The U.S. airline industry has won a battle to remove proposed limits on fees for everything from checked baggage to assigned seats from a funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The caps were excluded from compromise language negotiated between key House and Senate committees after fierce pushback. The top executive at American Airlines threatened to end services such as ticket changes if Congress moved ahead with the proposal. And Airlines for America, one of the industry’s top lobbying groups, regularly referred to the provision as an “existential threat” that would return the sector to the days of strict government control.
In a statement, the association didn’t comment directly on the fees, aside from stating that the revised bill would “deliver the certainty that employers, manufacturers, consumers and communities must have to continue building, investing, hiring, innovating and growing the U.S. aviation industry.”
Consumer advocacy organizations were livid that lawmakers dropped the measure.
“The airlines’ outrageous $200 change and cancellation fees are but one egregious example of the fees and penalties that line the industry’s pockets while costing fliers billions of dollars every year,” National Consumers League Executive Director Sally Greenberg said in a statement.
Airlines “will continue to raise fees with impunity until Congress steps in,” she warned.
Indeed, several airlines increased baggage fees in recent weeks as lawmakers debated whether to include the caps. Retaining the ability to raise the charges as needed will help the industry cope with rising fuel costs that are projected to add billions of dollars in operating costs in 2018.
The bill, which the House is slated to vote on this week, does place some new regulations on companies, however — largely in response to incidents within the industry over the past 18 months.
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It would require the FAA to establish minimum seat sizes, prohibit the use of cell phones for in-flight calls and prevent airlines from removing passengers once they have boarded. A United Airlines customer was dragged off a plane in April 2017 when he refused to give up the seat he had purchased to accommodate additional fliers.
The package would also mandate that airlines publicly post the services they offer during major disruptions like the power outage earlier this year at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest by passenger volume. It would prevent the storage of live animals in overhead bins after a dog died in one on a United flight in March.
Additionally, the legislation requires the Department of Transportation to craft guidelines for service and emotional-support animals on flights. The industry previously urged the federal government to review the rules around traveling with such animals, which differ from the service animals that aid individuals with disabilities.
The updated FAA legislation would further mandate that airports include lactation rooms for nursing mothers and prohibit the transport of lithium batteries in the holds of passenger planes, harmonizing U.S. law with the international standard.
Medical-device manufacturers have in the past opposed such a provision, arguing that it would impact the industry’s ability to ship life-saving products that rely on the smaller, lithium-ion batteries. The bill includes a carve-out for those companies.
