With the hectic summer travel season in full swing and the aviation system struggling to keep up, Congress is expected to vote on legislation that over the next five years will shape the agency responsible for safely managing the country’s airspace and regulate its airlines.
Lawmakers this week will battle Federal Aviation Administration rules on everything from how pilots are trained to how long they can work and whether travelers can get extra compensation for canceled and delayed flights.
The White House weighed in Monday, asking House members to keep an Obama-era requirement that advertised fares must include taxes and mandatory fees, and add proposed consumer protections. by President Joe Biden.
Congress faces a September 30 deadline to act on the legislation. The House is expected to vote this week on a bill that emerged from the transportation committee with bipartisan support. The Senate is behind schedule on its version, which would authorize more than $100 billion in spending — a committee vote was blocked last month because of a disagreement over pilot training.
Several provisions of the legislation will affect airline consumers, including one that would roll back a Department of Transportation regulation from 2011 that required airlines to display the total price of a ticket up front in advertising. Airlines may provide links to all prices for a single ticket.
Consumer advocates opposed the rollback, and the White House sided with Monday, saying full fares are needed to help consumers do comparison shopping for tickets.
The airlines point out that most businesses that sell consumer products don’t need to include taxes and fees in premium prices. Critics say the airlines are trying to kill a regulation that would have saved consumers time and money.
“Airlines want to rip off Americans with deceptive, confusing tactics to hide the true cost of flights from customers,” said Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., is one of several lawmakers who intend to keep the full advertising fare if the bill moves to the House floor.
The White House has also asked Congress to require airlines to reimburse passengers if flights are canceled or delayed for reasons beyond the airline’s control. Under pressure from the administration, most US airlines now say they offer hotel and meal vouchers in cases.
The Department of Transportation wants to go further, and plans to propose regulations to demand reimbursement, but that could take years and be challenged in court.
Consumers hope the Senate bill will include many of the provisions they want. They were upset with the House bill, which emerged as a compromise between Transportation Committee Chairman Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, and Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat.
The House bill “is a missed opportunity to fix many of the problems that consumers have voiced in the airline industry for decades,” said John Breyault, vice president of the National Consumers League. “We think the Senate bill continues” the refunds and the Department of Transportation’s authority to protect consumers.
There was broad support for provisions in the House bill that would give the FAA money to hire more air traffic controllers, improve technology and work on integrating drones and air taxis into the nation’s airspace. .
Other issues are more controversial, especially the change in pilot training standards that passed the House committee in one vote. It will count additional hours in simulators toward the number of flight hours required to qualify for an airline pilot’s license — the “1,500-hour rule.”
Smaller airlines lobbied for the change, saying it would ease pilot shortages that have caused service to smaller communities. Opponents say it harms safety.
“A vote to reduce the 1,500-hour rule will be blood on your hands if an unavoidable accident occurs as a result of an inadequately trained flight crew,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth’s colleagues on the Senate floor last month. The Illinois Democrat is a former Army pilot who lost both of his legs when his helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq.
The House bill would also raise the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots from 65 to 67. Small airlines say it’s a way to ease the pilot shortage, but pilot unions opposed the change, and the White House called Monday for more research on the subject.
Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines also want Congress to add more long-haul flights to Reagan Washington National Airport. Airport flights are generally limited to 1,250 miles — Dallas, Houston and Minneapolis fall within that line, but major cities on the West Coast and in the Rockies do not. Delta says the increased close-in airport service will lower fares for visitors to the nation’s capital.
United Airlines, the dominant carrier at the less convenient Dulles Airport, argued that National was already overcrowded, and more flights would lead to more delays. The FAA agreed, as did American Airlines, National’s largest operator. The regional congressional delegation sided with United, fearing that more flights would increase noise for neighborhoods near National.
David Koenig, The Associated Press
