U.S. airlines are expected to carry extra food and water on flights from New York as they deal with the state’s “passenger rights” law that took effect Tuesday.

The law may also force airlines to cancel more flights if they exhaust supplies of food and drink during the first three hours when planes are stuck on runways, said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association trade group. The carriers plan “to be in full compliance,” he said in Washington.

The New York law requires carriers including AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. to provide food, drinking water, waste removal, fresh air and lights on planes stuck on tarmacs for more than three hours before taking off.

“I don’t think it will be a hassle at all” because airlines already are equipped to handle passengers during long delays, Jon Ash, president of Washington consulting firm InterVistas-GA2, said of the state’s measure.

New York lawmakers acted after JetBlue and American delays late in 2006 and early last year that stranded dozens of flights on tarmacs for more than four hours. Airlines lost a bid Dec. 20 to block the law and have appealed U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn’s ruling that the state has authority to regulate carriers.

The Air Transport Association filed a lawsuit in November, saying the statute is “invalid and unenforceable” because the federal government regulates the carriers. The group’s appeal is pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.

Airlines are mostly concerned that the statute will be a precedent for other states to enact similar laws, forcing carriers to abide by a patchwork of regulations nationwide, Ash said.

American’s own policies already call for adequate food and water during long flight delays, said Tim Wagner, a spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier. The only change American will make is to hang posters near customer-service desks informing passengers of the New York law, he said.

JetBlue “won’t have to do anything different” because its own requirements for meeting customer needs go further than the state’s, said Alison Eshelman, a spokeswoman for the New York-based company.

New York is the first state with a passenger rights law, according to a Dec. 20 statement from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office. Cuomo may seek penalties of as much as $1,000 a passenger for violations of the rules.

Airline service has improved in New York, thanks to attention the law gets, said Kate Hanni, executive director of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights.

“The airlines are afraid” of news media attention and possible state fines from any service lapses, said Hanni, whose Napa, Calif., group has pushed for passenger rights laws.