New York’s Passenger Bill of Rights overturned
A federal court of appeals has overturned New York’s Passenger Bill of Rights (PBR) that would require airlines to provide food, water and clean toilets to passengers on planes grounded for more than three hours. In a decision issued Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law is preempted by federal regulations.
New York passed the law last year in response to several incidents in which passengers were stuck in planes for hours on runways at the state’s major airports and not offered food or water. The Air Transport Association of America sued the state in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York and lost. However, the appeals court determined that the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 took precedence over the state law. “Although the goals of the PBR are laudable and the circumstances motivating its enactment deplorable, only the federal government has the authority to enact such a law,” the court said in its ruling.