New York became the first US state with an airline passenger "bill of rights" when the governor signed a law to protect passengers stuck on grounded aircraft during long delays.

The measure, signed by Governor Eliot Spitzer, requires airlines to provide food, water, clean toilets and fresher air to passengers stuck on tarmacs for more than three hours.

Airlines face fines of US$1,000 per passenger for failing to provide amenities.

In February, passengers on JetBlue planes were stranded for as long as 11 hours at New York's John F Kennedy airport during a snow and ice storm. JetBlue blamed congestion, frozen equipment and an effort to keep planes ready to go in case the weather got better. Later that month the airline wrote its own "bill of rights."

The US government has no regulations to limit the time an airline can keep passengers on the tarmac.

The US airlines' voluntary code of conduct simply says that during extraordinary delays they will make "reasonable efforts" to meet passenger needs for food, water, restroom facilities and medical assistance.

In the first four months of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 38 percent of flights at Newark Liberty, John F Kennedy and LaGuardia airports were either late or canceled, disrupting flights across the United States.