Passenger Protection

It's time to congratulate Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. In addition to pushing forward construction of city bike paths and high-speed rails with congressional "green bill" money, LaHood is currently orchestrating consumer-advocate airline regulations. The most highly publicized of these will almost certainly be the new tarmac waiting rules, but mandating transparency when airlines sell tickets will effect wider-spread populations. Starting this summer, airlines must list flights' delay records and cancellation rates. Passengers can elect to avoid often delayed, congested flights, leaving competitive forces to create and strengthen those with on time departures. The Transportation Department will also fine companies that chronically delay or cancel certain routes. In addition, LaHood is examining how to stop deceptive practices of airlines' undisclosed additional fees and how to end automatically checked boxes that add pricey services for online transactions.

Although LaHood's day-to-day transportation management isn't scrutinized by the public eye, the user-friendly press he brings to the Transportation Department is outstanding. It's about time consumer protection regulation becomes popular once again. Thank you Secretary LaHood.

To read more on the new flight rules, click here for the NYTimes report.

Passenger Protection