Time to add a governance clause into the Passenger's Bill of Rights?

Why am I not surprised at the news of massive flight delays causing a ripple effect that will last all day? If you haven't seen it yet, CNN recaps the situation nicely. According to the FAA, the failed computer system went down at 5:06 a.m. ET and came back up five hours later. Depending on the airline, flight delays are expected to impact anywhere from 70 to 500 flights today. The bottom line is that if you know anybody travelling today, expect them to be delayed. Very delayed.

I guess the good news is that it was an efficiency problem and not a safety problem. However, with air traffic controllers having to now enter flight plan information manually, "...a cumbersome and time-consuming process," according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, there's always the risk of manual error.

Now with the busiest travel day of the year right around the corner, you have to ask if the airlines are prepared or if we'll see this Thanksgiving turn into Groundhog Day.

I'm curious why these computer glitches continue to happen to the airlines and we have become complacent when it comes to these on-going computing errors and their ripple effect on travelers.

While I'm not going to say I'm an expert on this particular situation, you have to wonder about the technology behind the scenes. Sight unseen, I'd venture a guess that there are gaps in the way governance is enforced in terms of developing the software that automates flight plans and schedules. Of course, I'm going to tell you that if they did governance in design time, we'd see far fewer headline stories on flight delays. However, there are certainly a lot of ways to address this on-going issue. If the airlines won't, it's time for the consumers to intervene.

Is it time to add a governance clause into the Passenger's Bill of Rights for airline passengers?

Tell me your thoughts by posting below or sending a private email to jeff@weblayers.com