If your plane has been sitting on the tarmac for three hours or longer you'll soon have the right to demand to be let off.

The Associated Press reports that "the Transportation Department is ordering airlines to let passengers stuck in stranded airplanes to deplane after three hours. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday announced the three-hour limit and other new passenger protections long sought by consumer advocates."

The new rule, AP says, goes into effect in 120 days.

Among the several infamous stuck-on-the-tarmac stories of recent months was the one about the passengers aboard a Continental flight who had to sit in the plane overnight in Rochester, Minn.