Alaska Attorney Lawyer

Independence Air’s Boston-Washington Dulles flight taxied out to the runway last Wednesday for its 1:15 p.m. departure. Instead of taking off, however, the plane and its passengers sat on the tarmac in a weather delay for four hours before returning to the terminal. Just 25 minutes later, passengers were hustled back aboard only to sit on the runway for another hour. Independence Air 1128 finally got off the ground at 6:40 p.m. and landed at Dulles at 8:50 p.m. Total flight time: eight hours, or about the same time it would take to drive, Keith L. Alexander, Business Class columnist of The Washington Post (free registration) calculates. But Alexander says such enforced runway captivity — often without much air conditioning — was supposed to end years ago after Congressional threats prompted airlines to adopt voluntary passenger bills of rights. (Remember that Northwest flight that sat on a Detroit runway for more than eight hours during a blizzard?)

Those “bill of rights” rules stipulate how the airlines should inform customers of delayed or canceled flights — and how to treat them during “extended” waits for departure. But, “airlines differ in what qualifies as ‘extended,’ ” Transportation Department inspector general Kenneth Mead noted in 2001. Saying that the definitions varied from 45 minutes to 3 hours, he added: “We think it is unlikely that a passenger’s definition of an ‘extended’ on-aircraft delay will vary depending upon which air carrier they are flying.” For its part, Independence’s crew tried to wait out the ground stop, but air traffic controllers kept extending the delay. “This situation was totally unacceptable to us. We have immediately changed our own policies to ensure this kind of thing never occurs again,” airline spokesman Rick DeLisi said. Independence now says if a flight is on the tarmac for up to two hours, it must return to the gate. Alexander reports that Northwest is the only other carrier with a similar cutoff, stipulating three hours before return. As for the 20 passengers stuck in Independence’s Flight 1128 ordeal, the airline offered each a credit of $525 — the equivalent of four or five advance-purchase fares on Independence. Posted at 7:30 a.m. ET

Fare war puts squeeze on major airlines: JetBlue announced today that it will halve prices on 1 million seats for travel from Sept. 7 to mid-December, Reuters reports. One-way fares range between $29 and $99 (plus tax) if bought by July 29, says The New York Times (free registration). Southwest already has launched $39-$99 fares for late summer and early fall, representing savings of up to 65% for tickets purchased by Aug. 5. The period from Labor Day to Thanksgiving typically represents a steep drop-off in demand for air travel, and the industry generally turns to fare sales to boost demand. But this year’s sales have started earlier than usual and seem particularly steep. Partially because of that, analysts predict that the major airlines will rack up combined losses of $3 billion or more, thanks to high fuel prices and the competition from discounters. The new sales are “a brilliant squeeze play” on the big airlines, said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. “It’s going to force them to accelerate their restructuring.” It also could signal that discounters are becoming increasingly aggressive in their bid to increase market share. Keith Taylor, a Southwest VP, insists his airline is not aiming to run off foes with the low-fare offers, but adds: “We’ve always tried to stir things up a bit and lead the way.” JetBlue CEO David Neeleman was similarly understated: “We’re just trying to fill some seats,” he said. The discounts are scheduled to last only through late October, but will probably be extended once Southwest sets its year-end schedules, Taylor says. “There will be a huge burst in November and December.” The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) notes that the discounter-initiated fare war is forcing the traditional airlines to respond broadly. American, Delta and Northwest have reduced a significant proportion of their fares. Altogether, the major carriers dropped prices on more than 48,000 fares last week, according to Travelocity.com. Posted at 8:15 a.m. ET