canceled for `mechanical reasons' are the ones
that are least full,'' Lipinski said .

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is pushing legislation that would require airlines
to publish the percentage of flights that they cancel and flag chronically
canceled flights.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said she is hearing complaints about airlines
``summarily canceling flights without any explanation.''

''This can ruin the plans of consumers who have spent a lot of money,''
Snowe says. ``The airlines have a responsibility to make sure they are
responsive and accountable to the consumer.''

Congress is looking broadly at the issue of airline accountability as
lawmakers prepare to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Act, which expires in
September.

David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the trade
group for major U.S. carriers, bristles at the suggestion that airlines dump
passengers if a particular flight doesn't make economic sense.

''An airline does not cancel a flight because an airline isn't going to make
money on a flight,'' Castelveter insists. But he acknowledges that carriers
``do cancel flights because they need an airplane on another route.''

He says carriers ``swap out planes if one is booked and another is part
empty.''

''If you take away the ability for a carrier to decide how it's going to use
its airplanes, that is a recipe for disaster,'' Castelveter says.

Castelveter says when airlines cancel a flight because they need the plane
elsewhere, airlines refund the tickets or make alternative arrangements --
an assertion disputed by consumers.

Advocates for jilted passengers say it's tough to quantify how many
passengers get dumped for economic reasons because the airlines are the
primary keepers of those statistics.

''To the airlines, economic cancellations are like the mafia -- they don't
exist,'' Jim Berard, communications director for the House Infrastructure
and Transportation Committee, wryly opined.

ILLEGAL ACTIONS

Bill Mosley, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, says any
airline that made a practice of canceling flights for economic reasons could
be in violation of the clause in Federal Aviation Administration law that
prohibits ''unfair'' or ''deceptive'' practices.

''We'd have to investigate,'' Mosley says, adding that the department won't
pursue these ''economic cancellations'' unless the agency were to find ``a
pattern of violations by a carrier.''

There simply aren't enough complaints to warrant more attention, he said.
The department reported only 28 complaints regarding economic cancellations
in 2005, 17 complaints in 2006 and eight this year.

Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, an
advocacy group for air travelers and a member of the FAA rule-making
advisory committee, says carriers won't admit they cancel flights for
economic reasons because that would amount to a breach of contract since
airline ''contracts of carriage'' usually say they will do their best to get
passengers to their destinations.

Dean Headley, an associate professor at Wichita State University and
co-author of the annual airline quality rating, says all frequent travelers
have experienced ``what they are fairly sure is an economic cancellation.''

''Trust me, they'll never tell you it's an economic cancellation,'' Headley
says. ''It's tough to catch them in a lie, they have so many outs -- like
weather or equipment problems.'' Headley says the airlines bluff like they
are ``playing a poker hand.''

TURNING PROFITS

Headley says because of high fuel costs, a plane must be about four-fifths
full for the carrier to break even, up from two-thirds in 1999, the last
time air traffic peaked and waves of consumers were complaining about being
stranded, canceled and delayed.

Rep. Lyn Westmoreland, D-Ga., who says he has more Delta Airlines employees
in his district than any other House member, says he knows airlines cancel
flights because they aren't full enough.

''I don't like it,'' he says, but he adds that it isn't the government's
role to get involved.

If an airline behaves badly the marketplace will correct it because
customers will stop patronizing the carrier, Westmoreland argues.

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