The good news for travelers purchasing domestic cheap fares, whether they are cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, is that runway delays in excess of three hours are largely a thing of the past as a result of the heavy fines airlines face for such extended delays. The bad news is that international flights (that either originate in the U.S. or fly into the U.S.) are not subject to the same extended runway delay penalties.
Since the new extended runway delay rule was instituted the end of April, the number of domestic flights experiencing extended delays has been reduced by 98 percent. Airlines had warned that this new rule would result in a dramatic increase in cancelled flights, but this has not happened to this point.
Those who want to see this rule applied to international flights point out that passengers on international flights already face long flight times. When their flights are delayed on runways for an extended period, they must deal with the additional pressures of being confined to the aircraft cabin for an unknown lengthy time, often with overflowing toilets and not enough food and water.
Airlines argue that applying the extended runway delay rule to international flights would result in more flights being cancelled. Since airlines have far fewer daily international departures, cancellations would often result in a minimum of a 24 hour delay or more for many passengers. Of course supporters of extending the runway rule point out that there is no evidence that the runway rule for domestic flights has resulted in a meaningful increase in flight cancellations.
Making the situation even worse is that the airlines contend that the costs resulting from the delays would ultimately be passed onto the passengers in the form of higher ticket prices.
Airlines also argue that the government could solve the problem of extended delays by fixing the countrys antiquated air traffic control system instead of threatening airlines with huge fines when passengers are stranded on runways for 3 or more hours.
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