Washington, D.C.—Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Aviation Steve Cohen (D-TN) released the following statement after introducing on Thursday, July 25, the Ensuring Airline Resiliency to Reduce Delays and Cancellations Act, legislation requiring airlines to develop operational resiliency plans that ensure adequate preparedness for future flight disruptions, like those stemming from the CrowdStrike global outage experienced last week.

“Last week’s technology meltdown left thousands of flights cancelled and thousands more families and travelers stranded at airports across the country,” Ranking Member Larsen said. “The flying public deserves a safe, smooth, and worry-free travel experience, and the airlines were unable to provide that. By requiring airlines to enhance their operational resiliency plans, this legislation ensures airlines will be thinking ahead and better prepared for future large-scale disruptions like last week’s outage. The airlines can and must do better.”

The Ensuring Airline Resiliency to Reduce Delays and Cancellations Act directs the
Secretary of Transportation to require, not later than one year after passage, covered air carriers
to develop and regularly update an operational resiliency strategy to prevent or limit the impact
of future flight disruptions on passengers. In such an operational resiliency strategy, the air
carrier must detail how it plans to:

• Prevent the impact of severe weather and other reasonably anticipated disruptive
  events (e.g., information technology (IT) system failures);
• Anticipate how such events would impact flight crew staffing and workforce models,
  and IT systems;
• Mitigate any other anticipated events identified by the air carrier; and
• Address cybersecurity risks and IT system deficiencies and vulnerabilities.
  The bill also calls for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to initiate an audit of
  the effectiveness of these plans no later than three years after the bill’s passage and submit a
  report to Congress no later than one year after completion of the audit

“Commercial air travel is vital for working people and middle-class families who rely on it for their livelihoods and personal lives,” Ranking Member Cohen said. “The recent wave of Delta flight cancellations underscores the urgent need for better operational resiliency in our airlines. Our bill will ensure that airlines have robust strategies in place to prevent and limit future disruptions and protect passengers from schedule changes that can cost time and money. We are committed to holding airlines accountable, safeguarding the interests of travelers across the nation, and ensuring an incident of this magnitude does not affect flying passengers in the future.”

Background of Bill

Mass flight cancellations and delays have become a growing problem in recent years. Most recently, families and travelers were unexpectedly stranded at airports across the country as the result of the CrowdStrike global technology outage. While the consequences of this technology outage were felt across multiple industries and the entire U.S. aviation system, it quickly became clear the resulting flight disruptions disproportionately impacted certain airline customers.

I wonder where @Delta is going to use its $10 Uber Eats gift card. How about Bank of America? Maybe all 8 million customers could record TikToks of them enjoying their CrowdStrike apology meals. Great work George Kurtz! pic.twitter.com/QQnu4ajYYG

— @amuse (@amuse) July 24, 2024

According to reports, on Friday, July 19th alone, Delta Air Lines cancelled 1,200 flights, compared to the 649 flights cancelled by United Airlines, 408 flights by American Airlines, and 234 flights by Spirit Airlines on that same day. Unfortunately, this is not the first example of insufficient customer response and airlines’ operational failure that we’ve seen. In December 2022, Southwest Airlines cancelled more than 16,000 flights over the holiday season and in October 2021, Southwest cancelled over 2,000 flights over a four-day period.

These flight cancellations and delays can have a devastating impact on airline passengers. The abrupt nature of these flight disruptions often leaves passengers justifiably frustrated, with many experiencing exorbitant customer service wait times, lost baggage, inefficient alternative travel options, unanticipated hotel and meal costs, and missed important family occasions. Furthermore, airline pilots and flight attendants are also caught in the wake of airlines’ operational challenges.

As a result of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, any passengers experiencing these kinds of extreme flight delays or cancellations are entitled to be made whole. Specifically, it codified requirements for airlines to refund passengers when their nonrefundable flight is disrupted and establish policies regarding the reimbursement for lodging, related transportation, and meal costs incurred due to a flight disruption. Although the U.S. Department of Transportation is working to implement these provisions expanding protections for airline passengers, clearly much more needs to be done.

SOURCE: House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Tanking Member Rick Larsen