And this is why, right or wrong, for better or worse, the "Passengers Bill of Rights" is going to pass, and any flight delayed for 3 hours or more will HAVE to be sent back to the terminal (open or not) if requested by the passengers.
I guess you didn't read this story. The flight wasn't waiting on the taxiway to depart, it was diverted
enroute from it's destination airport due to weather. Having the right to go back to the terminal would have meant taking off and returning to Houston.
But before we decide that passengers need more rights from these awful airlines perhaps we should consider who really is to blame here. I'm just guessing here, so anyone please correct me.
1. Thunderstorms reduce capacity (all ops?) at MSP. Who's to blame? a) God b) MSP airport for lack of capacity. c) CO for overscheduling at MSP. I'm guessing b) unless all ops were suspended then it would be a)
2. Diverted to Rochester, Minn after the airport has closed for the night. Who's to blame? a) CO b) ExpressJet c) FAA? I'm guessing the FAA decided which flights to divert and where. I can't see CO or ExpressJet deciding to divert to an airport where they have no presence.
3. Ground Staff couldn't organise a bus. Who's to blame? a) CO b)ExpressJet c) AA d) NW e)Bus company f)God. Seeing as CO / ExpressJet don't have operations at Rochester it can't be there fault. They may have arrangements with AA or NW (who do have ops, but not necessarily staff on the ground at the time) and/or a local groundhandler but not clear from the story. Can't blame the nameless bus company so it has to be f). This one also implies that the passengers could have disembarked, had ground transport been available.
4. Passengers weren't allowed off the plane. Who's to blame? a) CO b)ExpressJet c) TSA d) Airport? I'm guessing again, but I can't see it being a) or b) that would make this decision. So it's either c) or d) or ?
5. TSA not available after airport closed. Shouldn't they have contingency plans for these situations? 1 or 2 supervisors could have dealt (albeit slowly) with this. This one's got to be TSA's fault, for not planning for it and not implementing any solution.
6. OK last one. The weren't let into the terminal. Who's to blame. a) CO b)ExpressJet c) TSA d) Airport. Again I can't see a) or b) having any decision making authority on this one. TSA? Maybe, but I think this one goes to d). They too had no contingency plan for this type of IROPS. Why not? Couldn't the airport manager have decided on his own (after a call from the ground handler) to let them in, perchance to dream?
So, nasty nasty airlines. Not only should they given passengers their rights, they should be made to pay big buckets of money to each passenger - just like they do in Europe!
In all seriousness this all came about with the decision to divert this aircraft to a functionally closed airport. Perhaps it was the only possible solution to a not uncommon problem, but perhaps they also lack planning.
I'd appreciate any corrections to my assumptions and/or guesses but, in this particular case, I really can't see what the airline(s) could have done differently.