Airlines were ordered Wednesday to pay passengers as much as $800 when they are involuntarily bumped from flights starting next month, the latest sign of a get-tough attitude in Washington toward the nation's air carriers.
A new rule doubling the maximum compensation for bumped passengers was part of a package of measures announced by the Transportation Department to strengthen consumer protections and ease flight delays.
Although in the works for months, the rule is going into effect as U.S. airlines are caught in a storm of bad news concerning aircraft safety, airplane maintenance, flight cancellations and poor treatment of passengers.
Congressional hearings have probed shortcomings in the Federal Aviation Administration's safety oversight procedures. The hearings followed revelations of problems with inspections of Southwest Airlines jets.
A subsequent FAA audit of all major U.S. carriers resulted in American Airlines' canceling thousands of flights last week, which in turn led to renewed calls for increased legal protections for passengers.
Today, hearings scheduled on Capitol Hill will look into FAA safety issues and the proposed merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines.
The airline industry blames the government for many of the problems facing the nation's air travel system.
"The administration is looking for any way it can to mask its failures," said Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Assn., which represents commuter airlines. Doubling the bumped passenger compensation "is simply an arbitrary way to try to indicate that they're doing something."
Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant in Issaquah, Wash., questioned the motives and effectiveness of government actions, saying the results may not always be what they seem or what was intended.
The grounding of American's MD-80 jets for what many considered a minor maintenance problem was "ludicrous," he said. Evidence that the government really isn't getting tough on the industry will come, he predicted, when the Transportation Department "rubber-stamps" the Northwest-Delta deal -- a combination that some say could be bad for consumers.
The amount of money paid to passengers under the new bumping rule will be determined by the price of the ticket and the length of the delay. It will apply only to travelers who are involuntarily bumped -- not those who willingly take offers of cash and vouchers to give up their seats.
