More from Aviation Week: LaHood Loves Airlines

U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, in a drastic expansion to his first air passenger protection rule, intends to impose tarmac delay rules on foreign carriers and domestic carriers’ international flights, and expand the current ruling from hubs to any airport that handles more than 10,000 passengers a year.

The new proposal also expands the current tarmac delay rule from the country’s top 18 carriers to any airline that operates an aircraft with 30 or more seats. So Beech 1900Ds with no bathrooms can hang out for hours?Under current rules airlines must deplane passengers after three hours (with some caveats); this new plan has yet to determine such criteria for international services, although it will probably be tiered according to the flight’s duration.

LaHood’s proposal also widens the compensation airlines must offer passengers bumped from overbooked flights by $250 to $650 for domestic services that get the passenger to their destination within two hours. This rises to $800 for passengers that arrive at their domestic destination more than two hours late, and $1,300 for passengers on international flights that arrive more than four hours after they intended.

This compensation will also be linked with inflation.

“Anyone who has flown knows the problem with flying,” said LaHood during a press briefing, adding that this proposal addresses “the more egregious” issues. “They [the airlines] charge for a bag, then they lose the bag, and you have no recourse,” he added. Really? Is that how that works? ******

To resolve the many complaints lodged with DOT, LaHood also proposes to allow passengers a 24-hour grace period to cancel a booking, or require an airline to hold a reservation for the same period. Every ticket is now fully refundable!!! Cancel when you want! Book that seat now, just in case you want to go! But if you change your mind, thats fine. Just give the rich greedy airlines 24 hours to find someone to take that spot. Serves them right! He also seeks full disclosure of fees in all forms of advertising, more transparent pricing, and wants to mandate flight status updates within 30 minutes of any change.

All carriers, including foreign operators, will be required to include their contingency and customer services plans in their contracts of carriage; foreign airlines will also have to post these contracts on their websites, a rule already required of U.S. operators. So I wonder now if U.S. airlines will need to start paying for the hotels and meals of passengers for flights XLD by weather, acts of God and whatever else the EU requires.

LaHood is also asking for public comment on what action, if any, is required for people with peanut allergies.

“Airline passengers have rights and should be able to expect fair and reasonable treatment when they fly,” said the DOT Secretary. “With this rulemaking, we’re proposing to strengthen the consumer protections enacted last month and raise the bar for airlines when it comes to treating passengers fairly.” Lawsuit, lawsuit, lawsuit, lawsuit, lawsuit, thats the only way you'll beat this absolute zero contributing jackass, LaHood, back to the ignorant cesspool from which he came.

If fully approved, the rulemaking will impose a cost of $26 million, but will generate $87.6 million, said LaHood. Wow, who gets that money?!? And from whom does it come? I bet Clark Howard and company who believe you shouldn't have to pay for things are going to be jumping up and down with joy.