Sun Country sets time limit for holding flyers on board

Days after 154 of its passengers were stuck on a New York tarmac for about six hours, Sun Country Airlines said Sunday that it is changing its policy on extended delays and establishing a deadline for when people and planes will be returned to the terminal.

Sun Country CEO Stan Gadek said he believes his company is the first to establish such a deadline — in this case, a maximum of four hours.

“To the best of my knowledge, I think we are” the first to set such a deadline, Gadek said Sunday. “I don’t know if other airlines will follow ... but I think it’s high time that airlines stand up and commit. It’s a common-sense thing. The flight delay on Friday was unacceptable. We do not want a repeat of what happened on Friday.”

Gadek also said four hours is a maximum, and that the airline could return passengers to the gate sooner than that it appears that the delay — such as the one that occurred at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday — will last longer than four hours.

“It will be done case by case,” said Gadek, who also said he supports passengers’ rights legislation now before Congress.
Gadek’s announcement drew the immediate support of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who has been pushing airlines to establish a three-hour deadline for tarmac delays.

“I would rather have three hours instead of four, but I appreciate that he is taking responsibility for what happened on the flight Friday,” Klobuchar said Sunday night.

Gadek said he pushed for the four-hour limit because there are so many three-hour delays at JFK and New York airports that to go under that could mean even longer flight times because of the constant boarding and unboarding. link.....