Daniel S. Guerra

The airline industry needs to be held accountable for its chronic delays and poor treatment of passengers. The industry is opposed to meaningful regulation and instead favors self regulation. The fact of the matter is that the industry has had years to correct its shortcomings, but hasn’t done so. In fact, industry performance has gotten worse and passenger satisfaction has declined in recent years. I would favor a more comprehensive rulemaking procedure in which the DOT created industry wide minimum standards rather than allowing individual airlines to create their own plans of response. Barring that, I believe DOT should move forward with the proposed rules. The airline industry’s contention that the free market will drive the players in the industry to meaningfully self-regulate is absurd. The industry is too consolidated with a few airlines providing the majority of flights in many regions of the country. There are insufficient competitive forces to provide consumers with the options necessary to choose one airline over another because one provides better delay contingency plans than another. This is not an efficient market, consumers cannot readily use demand side pressure to force airlines to change. Regulation in this field is appropriate. It is amazing how so many of the airlines and airline associations can pay lip service to the need for a passenger’s bill of rights and the assurance that they have their own protective systems in place. Yet at the same time, they are unwilling to make guarantee these procedures contractually for fear of liability? It would seem to me that liability would only ensue if the airlines failed to meet their own policies and procedures. And if they are committed to the ideals embodied in those policies, this would only occur on rare occasions. If the airlines are unwilling to stand by their individualized procedures enough to risk liability, then following those plans must not be a high priority for the airlines. It seems logical that, this being the case, external pressure in the form of liability for breach of contract, would be a suitable means of inducing the airlines to make customer satisfaction a priority. Please go forward with these rules and protect consumers from abussive use of power by the airlines. Thank you for your time. Sincerely,