Is the three-hour tarmac rule working?
In 2009, there was a remarkable incident at Minnesota's Rochdale International Airport when forty-seven people were held against their will on an airplane without properly working toilets for seven hours. During this time, they were in sight of the airport's buildings, but the airport staff refused to open a gate. This was the straw that broke the Department of Transport's back and it introduced the now popular three-hour rule. The intention is to force airlines and airport operators to treat passengers with basic decency.
If a US or foreign airplane on a domestic flight is held on the tarmac for more than two hours, the airline must provide adequate food and drinking water. If the delay is more than three hours, the airline must allow the passengers to leave the airplane. This timetable is shortened if there's a medical emergency or the toilets cease to work. Except, you can only leave the airplane at a formal gate. It's not safe or practical to have you jump or slide down on to the tarmac in the middle of the runway system. This puts significant pressure on the airport operator to make gates available as the time limit approaches. If the airlines breach the rules, there's a federal fine of up to $27,500 per passenger affected. As to international flights, all airlines must publish their rules about tarmac delays which cannot exceed four hours, and breach of these rules will also produce fines.
There are other issues addressed under the rules. For example, some take-off slots are at very congested times and, even a few minutes delay at the gate can mean the slot is lost and the flight must be rescheduled. If this happens consistently at one or more slot times, every flight will be treated as cancelled and the airlines fined for deceptive practices. Airlines must also nominate identified individuals to communicate with passengers on a timely basis, and cannot seek to exclude liability in the terms and conditions, particularly on cheap flights. There have been increases in the number of flights cancelled and the number of slots has been rationalized at some crowded airports. So this has represented an improvement both passengers on both full-price and cheap flights.