BREAKING NEWS: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court decision upholding New York state’s airline passenger’s bill of rights, ruling “that New York’s new state law interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.” (Here’s my take from when the law was signed last summer, [...]
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Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, competition, congress, consumer advocacy, delays, faa, mergers, regulation, safety on February 7, 2008 | No Comments »
FAA administrator-designate (and current acting administrator) Robert “Bobby” Sturgell faced the Senate Commerce Committee for his confirmation hearing today, fielding harangues and questions from skeptical senators but offering little in the way of changes he would make at the FAA.
Sturgell is a former naval aviator (and Top Gun instructor), commercial airline pilot, aviation lawyer, and [...]
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Today I went to the confirmation hearing for Robert Sturgell, the acting administrator and administrator-designate of the Federal Aviation Administration. He received a tense reception by the committee, members of which berated him (rightly or wrongly) over air traffic controller morale and retirements, a passenger’s bill of rights, NextGen and air traffic control modernization, redesign [...]
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Ben Mutzabaugh reports that politicians are wasting no time trying to horn in on the merger discussions currently underway at major airlines. The man from my former congressional district, Steve Cohen (pictured at right), has called for join Transportation Committee and Judiciary Committee meetings to address a potential Delta-Northwest tie-up. What Congress really wants to [...]
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I briefly blogged the Canadian Transportation Agency’s ruling on obese passengers the other day, but I wanted to revisit it. The policy requires airlines to provide an extra seat, at no extra charge, for someone who is disabled and needs a personal assistant during the flight, as well as for someone who is “functionally disabled [...]
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Gallup has a new poll out today with some unexpected results: Americans on the whole are satisfied with air travel, and their positive opinions of it have actually increased since 1999.
Americans who fly (about 43 percent have flown in the past year) report being satisfied with airline staff, on-time performance, baggage handling, and even airport [...]
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Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, airports, competition, consumer advocacy, faa, labor, network airlines, regulation, safety, tax, travel, usa on September 26, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The House Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation held a major hearing on airline delays and consumer issues, and your humble blogger was there to pass on the highlights. The hearing came at the heels of “the worst summer for airline delays” since the Bureau of Transportation Statistics began keeping records thirteen years ago. Only 72.2 [...]
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After her four- and seven-year-old sons were exposed to an R-rated movie with “a lot of nudity” on recent flight, a parent took her concerns to Congress, where two North Carolina legislators have introduced a bill to require airlines to offer “family friendly” seating sections without any visible TV screens. This parent apparently received an [...]
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After looking at the House’s FAA reauthorization bill , it’s time to turn to the other chamber, which is expected to act on its bill, the Aviation Investment and Modernization Act of 2007 (S 1300), this week.
The key provision is the establishment of a user fee system for air traffic control. [...]
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Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, airports, consumer advocacy, faa, labor, regulation, safety, tax, travel, usa on September 20, 2007 | 3 Comments »
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007 (HR 2881) was adopted by the House of Representatives today in a 267-151 vote. The Senate bill will be voted on soon–and will contain significant differences than the House bill, requiring a battle royal in conference.
I have paid very little attention to news coverage of FAA funding politics, mostly [...]
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