In an effort to recoup costs resulting from flights delayed by passengers — and to discourage certain behaviors that cause these delays — the operators of the three major NYC-area airports plan to begin fining travelers who cause planes to stack up on the tarmac.

“We’re going to use every lever at our disposal,” the head of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey tells the NY Post. “These delays cost thousands of dollars — maybe tens of thousands — each. One Alec Baldwin incident can delay a whole airport for a day with cascading delays.”

He is referring to the actor with the ice-blue eyes who was ejected from an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles because he reportedly refused to stop playing Words With Friends on his phone.

The Port Authority says the thousands of dollars it could end up collecting from problem passengers aren’t intended to be pad the airports’ coffers. Instead, it claims that the majority of the cash would go to the airlines to cover costs related to the delays.

Don’t pay and you could end up being sued in Civil Court in NYC or New Jersey, depending on which airport is involved.

According to the Port Authority, passenger disruptions caused 390 flights to head back to the gate at the three airports in just 2011. Even a 30-60 minute delay can then cause other flights to be delayed.

Delays cost U.S. carriers an average of $5,867, reports the Post.

The head of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights called the Port Authority’s plan “intriguing,” but said this may be a situation of “singling out the passengers for a problem that is systemwide.”

Bad fliers get boot – & bill [NY Post]

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