The Travel Trolley
ATLANTA – Federal authorities are mulling banning airlines from distributing peanuts as snacks on airplanes, saying the move would benefit people with severe peanut allergies.
The peanut proposal was among a number of consumer protections the U.S. Department of Transportation announced earlier this month. Other proposed protections include increasing the compensation airlines pay to passengers who are involuntarily bumped from flights and a requirement that airlines prominently disclose baggage fees and offer a refund and reimbursement when bags aren’t delivered on time.
“Why doesn’t the DOT’s proposed rule also ban milk and milk products? Why didn’t the rule include a ban eggs or foods containing eggs? Or for that matter, why doesn’t the DOT ban the travel of all dogs and cats, particularly within the passenger cabins of commercial planes?” U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., asked in a letter to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. “While I am certainly not proposing that any of these be included in any future DOT rule, each affects millions more Americans than peanuts.
“Just as important is the question of passengers who might wish to enter a plane with peanut products in their possession,” Bishop added. “Would the proposed ban on peanuts prohibit passengers from bringing peanut products on-board? And as a practical matter, how would such a ban be enforced with respect to passengers? What would be the penalty for a passenger caught with a Snickers Bar on a plane under the proposed rule?”
The DOT notes that it is merely soliciting comments on the proposal. Still, some airlines, including Continental and United, have stopped distributing peanuts on flights, while others have not, according to an Associated Press report.
However, in Georgia, which produces the most peanuts of any state in the nation and has a roadside attraction dedicated to the “goober” in Ashburn, some farmers and officials aren’t hesitating to voice their opposition to any ban.
“The peanut industry feels like we’re being picked on,” The Associated Press quoted Armond Morris, a peanut farmer and chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission, as saying. “If we’re going to go targeting food products, maybe we just need to ban all food (on airplanes).”
