NEW YORK: Too many passengers are being stranded on board commercial flights in the US because of delays, according to an air passengers' rights group.

FlyersRights.org, in issuing what it calls an air travel consumer report card, says there were more than 1200 tarmac strandings last year, in which passengers are locked in planes on runways.

Delta Air Lines had the greatest number of tarmac delays longer than three hours. Southwest Airlines was rated the best for handling delays by letting customers get off delayed planes, as well as providing food, water and other items.

Rates the longest delay was a Delta flight from Atlanta, Georgia, to Florida in January last year in which passengers waited on the tarmac for more than 10 hours without food and water.

“Too many Americans have been locked inside sealed airplanes, trapped in tubes on the tarmac, for three hours or more,” says FlyersRights.org executive director Kate Hanni, reports CNN.com. “It's time for Congress to give airline passengers the legal right to get off planes stuck on the ground for three hours or more.”

Hanni, who has been lobbying for an airline passengers' bill of rights, also says America's economic situation has exacerbated the problems consumers face on airlines because of layoffs.

“Airlines are trying to maintain or increase their profit margins,” she says. “They have decreased all of their goods and services related to flying.”

She says a timely flight is “not just a matter of passenger convenience, it's a matter of public safety”.

“I wonder if heroic Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger and his crew could have performed as they did after seven, nine or even 12 hours on the tarmac?” asks Hanni, referring to the US Airways crew that made an emergency landing in New York's Hudson River in January.

Hanni started her organisation after being stranded on the tarmac on an American Airlines flight in Austin, Texas, for more than nine hours in December 2006. Mark Mogel, the group's research director, says FlyersRights.org has about 24,000 members, many of whom donate money, services and lobbying help.

The report card is based on government statistics, media reports, airline website data, reports on the group's hotline and eyewitness accounts.

It surveyed 17 airlines for tarmac delays, their menu and contracts of carriage and customer service commitments, and issued grades for each factor as well as an overall grade.

The survey also looked to see whether there would be food on board during a tarmac delay.

Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Continental Airlines and US Airways received an overall grade of “F” and American Airlines received an overall grade of “D”. United Airlines, Airtran and American Eagle were “C” graded, Alaska Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines got a “B” and Southwest received an “A”.