The least thing a passenger wants to encounter when waiting for a flight is a delay. Delays and cancellations in today’s commercial flights have become the fear and shadow from anyone who desires to use airplanes as their method of transportation. Delays account for a big percentage of complaints at airline counters. Many factors could lead to a delay; weather and maintenance are the most common. But, what is a customer suppose to do when encountering such mishap? What rights assure the well-being of a passenger? An Airline ticket is a contract; in this agreement, airlines are obligated to transport the passenger and to comply with the agreed parameters. Compared to Europe, the States are behind when it comes to passenger rights (virtually none). Despite this, there are some rights a passenger has when dealing with a delayed flight.
Indeed, air business is reaching historic highs, but flight delays are too. During 2006, more than 23% of flights were either late or cancelled. If it is not an overbooking situation, it is weather, if it is not weather, it is a malfunction; the possibilities are unlimited. Even the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is aware of the situation, but its actions are virtually useless. The delays will not only be the same, but are expected to worsen up during the next coming years (“on-time”, 2007).
The FAA’ in conjunction with the airlines thinks that the answer is to change the computer systems, so it is asking the congress for more funding money. This funding is nothing more than the so famous user fees, which will certainly improve the FAA situation, but will mean a huge catastrophe for the general aviation users. Air traffic controllers believe that more runways could help, but that is just an unrealistic idea since bigger airpor ...