This is not new. But statistics just in show how very wrong policy makers in the USA got things when they tried to help suffering airline passengers.
The agency’s intention was to improve on-time performance, by issuing fines to the value of $27,500 per passenger to airlines where flights are delayed significantly.
U.S. airlines are not dumb, they knew what they urgently had to do. They DID NOT put money into fixing on time performance, they instead cancelled a whole lot of flights that may have reached this point where it would cost them serious money.
In fact, the end result has been, WORSE on time performance, along with lots of flights being cancelled entirely which had a risk of delay. The poor suffering passenger is now in a worse position than ever before.
“U.S. Airline Cancellations Rise 62% After Tarmac Rule”, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/u-s-airline-cancellations-rose-62-in-september-after-tarmac-delay-rule.html, accessed11 Nov 2010.