Executive Calendar
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise today to express my frustration--my outrage--that this body is poised to miss a historic, once-in-a- generation opportunity to stop the major airlines from gouging Americans with exorbitant fees every time they fly.
In the dark of night early Saturday morning, House and Senate committee leadership released a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that does not include a commonsense, bipartisan provision to protect passengers from having to pay $200 to change a ticket that costs $250--a provision that would have protected a family from paying $200 to cancel a flight because another family member had fallen seriously ill and a vacation had to be canceled.
Instead, after months of lobbying against my bipartisan FAIR Fees provision, the airlines won and airline passengers lost. I would compare it to the Christians and the lions, but in this story, the Christians even had to pay extra to enter the amphitheater.
What once were considered the basic services of flying have now become optional and with a massive price tag--checking a bag, carrying on a bag, flying standby for an earlier flight, printing a boarding pass, early boarding, seat selection, changing or canceling your flight, even a blanket and pillow.
Air travelers are being nickeled-and-dimed, but the real cost is in the billions of dollars. That is because the major airlines have turned fees into a multibillion-dollar industry. Last year, the airlines raked in $7.4 billion in fees. More than $4.5 billion came from now having to pay to check your bag, and $2.9 billion was extra fees if you wanted to change your ticket or if you wanted to cancel your ticket. That is billions of dollars. That is actually the equivalent of 11 million flights from Washington, DC, to Boston. That is the cost that is now imposed upon consumers. Passengers think they are buying low-cost fares, but they are really just victims of airline greed in support of a new multibillion-dollar profit center.
Even in the past few weeks, as we worked in Congress to include important consumer protection measures in this final FAA legislation, the airlines continued to raise their fees.
Last month, JetBlue Airways raised its change and cancellation fees from $150 to $200 for certain flights. They also raised fees for a passenger's first checked bag from $25 to $30 and increased the fees for a second checked bag from $35 to $40. That is $140 to check two bags for a round trip. Shortly after, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and American Airlines followed suit, raising their bag fees to match JetBlue's.
In college, I might have spent more time being interested in politics than economics, but I thought competition was supposed to drive prices down and not up. So why are the airlines charging these fees? Well, the first answer is, because they can, but the real answer is, because there is no competition among domestic airlines.
In the past 10 years, we have gone from 10 major airlines down to just 4. Only four airlines control 85 percent of traffic in the skies. The only thing competitive about the current airline industry is the fight for overhead compartment space. Americans have more choice in where to eat at the airport than which airline they can take.
We know that when choice goes down, fees go up. And these sky-high fees bear almost no resemblance to the cost of the services being provided. The Government Accountability Office, GAO, recently released a report confirming what countless passengers across the country already know to be true: Airlines are gouging captive passengers to line their pockets, not to cover the actual cost of the services provided.
Does it really cost $200 for American Airlines to change a ticket? Does it really cost Delta Air Lines $40 to load that second bag--$10 more than processing the first bag? Airlines are increasing their fees in order to match their competitors. They are actively seeking to deceive passengers by offering artificially low fares and then charging exorbitant fees on the back end.
Enough is enough. It is time we put a stop to these abusive practices. That is why Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and I joined together to get our provision ensuring change and cancellation fees are reasonable into the Senate FAA reauthorization bill.
When a liberal from New England and a Republican from the Deep South can agree on policy, we are on the right side of history. Yet the airline industry had other plans. They stated their No. 1 priority in the FAA reauthorization was defeating our FAIR Fees provision.
What is it about this provision that they would stop at nothing to block it from becoming law? Why would the airline industries band together on this one issue? They don't compete truly against each other in the marketplace. Here, they could all come together on one policy. It is because they don't want the Department of Transportation to assess whether change and cancellation, baggage, and other fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs of the services provided. They don't want to ensure change and cancellation fees are reasonable. That is all that our provision does--ensure that these fees are reasonable and proportional to the cost of the services being provided by the airlines to the customer. That is it. It is as commonsense and as straightforward as you would want an airline passenger to receive from their airline--fair and reasonable.
No price is determined by this amendment--only that it has to be fair and reasonable and related to the cost that is, in fact, borne by the airlines in order to provide that service. How onerous could that be on an airline? Why can't we get that passed through this body so that consumers don't get tipped upside down at the counter as they try to change a ticket or to cancel a ticket? Why can't we get that passed?
If a child gets sick and a passenger has to change or cancel a flight weeks in advance, does it really cost Delta Air Lines $200 to cancel that ticket? If a meeting gets postponed so a ticket has to be canceled 2 weeks before departure, is it fair for United Airlines to charge $200 for a ticket that costs about that same amount? Are those fees proportional when the airlines can still resell the vacated seat, even if the passenger cancels weeks ahead of time?
Think about that. The passenger gives the airline 2 weeks' notice. Then, they have to pay a fine, $200. Then, the airline resells the ticket to another passenger. What is the cost to the airline in that kind of situation? Or are they just exploiting the vulnerability of the passenger who has to change it? They have resold the ticket for the same price or higher to another passenger.
The answer is no. Passengers have no choice. They have no alternative.
The market has failed, leaving these flyers vulnerable to fee gouging and corporate greed from the airlines. You are at the counter, and they can say: Go to another airline.
And you say: Well, there are no other airlines at this airport that fly to my destination. It is the only airline I can rely upon.
Well, then, pay the cancellation fee, pay the change fee because you are not at a marketplace where you can then say: There is another airline I can go to right here at this airport that will take me to that destination nonstop.
In fact, the only thing the airline industry was more committed to doing than raising airline fees was defeating the consumer protection provision in the FAA bill. We still have an opportunity to right this wrong. Tomorrow the House of Representatives will consider the FAA reauthorization bill. On behalf of the flying public--the millions of Americans who are subjected to ridiculous airline fees--I call on the House to add the FAIR Fees provision to the FAA reauthorization bill, and I call on my Senate colleagues to support it. It is time to stop nickel-and-diming American families and ensure that they are flying the fair and friendly skies. Otherwise, these billions of dollars, year after year, will come out of the pockets of consumers who have no choice.
Senator Wicker and I worked together to build it into the Senate bill. We should not have receded to the position of the House. That was a mistake. This history is going to continue because the anger of the flying public is only going to build as each and every month and year goes by. The day is going to come, I vow to you, where we are going to have this in a bill that passes this Chamber and the House of Representatives.
This is an issue whose time has come. If it has been blocked, it is only temporarily. We are going to return to this issue. Everyone in the Congress will be made accountable to the flying public so that they are not given this offer they can't refuse every time they are at the counter: Pay or don't fly. It is absolutely wrong.
At this point, I yield back.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source