Cheers, jeers for CAB

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

Cheers: The Civil Aeronautics Board has raised the cash assistance airlines must give to passengers should their flights get delayed for at least two hours. From P150, domestic passengers must now be paid P3,000; those on delayed international flights should get P5,000, up from the P300 set in the 1970s yet. Aside from cash, the aggrieved passengers must be provided with meals and hotel accommodations, and their tickets refunded in full, the CAB said in its new order released this week.

Jeers: You can only get this if the delay was caused by the airlines. How you are going to prove that, CAB did not say; I guess it must be regulation officers at the airports?

I do not know if CAB saw this when it issued Economic Regulation No. 7 which stipulates the “benefits” of passengers who are bumped off and those who suffer delayed flights. But the whole thing sounds like giving passengers candies with one hand while the other takes them away. It does sound funny, if it wasn’t so irritating.

CAB clearly stipulates that airlines would be exempt from liability if trip delays are caused by safety and security reasons, “acts of God,” weather and labor strikes. As if those aren’t enough, CAB further adds that the airlines are exempted for “other reasons beyond a company’s control.” I guess inefficiency is also beyond a company’s control?

Now, who and when passengers who are bumped off or delayed can get upgraded benefits you tell me. It was as if ER No. 7 was made to clearly lay down the reasons why you, hapless passenger, should not bother the airlines when your flight is delayed. Given the wide range of reasons under the phrase “beyond its control”, it looks as if under no circumstances can we really pry the pockets of airlines to somehow compensate us when its planes are delayed, or if they overload them and they must bump off confirmed passengers.

Is this how rules are supposed to go? Is this how a government agency works? Where does the thing called “public good” lie here?

Oh, sure, we need to be equitable and fair and just in our rules. Of course, we must consider the side of airlines in matters like this. Sure, airlines do not want delays and little inconveniences here and there, but simply because they do not like them does not strip them of any responsibility when it does happen.

If you really come to think of it, airlines are a business, and their business is to transport people and cargo from place to place. If they cannot do so properly – i.e., take off and land on time – they have no business staying in that business. I don’t think it is right to put everything on the back of the passengers and the consumers; somehow, airlines have to shoulder something even in cases “beyond its control.”

It is like accidents – nobody wants them to happen but somebody has to take responsibility for them. This is why there is such a thing as “reckless imprudence.”

And it is terrible to think that even our own government agencies like CAB would be so understanding of the airlines, it looks like they would rather protect them instead of the nameless, powerless public.

Somebody should review this CAB order, and maybe everything else; who knows what else has CAB ordered that protects airlines over the public. Maybe, Secretary Mar Roxas as chieftain of the Department of Transportation and Communication, can do something about this?

This may sound trivial to some, but think of the average overseas Pinoy worker, trapped in some airport, with nothing in his pocket anymore, because he had figured he’ll already be home, or in his employers’ home, in a matter of hours and did not reckon the flight was going to be delayed. This has happened too many times and the stories are just wrenching.*

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