The Senate has passed its version of the FAA Reauthorization Act. It now has to go into conference committee and be reconciled with the House version of the same bill. Consumers have plenty to cheer about in both bills, but the Senate version is far more explicit in terms of consumer protections.
Of course, the House version was completed prior to the Colgan Air disaster. Many of the changes to FAA regulations regarding pilot training will probably find their way into the conference committee bill.
That is the next stop. According to the Consumer Travel Alliance, here is the line-up of the main consumer issues in the competing versions of this important bill.
1. Modernizing air traffic control. The most important facet of this bill is the implementation of the new air traffic control system. Here, there should be little disagreement with the House on moving forward.
2. Safety. The Senate bill has a list of specifics that will enhance safety. These mandates include better background examinations of potential pilots, higher hours to qualify as an airline pilot, mandatory remedial training for pilots, new rules regarding pilot fatigue, more safety check systems for airlines and tighter off-shore maintenance facility inspections. The House will modify some of these, but there will be new safety rules mandated.
3. The Senate version of the bill codifies into law much of the DOT tarmac-delay rules. Chances are, the House will go along, but they will use this issue to trade for one of their pet peeves.
4. The Senate version attempted to add more consumer protections in the form of upfront information on fees such as baggage fees, reservation fees, specific seat fees, etc. However, a last-minute wording change eviscerated the intent of the amendment.
5. The House version of the bill proposes a sharp curtailment of airline alliances. The Consumer Travel Alliance strongly supports Rep. Oberstar’s language and hopes that it finds its way into the conference committee bill.
The bottom line: The House and Senate will probably agree on a system for air traffic modernization and will pass the enhanced training sections of the Senate version. I expect the House to support the basic outline of the Senate’s version of the tarmac delay clauses. The Clear Airfares section of the bill will need to be re-examined and clarified.
Perhaps most importantly, still missing from this bill is a requirement for the airlines to release all their fee charges to all central reservation systems. The current system does not allow passengers to compare flights on an apples-to-apples basis.
Hopefully, the Menendez amendment will morph into a rule that will require airlines to share fee charges with GDSs, travel agents and online travel agents so that consumers can compare different total airfares before waiting until the moment of purchase.
If this kind of consumer-friendly clause does not make it into the final version of the reauthorization act, it can also be added by the Secretary of Transportation through a rule-making procedure related to advertising and notification of fees prior to purchase.
Good luck to the conference committee. There is still no word on when the process will begin, but the jockeying for changes is already being planned by organization such as Consumer Travel Alliance, travel agent organizations and the airline lobbyists.
