AMR takes the cake... first airline fined for tarmac delays

In this case, yes, but I believe the regulations don't require that. The $27,000 per pax (or roughly that... I don't recall the exact amount) is a fine that goes to the government, who -- as others pointed out -- wasn't really harmed. Sure we are all the government, but ultimately I wasn't harmed when the Jetblue pax were stuck on the east coast a few weeks back, so those on the planes should get the money, not "all of us".

In light of this thread, but to include other airlines, I have gone over to
Travel | Dining, under General Discussion | Travel,

and started a poll about everybody's experience with tarmac delays. Please participate. I hope this is both enlightening and a tad entertaining, perhaps.

I don't think it really matters who gets the money. The airline doesn't care who gets the money, they just care that they lost it. And good luck getting the government to do anything other than keep it

For a lot of people, this would be a material amount...

I can see it now... pax trying to cause delays that break the 3 hour rule for their $27k payday....

Which is why they should keep it the way it is.

The only thing I could think of is a pax who stood up and refused to sit down while the plane was attempting to return to the gate, I can't see how a pax could cause such a delay. Are there specific scenarios that you're thinking of that I'm missing?

If the pax refused to follow crewmember instructions after the plane left the gate, he/she would be guilty of a federal crime. Certainly the ground delay law could be amended to exclude anyone committing a crime on that same flight.

Not really, it was meant to be mostly a tongue-in-cheek comment. Although, there is the danger with that financial incentive for pax to try to find a way to delay a flight in a way that I haven't thought of.

This, of course, would be the logical thing to do... but of course that requires congress to act logically....

...agreed!

Split the profit with the captain?

Congress doesn't need to do anything (which is good because if they did, they'd mess it up). The law (refusing to follow crew instructions) has been passed and is on the books. The administration would just need to enforce it.

You may have missed the point...that people not following crew instructions would be prohibited from receiving that payment. This would eliminate any cash reward motivation for mischief makers considering trying to cause a delay....though they may have other motivations...but that is independent of the fine payee question at hand.

Re non-enforcement, I've had people forcably removed from aircraft i was on by police for failure to follow crew instructions.

A toilet seat? Was it heavy? How long would you have to wear it? Did you complain to your parents?

Sent from my iPhone using milepoint

Well back in the days when I was in school, getting in trouble at said school would just net you another beating from your parents, so you just kept quiet about it -- if you could.

Bringing this full circle, then, the government could REALLY punish Eagle if it brought its parent in. Oh, that's right, it already sorta did!

I was never tardy to that class

It would have clashed with my hypercolor tshirt and MC Hammer parachute pants, so I took care to avoid wearing it.

I actually used to own a couple of Generra Hypercolor shirts. No hammer pants though.