Page 21 - AHATA

A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 27 sepTember 2018

Included in House FAA bill:

Minimum size for airline seats

bar passengers from be- crack down on "unreason- website whether it will help
ing kicked off overbooked able" airline fees. stranded customers with
planes, and consider The bill includes several pro- hotel rooms, meals, or seats
whether to restrict animals visions backed by consum- on another carrier.
on planes. er groups. Among them: — Bars passengers from
Those and other passen- — It gives the FAA one making cell phone calls
ger-related provisions were year to set minimum mea- during airline flights.
included in a bill to autho- surements for airline seats — Creates a committee to
rize Federal Aviation Ad- and the distance between advise the FAA on how to
ministration programs for rows. Provision sponsors prevent consumers from
five years. The House ap- said cramped planes are being hit with huge and
proved the measure by a a safety issue during emer- unexpected bills from air-
398-23 vote, sending it to gencies such as fires. ambulance companies.
the Senate, which faces a "People are getting larger, Last year, a Senate com-
Sunday deadline. the seats are getting small- mittee approved a provi-
The FAA bill is also notable er, and it's just obvious that sion directing the Trans-
This Thursday, March 16, 2017, file photo shows the interior of a for what is not included. you can't evacuate the portation Department to
commercial airliner at John F. Kennedy International Airport in
New York. Lawmakers abandoned a planes in the requisite time," crack down on "unreason-
Associated Press plan backed by airlines to Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., able" airline fees for things
privatize the nation's air- said in an interview. like changing a reserva-
By DAVID KOENIG day to direct the federal traffic-control system. And — It bars airlines from re- tion. But airlines and the in-
AP Airlines Writer government to set a mini- congressional negotiators moving passengers from dustry's major trade group,
The House voted Wednes- mum size for airline seats, dropped a proposal to overbooked flights once Airlines for America, lob-
the passenger has boarded bied fiercely against the
the plane. The issue gained proposal, which they said
attention after airport offi- amounted to reregulat-
cers dragged a 69-year-old ing airline prices for the first
man off a United Express time in 40 years. The issue
plane last year to make was dropped last week
room for an airline employ- during final negotiations.
ee. Airlines could still bump Before that, Senate Com-
people before boarding merce Committee Chair-
begins. man John Thune, R-S.D.,
— Directs the Transporta- gave up an attempt to
tion Department to set rules weaken a regulation re-
for service and emotional- quiring that pilots have at
support animals on planes least 1,500 hours of flying
including "reasonable time before they can fly
measures to ensure pets for an airline. Safety advo-
are not claimed as service cates had objected.
animals." Airlines have tak- House Transportation Com-
en modest steps to crack mittee Chairman Bill Shus-
down on support animals, ter, R-Penn., backed away
which they say are surging from a plan to shift control
in numbers and leading to of the nation's air-traffic-
incidents of biting and def- control system from the
ecating on planes. FAA to a private corpo-
— Prohibits putting a live ration. Shuster acknowl-
animal in an overhead bin. edged that he didn't have
A French bulldog puppy the votes to pass the airline-
died in the overhead bin backed provision.
of a United Airlines plane in The FAA's current authority
March. expires Sunday, but Con-
— When a computer out- gress could pass a brief ex-
age causes widespread tension to give the Senate
delays and cancellations, more time to consider the
the airline must say on its House-passed bill.q