The Biden administration is recommending a new regulation that would oblige airlines to cover passengers' costs if there is a significant delay or cancellation brought on by something within the control of the airline, such as staffing shortages or mechanical problems.
Barry Biffle, the CEO of Frontier, has another idea.
In a conversation with several reporters that followed Delta CEO Ed Bastian's Wings Club presentation this week, Biffle presented an alternative regulation that, in his opinion, would be more successful at managing airline disruptions than requiring carriers to cover things like food, toiletries, hotels, and alternative travel arrangements.
A return of "Rule 240."
Before the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, Rule 240 mandated that carriers transport each other's passengers during delays or cancellations brought on by factors other than inclement weather.
The big airlines, who have interline agreements with one another, may still freely rebook passengers on the aircraft of their competitors amid erratic operations. The three legacy airlines—American, Delta, and United—as well as Alaska and, maybe, JetBlue in some circumstances—are the only carriers commonly covered by that standard, which is usually not mandatory. Smaller airlines and low-cost carriers, including Southwest, Spirit, Frontier, and others, do not have such arrangements, and the big airlines are not always interested in striking interline agreements with their low-cost rivals.
After a series of mergers in the decades following deregulation, which resulted in the existence of three major legacy carriers, Biffle remarked, "It got turned off after [airline] consolidation." "After consolidation, all of the big guys cut off everyone."
If a modernized Rule 240 was put into place, Frontier, which, according to the Department of Transportation, is the only significant airline that does not voluntarily offer hotel accommodations for passengers who are canceled or delayed overnight, would be able to collaborate with the larger airlines to accommodate their passengers during disruptions, Biffle said.
Customers would gain more benefits than they would under the administration's proposed regulations, according to Biffle, "if we, as an industry, get together and say we're going to protect consumers, that if there's a seat available, you're going to have it."
The answer is already out there, said Biffle. And in order to put it into action, I'd like to collaborate with the other airlines and the Biden administration.
In the end, Biffle suggested, collaborating on an interline rebooking strategy would be advantageous for both the airlines and the passengers.
"If you asked Southwest if they would have loved to have access to my seats during their meltdown, I bet they'd have loved it," he said, alluding to Southwest's operational breakdown following winter storms during the holiday travel season, even though Frontier probably could have accommodated only a small portion of the stranded passengers.
The former rule would not have been triggered during the first few days of storm-related cancellations, which affected all carriers and were regarded to be weather-related. Instead, it would have only applied later in the Southwest story.
In order to push for the regulation, Biffle stated that he has not yet engaged the Biden administration or other airlines, but that he plans to.
He declared, "I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to speak with everyone.
The DOT did not respond to our request for comment right away.
American Airlines have generally objected to regulations requiring reimbursement of passengers during substantial delays or cancellations, claiming that doing so would force them to raise rates to cover the additional expenses. Protections akin to those demanded in the European Union would be part of the Biden administration's proposal.
Airlines for America, the trade association and lobbying group for U.S. carriers, said in a statement in response to the new guidelines earlier this month that carriers had already taken actions to reduce problems that were within their control.
According to A4A, "U.S. airlines have no incentive to delay or cancel a flight and take all reasonable steps to ensure flights depart and arrive on time."
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