Air war: why Congress wants to re-regulate airlines.

• Author: Sager, Ryan H.

Pep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) is mad as hell at the airline industry - and he's set to teach them a lesson as only the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee can. In February, when nasty contract negotiations between American Airlines and its pilots temporarily shut the carrier down and left thousands of passengers stranded, Shuster loudly declared "a pox on both their houses" and then unveiled the legislative equivalent of a plague blanket: an "Airline Passenger Bill of Rights." Divining that airlines "don't give a damn about the traveling public," he observed, "I think that you need to do whatever it takes to get their attention."

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) similarly want to get the industry's attention. Like Shuster, they have sponsored legislation - and held highly publicized hearings in March - aimed at "improving" airlines' customer service. The McCain-Wyden bill would require airlines to warn passengers if a flight is oversold and give them 48 hours after buying a ticket to ask for a refund. Shuster's Passenger Bill of Rights would go further, requiring airlines to compensate passengers for twice the value of their ticket if they are kept waiting on the runway for more than two hours, with compensation increasing proportionately for each extra hour. Shuster's bill would also prohibit airlines from using a single flight number if they know passengers will have to change aircraft and require the Department of Transportation to track flight cancellations to determine whether they are being made for economic rather than mechanical reasons.

While the proposed rules are mostly petty on their face, they signal an important, worrisome shift in Washington with regard to regulation. If the airlines - which have delivered demonstrably safer, cheaper, and more plentiful flights since deregulation - can come under such an attack, what industry is safe? It's also more than a little ironic that Republicans are leading the charge on the issue: Since airfares were deregulated by a Democratic Congress and president two decades ago, there have been consistent calls for re-regulation, typically from left-of-center pols who simply dislike anything smacking of free enterprise. Republicans have traditionally been the major supporters of leaving airlines to their own devices. Now, still reeling from the Clinton impeachment proceedings and the negative poll numbers they generated, the GOP sees "passenger protection" as a feel-good, populist way of showing they're in touch with what "really matters" to voters.

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