At a House Committee on Small Business Hearing on How the Air Transportation Crisis is hurting travelers, Entrepreneurs and the Economy, ASTA's senior Vice-President of Legal and Industry Affairs Paul Ruden highlighted the adverse effects of the current airline crisis on leisure and business travel in addition to the travel agency industry more specifically. In his address, Ruden highlighted the two highly bothering developments namely the additional ticket restrictions and the fees for checked baggage. These factors gave a hint regarding the troubling direction of the airline industry.

The announcement made by Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters on May 16, 2008 spoke about the new aviation measures aimed at eradicating certain crucial and longstanding issues like flight groundings, congestion, inadequate passenger protections, and limited consumer choice. Applauding these measures, ASTA also welcomes the recently enforced DOT rule requiring the airlines to offer complete on-time and tarmac delay data pertaining to flights that may depart from a gate often; flights cancelled after their departure from the gate and flights diverted to some other airport after departure.

Amidst these encouraging factors, ASTA highlights the fact that the short-term outlook for passenger aviation is not encouraging resulting in factors such as the fees collected on checked baggage and restrictions over ticketing. When the system is unable to accommodate the present passenger levels to a satisfactory degree of service, ASTA calls for a reformation of the existing passenger air system for several years from now. It was duly highlighted that such reforms shall infuse some measures to restore the system before it worsens.