Canceled flights mean no long tarmac delays

In a little less than three months, I predict we will see a number of news stories on the first anniversary of the U.S. Department of Transportation's rule about long airline tarmac delays. Remember that? Since last April 29, airlines face very heavy fines if they keep passengers stranded for three hours or more sitting on a plane, waiting to take off, a problem the industry occasionally ignored in the past until public outrage led to the new rule. The stories will try to determine the impact of the rule on flight operations. What we won't be able to tell at the one-year mark,  however, is whether the new rule really led to the airline industry's warning of "unintended consequences," meaning far more canceled flights by carriers determined not to violate the delay rule than we've seen in the past.

The reason for that uncertainly will be this mean winter weather, which just this week has led to somewhere north of 10,000 flights to be canceled. Previous winter storms this season forced cancellation of thousands more flights. Airlines seem far quicker to annul whole banks of flights these days if there's any chance of lots of weather-related delays. For many passengers, that's a good development, a different approach to what some carriers did in the past, actually moving planes into some storm-tossed cities in order to wait out the weather and make it easier to resume a normal schedule. Now, carriers are taking a more proactive approach, one that means more cancellations with more warning, and presumably fewer customers out of place when flights resume.  Stay warm.