Kate Hanni attributes the success she had as a real estate broker — she was a top seller for her region 11 out of 17 years on the job — to her ability to get people to sit down face to face and settle their differences.

“It was how we did business,” she said.

“I was in shock,” said Hanni, after being told by Baucus’s Senate staff that the two lawmakers had not talked to one another. (Spokesmen for each office said staff members have been in contact, though not the members themselves.)

“They said, ‘We didn’t think there was any flexibility in Rockefeller’s position.’ Well, I said, ‘Time heals all wounds.’”

Time — and more angry calls from fliers. Lobbyists and staff aides involved in the fight over a Senate bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, which now includes some of the passenger rights language Hanni’s group has sought, say there’s reason to believe that a measure might finally get off the ground.

Flight delays and inspection problems with American Airlines and safety concerns at Southwest Airlines are increasing worry among Democratic leaders that they might get blamed for what could be a tumultuous summer flying season.

“I know from my visits on Capitol Hill that they are getting a lot of calls on this issue,” said Hanni, whose group, Coalition for an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, counts over 22,000 members.

Hanni herself has made dozens of trips to Capitol Hill in support of the passenger rights bill, which would require that airlines develop a plan that sets out a timeframe for when passengers will be able to deplane a delayed flight.

The main goal of a new FAA bill is to provide hundreds of millions of dollars more to the trust fund that pays for the air traffic control system to pay for a big upgrade. That effort could be spun by lawmakers as a job creator as well, at a time when voters are increasingly worried about the economy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) included the FAA legislation on the list of bills that could come up for a vote in the next few weeks. An aide to Rockefeller said there has been “movement” on the issue in recent weeks.

But not everyone on K Street is convinced that the Senate FAA bill faces smooth skies.

A nasty dispute between commercial airlines on one side (supporting Rockefeller’s new FAA bill) and general aviation and private business jets on the other (they like Baucus’ version) over how to pay to update the nation’s air traffic control system has yet to be resolved.

The airlines contend they shoulder an unfair burden of the costs to support the trust fund that pays to operate and update the air traffic control system. They want a “user fee” to be applied to business jets that use the federal air traffic control system.

Lobbyists for business jets and for general aviation flyers are adamantly opposed to a user fee system, saying that it will set a precedent for higher and higher fees to fly. They say commercial airlines should pay more because it is the hub and the spoke structure of the current system, perpetuated by commercial airlines, that is responsible for the costs.

The Baucus bill avoids any “user fee” and increases the gas taxes to pay for the modernization plan from all types of aviation.

Advocates of shifting to a satellite-based radar system, instead of the current ground-based system, said it will be better able to accommodate an expected increase in air traffic. That would mean fewer flight delays.

Any benefit from a new FAA bill would be years away, however, and not nearly in time to alleviate the expected summer headaches. According to one lobbyist, that takes away some incentive for Democrats to act. The current authorization could simply be extended, and the Senate could take up legislation that packs a more powerful political punch, like climate change.

Also, lawmakers could bring a bill to the floor to reopen a contentious fight over whether FedEx should have to report to the National Labor Relations Board, as rival UPS now does.

Another complication, one lobbyist said, is a testy relationship between Baucus and Rockefeller, which the lobbyist said helps explain why the two haven’t tried to work out the differences on the FAA bill. The dispute apparently dates back to Baucus’s ascension to the top slot on the Finance Committee. But a spokesman for Rockefeller said any contention that the two don’t get along is false, noting bills that the two have done on healthcare legislation.

The larger reason that there hasn’t been any movement is that commercial airlines and general aviation and business jets are old lobbying hands that have plenty of resources to bring to bear.

Each side spends millions of dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying each year.

But all the money and know-how on one side has so far cancelled out the power and influence on the other. That could leave Hanni’s up-start group an opportunity to slip under the radar, as it were.

The Senate authors of the original passenger rights bill that was wrapped into the broader FAA bill said last week they would look for other vehicles to move their legislation if the larger airline bill doesn’t move. Lobbyists said House Democratic leaders were also considering moving the passenger rights bill separately as a way to highlight what they see as a Bush administration that has let consumer rights regulations lapse.

Bush was to receive a briefing on the airline industry yesterday at a Cabinet meeting. The White House said the president was keeping a “close eye” on the industry.

Despite her problems with the airline industry, Hanni was preparing to fly yesterday from Napa, Calif. back across country again, this time for a hearing in Miami on passenger rights.

She said she was also prepared to fly back to Washington and miss one son’s graduation and another’s test for the black belt in karate.

Hanni said her advice to senators has been that “sometimes you have to realize when to put the pedal to the metal and get things done.”