Kate Hanni

Kate Hanni is one of the most passionate and dedicated national figures fighting for safeguards and protections to airline passenger’s today. She is the Founder and Executive Director of FlyersRights.org, formerly The Coalition for Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights (CAPBOR), the fastest growing airline passengers’ coalition in the country. Whether in State Capitols or in the Halls of the U.S. Congress, she has brought the need to enact legal rights and protections for the flying public to the national forefront.

Kate, her family and thousands of airline passengers were stranded on the tarmac of Austin Airport onboard 124 American Airlines flights during the Christmas holidays, December 29th, 2006. For close to ten hours, Kate and the rest of the passengers were given no food, no water, no medical attention and no basic services such as working toilets.

Unable to deplane and sitting on the tarmac at Austin airport, Kate and other passengers decided to turn anger and frustration into advocacy by creating this Coalition. “Our goal is to ensure that no other airline passenger has to experience what we went through,” is the common message of the Coalition as they travel the country seeking support from the general public, travelers, partner organizations and public officials.

Kate has taken her mission on behalf of the flying public to the national airwaves. She recorded a song for Stranded Passengers called “We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Plane”. She is a frequent guest on national television, cable and radio shows. She is a regular guest on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, ABC, Fox News and the major broadcast networks. Kate has been profiled on the Today Show, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, CBS This Morning and ABC’s Nightline, and Rachel Ray, Dr. Phil, 20/20, Nightline, among countless others. Newspaper profiles include USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Washington Post…and the beat goes on. In all Kate has completed more thank 3,700 interviews in 3.5 years.