AviationRegister   E-Xpert Witness Journal

Global developments presenting risks and rewards for the aircraft trading and financing market

Comments are subject to the site's terms of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of the publisher, editorial staff or employees. Users whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification. The publisher does not guarantee information accuracy and disclaims all liability.

Headline News was last updated: December 22, 2009

Service

Guide.

M

December 2009

Bill of Passenger Rights:  For the first time, the U.S. government is regulating delays on domestic airline flights.

Bill of Passenger Rights:  Limits passenger wait time on domestic flights to three hours due to aircraft delays. 

Bill of Passenger Rights: The new rules as issued by the Department of Transportation on Dec. 21 take effect in mid-April 2010.

Bill of Rights limits: The new rule can be overturned by a future administration and does not it give passengers permanent protection.

Rules flexible: The new rules leave plenty of discretion with flight crews and air traffic controllers to call a qualifying flight delay.

Rules do not apply to international flights.

Rule timing: The rule comes after the DOT fined Continental, ExpressJet, and Mesaba $175,000 in November for flight delays.

Rule timing: The fine was for an August flight delay in Minnesota that kept 47 passengers trapped overnight on a regional jet. 

Flight delays measured: An estimated 0.02% of all flights are delayed more than three hours.

Traffic impact: Of the 557,000 U.S. domestic flights each month an average of 88 are delayed more than three hours.

Delays on record: In the year through Sept. 2009, 1,096 flights were delayed three hours or longer, according to DOT data.

Airline cost: The fine per transgression is up to a negotiable $27,500 for each passenger. DOT airline fines have historically settled at 10 cents in the dollar.

Flight delay cost: Assuming a flight with 150 passengers, the fine could range from $412,500 to $4,125,000 per transgression.

Flight delay annual cost: U.S. airlines could face fines for flight delays ranging from $436M to $4.4B annually.

Airline/Passenger cost benefit: Flight delays at US airports cost passengers an estimated $14B annually.

Disposable income: The average weekly wage for rank-and-file workers in the USA held steady at $622. www.twitter.com/avreg

September 2009

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

Consumers cut back their credit in July by $21.6Bn from June, the most on record in the USA dating to 1943. Economists expected credit to drop by $4Bn.

Healthcare accounts for one sixth of the US econopmy.