Is there any laws about how long an airline can keep you on the ground waiting to push back without ANY information?

Is there any laws about how long an airline can keep you on the ground waiting to push back without ANY information? Boarded a flight in Seoul yesterday at 2:20pm and waited until 7pm until we took off, no information on what the delay was for? So essentially we sat there for 4 hrs and 40 mins in the dark. Surely this is not allowed as per FAA laws??? Can someone shed some light on this, thanks

Who were you flhying and where were you flying to?

CA136 ICN- PEK

Well, answer is simple - do not fly with chonaze carriers anymore. I never did and never will.

Helpful comment

Well, you weren't flying to / from the US... so no idea why you would bring up the FAA??

As I understand it, the laws of the carrier's home country and the laws of the departure/destination can apply (plus some international conventions). Not aware of any limits on time spent on a plane whilst grounded (except in the US and possibly Europe).

So unless you're on, or headed to / from the US/Europe, there is not much consumer protection out there to my knowledge.

I seriously doubt any airline would deliberatly board a flight to then just sit there for 4 hours and 40 minutes for no apparent reason. Take your pick of weather, runway availability, mechanical unserviceabilities, passenger sickness or any of a multitude of reasons that could cause a delay. There should however have been some sort of information passed to passengers during a delay of that magnitude.

There are no FAA! or any other regulatory authority "laws" in this area that I am aware of, and neither is there any substantive reason for any.

Seoul to Beijing on Air China, Well  I actually sat there for 4 hours and 40 mins with no information, boarded at 2:20 and took off at 7pm, FACT.

There are definately rules in the US, at least for domestic flights:

"The new rule prohibits U.S. airlines operating domestic flights from permitting an aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than three hours without deplaning passengers..."

My PRC colleague tells me this occurs because of compensation rules for delays in China. If pax have boarded the rules do not apply. Another example of poorly written legislation with unintended consequences.

What's the FAA got to do with it?

Many countries / regions around the world have enacted legislation for carriers serving their airports. In the USA, this legislation is mandated by the FAA and DoT. Similar rules govern travel within the EU community .. and the legislation clearly denotes applicable fines for offending airlines as well as compensation payable to delayed / inconvenienced passengers. Other countries may or may not have enabled legislation.

TRB's point above re China is correct. However, within China it is often common that flight crew (pilots, second officers etc) may not make 'cabin announcements' - sometimes due to the lack of language skills (ie: not everyone in China is going to be able to speak impromptu Korean, Thai, Japanese. Vietnamese or even English on regional international flights.

I like to be kept informed as to delays, mechanical problems, etc, surely there must have been an awful feeling on board during that amount of wait time. Try another airline.

I know it is started FAA has nothing to do with this but here is an interesting article I found today on this topic

http://www.flyertalk.com/articles/tarmac-delay-rule-makes-delayed-flight-experience-worse-according-to-study.html