United CEO Oscar Munoz will be among the airline executives
who testify in Washington on Tuesday when the House transportation committee holds
an oversight hearing on customer service within the U.S. airline industry.
The hearing, which begins at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, comes three
weeks after the industry came under fire when a ticketed passenger was bloodied
by Chicago Department of Aviation police and dragged off a United Express
flight to make room for airline crew.
It also comes as several pieces of legislation that would
curtail airline practices relating to overbooking and denying boarding to
ticketed holders have been announced or introduced in Congress.
On April 12, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he would
introduce a bill banning airlines from removing passengers from a plane after
boarding due to overbooking or in order to facilitate movement of airline
crews. Airlines would also have to offer what Van Hollen called
"appropriate" incentives to solicit volunteers.
Last week, Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
introduced a bill that would ban airlines from bumping passengers after they
have boarded a flight and would eliminate the $1,350 cap on compensation that
passengers can receive if they are bumped. The bill also asks the Department of
Transportation to consider whether limits should be placed on overbooking.
Also last week, Illinois Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Raja Krishnamoorthi
introduced legislation that would outright ban the practice of denying boarding
to ticketed passengers to make room for other flyers, whether the passenger has
boarded the plane or not.
On the Republican side of the aisle, Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida
has drawn up legislation that would forbid airlines from bumping passengers who
have already boarded an overbooked flight.
Along with Munoz, witnesses at Tuesday’s House
transportation committee hearing will include United president Scott Kirby; vice
presidents from American, Alaska and Southwest; and airline passenger consumer
advocate William McGee.