Consumer group keeps the pressure on carriers

The consumer group known as CAPBOR (Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights) is proving to be an increasingly large thorn in the side of the major airlines. In recent months, CAPBOR has become increasingly active in lobbying state governments to pass legislation that would guarantee minimum services for persons stuck on a plane during a long ground delay. Its most recent success was in California, where just such as bill is now in the hopper (New York was the first state to enact such a bill as law). And now CAPBOR has started issuing an airline industry “report card” on treatment of passengers. After poring over Transportation Department statistics, and factoring in “press reports and empirical data collected by the Coalition” when DOT data was lacking, CAPBOR rated airlines based on the number of incidents during 2007 when they left aircraft sitting on the tarmac for hours, and the amenities they provided passengers during those delays. The industry as a whole did not do well – no airline scored higher than a “C.” The group gave an F grade to American, Continental and Delta; US Airways, United and JetBlue each got a D, while a C grade went to AirTran, Alaska, Frontier, Northwest and Southwest. To see the full report, go to http://www.flyersrights.com/Final2007ReportCard.pdf.