By the time April ends, thousands of Boston University students will have booked their flights home to destinations across the country and beyond. When textbooks have been torn, hair ripped out and gallons of Red Bull consumed, the last thing a student, or business associate, or asylum-seeker, or indistinguishable human needs is to be held captive on a small, small seat in a small, small plane on a tarmac &-&- especially when the wide-open sky seems finally within-reach, and especially when hours have already passed.
After April 29, airlines will be fined if they hold passengers on board for more than three hours upon disembarking from a gate. Correspondingly, US Airways and Continental Airlines have already begun to adhere to a policy to bring passengers back into the airport and allow them off of planes that have been stuck in limbo for an uncomfortably long time. And the policy is a welcome and long-overdue one for an industry that has been on the receiving end of its consumers’ fury for some time. In addition to sky-high ticket sales, a striking of on-flight meals &-&- the last thing someone needs once aboard a detested aircraft is to remain there for more time than what is totally necessary.
At the same time, there is cause for worry when an industry that is so engrained into cultures across the world cannot budget its own time. While a three-hour wait seems uncomfortable enough to warrant a return to open space, an extra five minutes on the tarmac might ultimately amount to a sooner takeoff time than would result from a retreat at the 2:59 mark.
Mandatory returns to the gate after three hours and further time wasted getting back onto the runway might also cause domino delays for flights yet to come on the vessel in question. Airliners also expect the movement will result in an increasing number of solid cancellations from pilots facing additional time constraints on plane operation. Ideally, airlines and management teams would be able to repair rusty screws and complications from within, but since governments cannot pass legislation for more common sense, the cap on time spent on the runway is the best thing going in the fight to save sanity and precious time.
When stale cabin air fills your lungs in a month and you have learned your 180 minutes on the runway have been spent in vain, keep in mind: When it comes to flights and time, it could certainly be worse.
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