The Aviation Consumers Action Project was most recently headed by lawyer Paul Hudson, who became an airline consumer activist after losing his daughter in the crash of Pan Am 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. It does not have an active membership and is now working in partnership with Hanni's group.

When Nader was fighting the airlines, the industry was still regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a bipartisan panel that shut down in 1984. Former CAB official Norman Strickman now heads the DOT's 38-member Aviation Consumer Protection Division, which fields all complaints received from consumers. It also levies penalties ($23 million since 2000) resulting from its investigations: One recently found that carriers were failing to disclose the on-time performance of some flights to investigators posing as consumers. Last spring the division informed the airlines that they couldn't retroactively impose new luggage fees on reservations made before the fee was announced.