U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker today called the recent dragging of a United Airlines passenger off a flight a wake-up call for the entire airline industry, and that the incident only highlights the urgent need for greater accountability and consumer protections to tilt the balance back towards the traveling public.

“If you have a ticket, you get a seat; it’s as simple as that. What happened onboard United Flight 3411 screams for greater accountability and consumer protections. No one who poses zero threat to fellow passengers should ever be treated that way,” said Sen. Menendez. “Sadly, the incident is only symptomatic of the airline industry’s troubled history of putting profits over people – from shrinking seats and leg room to the constant nickel-and-diming of baggage and other services that used to be part of the ticket price but today are used to mask what it really costs to fly.”

“Travelers deserve the peace of mind to know that they will be treated with respect and dignity,” said Sen. Booker. “It’s long overdue for Congress to stand up for stronger consumer protections for airline passengers. This common sense legislation will help ensure that incidents like the one we recently witnessed will not be repeated.”

Sens. Menendez and Booker, who held a news conference today at Newark-Liberty International Airport, United Airlines’ East Coast hub, joined Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) last week in introducing new legislation to strengthen consumer protections for the flying public and help prevent future incidents like the one that occurred on United Flight 3411 when a ticketed passenger was forcibly removed from the aircraft.

The Transparency, Improvements, and Compensation to Keep Every Ticketholder Safe (TICKETS) Act will guarantee that a boarded passenger has the right to fly, address compensation limits for ticket-holding travelers, improve transparency, review ticket over-selling practices, and require flight crews seeking accommodations to provide more advanced notice.

United Airlines has since acknowledged several failures and implemented many of the reforms in the TICKETS Act, but the legislation would establish new, industry-wide standards and codify them into law.

Sen. Menendez is an original cosponsor of the SEAT Act, introduced in March, to require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish minimum standards for seat size and legroom on commercial airlines to protect the safety and health of airline passengers. The average distance between rows of seats, referred to as seat pitch, which serves as a proxy for legroom, has dropped from 35 inches prior to airline deregulation in the 1970s to approximately 31 inches. Moreover, the average airline seat width has shrunk from 18.5 inches in the 1990s and 2000s to approximately 17 inches.

Sen. Menendez has long advocated for greater consumer protections for air travelers. He previously introduced his Real Transparency in Airfares Act to reinforce existing consumer protections and double the penalties for those companies that try to deceive their customers by not advertising upfront the full cost of an airline ticket. In 2015, the Senator convinced the airlines to abandon their trade group’s plan to shrink the size of allowable carry-on bags in order to collect more checked-bag fees. He first introduced his Clear Airfares Act in 2008, a bill to require better disclosure of hidden fees. In May of 2014, Menendez responded to proposed standards the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued, based in part on the Clear Airfares Act, which would require greater disclosure of fees such as those for bags and seats.

The TICKETS Act:

• Guarantees that a boarded passenger has the right to fly: Prohibits airlines from preventing ticket-holding passengers from flying if they have already been approved by the gate attendant to clear the boarding area and board the plane, unless they present security or health risks.
• Provides fair compensation to ticket-holding travelers: Eliminates the ceiling for compensation that may be provided to a ticket-holding passenger who is involuntarily denied boarding.
• Improves Transparency by 1) Requiring air carriers to specify on a passenger’s flight itinerary and receipt its policies regarding voluntary and involuntary denial of boarding procedures, and 2) Requiring those policies to be posted publicly at each gate at the airport.
• Addresses problems associated with ticket over-selling: Requires the Secretary of Transportation to review ticket over-selling practices and consider whether the number of oversold tickets for a flight should be limited.
• Requires flight crews seeking accommodation to provide more advanced notice: Requires flight crews seeking accommodation to check in to a flight 60 minutes prior to departure.

In addition to Sens. Menendez, Booker, Hassan and Schatz, the TICKETS Act is cosponsored by Sens. Edward Markey (D-MA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.). The TICKETS Act has also been endorsed by Public Citizen, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting consumer health and safety.

“The legislation introduced by Senators Hassan and Schatz is a timely and overdue step to reassert the rights and importance of the American consumer in the marketplace and in our democracy,” said Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs for Public Citizen.

Earlier this month, Sens. Menendez and Booker were among a group 21 senators who sent a letter to United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz asking for a more detailed account of the incident, as well as the airline’s policy on boarding then removing ticketed passengers to accommodate United Airlines personnel. The Senators asked for a response by Mon., April 24, 2017, which United Airlines finally provided on April 27.