64364 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

1The dates and citations for these amendments 

are the following: April 3, 1990; 55 FR 12341 June 

11, 1990; 55 FR 23544 November 1, 1996; 61 FR 

56422 January 2, 1997; 62 FR 17 March 4, 1998; 63 

FR 10535 March 11, 1998; 63 FR 11954 August 2, 

1999; 64 FR 41703 January 5, 2000; 65 FR 352 May 

3, 2001; 66 FR 22115 July 3, 2003; 68 FR 4088.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary 

14 CFR Part 382 

[Docket No. OST–2004–19482] 

RIN 2105–AC97 

Nondiscrimination on the Basis of 

Disability in Air Travel

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

(DOT).

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking 

(NPRM). 

SUMMARY: The Department proposes to 

revise its rule requiring 

nondiscrimination on the basis of 

disability in air travel to update, 

reorganize, and clarify the rule and to 

implement a statutory requirement to 

cover foreign air carriers under the Air 

Carrier Access Act.

DATES: Comment Closing Date:

Comments must be received by 

February 2, 2005. Comments received 

after this date will be considered to the 

extent practicable.

ADDRESSES: Please include the docket 

number of this document in all 

comments submitted to the docket. 

Written comments should be sent to 

Docket Clerk, Department of 

Transportation, 400 7th Street, SW., 

Room PL–401, Washington, DC 20590. 

For confirmation of the receipt of 

written comments, commenters may 

include a stamped, self-addressed 

postcard. The Docket Clerk will datestamp the postcard and mail it back to 

the commenter. Comments will be 

available for inspection at this address 

from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday 

through Friday. Comments can also be 

reviewed through the Dockets 

Management System (DMS) pages of the 

Department’s Web site (http://

dms.dot.gov). Commenters may also 

submit comments electronically. 

Instructions appear on the DMS web 

site.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Robert C. Ashby, Deputy Assistant 

General Counsel for Regulation and 

Enforcement, 400 7th Street, SW., Room 

10424, Washington DC, 20590. Phone 

202–366–9310; TTY: 202–755–7687; 

Fax: 202–366–9313. E-mail: 

bob.ashby@ost.dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background and Organization 

Congress enacted the Air Carrier 

Access Act (ACAA) in 1986. The statute 

prohibits discrimination in airline 

service on the basis of disability. 

Following a lengthy rulemaking process 

that included a regulatory negotiation 

involving representatives of the airline 

industry and disability community, the 

Department issued a final ACAA rule in 

March 1990. Since that time, the 

Department has amended the rule ten 

times.1 These amendments have 

concerned such subjects as boarding 

assistance via lift devices for small 

aircraft, and subsequently for other 

aircraft, where level entry boarding is 

unavailable; seating accommodations 

for passengers with disabilities; 

reimbursement for loss of or damage to 

wheelchairs; modifications to policies 

or practices necessary to ensure 

nondiscrimination; terminal 

accessibility standards; and technical 

changes to terminology and compliance 

dates. 

The Department has also frequently 

issued guidance in a number of forms 

that interprets or explains further the 

text of the rule. These interpretations 

have been disseminated in a variety of 

ways: preambles to regulatory 

amendments, industry letters, 

correspondence with individual carriers 

or complainants, enforcement actions, 

web site postings, informal 

conversations between DOT staff and 

interested members of the public, etc. 

This guidance, on a wide variety of 

subjects, has never been collected in one 

place. Some of this guidance would be 

more accessible to the public and more 

readily understandable if it were 

incorporated into regulatory text. There 

have also been changes in the ways 

airlines operate since the original 

publication of Part 382. For example, 

airlines now make extensive use of web 

sites for information and booking 

purposes. Many carriers now use 

regional jets with a capacity of around 

50 passengers for flights that formerly 

would have been served by larger 

aircraft. Preboarding announcements are 

not as universal a practice as they once 

were. Security screening has become a 

responsibility of the Transportation 

Security Administration (TSA), rather 

than that of the airlines. The 

Department has decided to update Part 

382 to take changes in airline operations 

into account. 

On April 5, 2000, the Wendell H. Ford 

Aviation Investment and Reform Act for 

the 21st Century (AIR–21) amended the 

ACAA specifically to include foreign 

carriers. The ACAA now reads in 

relevant part:

* * * In providing air transportation, an 

air carrier, including (subject to section 

40105(b)) any foreign air carrier, may not 

discriminate against an otherwise qualified 

individual on the following grounds: 

(1) The individual has a physical or mental 

impairment that substantially limits one or 

more major life activities. 

(2) The individual has a record of such an 

impairment. 

(3) The individual is regarded as having 

such an impairment.

In response to the AIR–21 requirements, 

the Department on May 18, 2000, issued 

a notice of its intent to investigate 

complaints against foreign carriers 

according to the amended provisions of 

the ACAA. The notice also announced 

the Department’s plan to initiate a 

rulemaking modifying Part 382 to cover 

foreign air carriers. Such a rulemaking 

is not a simple matter of saying that the 

existing rule applies as a whole to 

foreign air carriers. The Department 

believes that it is important to review 

Part 382 on a section-by-section basis to 

apply particular requirements to foreign 

air carriers in a way that achieves the 

ACAA’s nondiscrimination objectives 

while not imposing undue burdens on 

foreign carriers. 

The over 14-year history of 

amendments and interpretations of Part 

382 have made the rule something of a 

patchwork, which does not flow as 

clearly and understandably as it might. 

Restructuring the rule for greater clarity, 

including using ‘‘plain language’’ to the 

extent feasible, is an important 

objective. To this end, Part 382 has been 

restructured in this NPRM, to organize 

it by subject matter area. Compared to 

the present rule, the text is divided into 

more subparts and sections, with fewer 

paragraphs and less text in each on 

average, to make it easier to find 

regulatory provisions. The proposal uses 

a question-answer format, with language 

specifically directing particular parties 

to take particular actions (e.g., ‘‘As a 

carrier, you must * * *’’). We have also 

tried to express the (admittedly 

sometimes technical) requirements of 

the rule in plain language.

The Department recognizes that some 

users, who have become familiar and 

comfortable with the existing 

organization and numbering scheme of 

Part 382, might have to make some 

adjustments as they work with the 

restructured rule. However, the 

structure of this proposed revision is 

consistent with a Federal governmentwide effort to improve the clarity of 

regulations, which the Department has 

employed with great success and public 

acceptance in the case of other 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64365

2See 64 FR 5096, February 2, 1999 (for 49 CFR 

Part 26, disadvantaged business enterprise) and 65 

FR 79462, December 19, 2000 (for 49 CFR Part 40, 

drug and alcohol testing procedures).

significant rules in recent years, such as 

revisions of our disadvantaged business 

enterprise and drug and alcohol testing 

procedures rules.2 The Department 

seeks comment on the clarity, format, 

and style of the NPRM, as well as any 

economic or other impacts, and solicits 

suggestions for improving it.

Many of the provisions of the current 

Part 382 are retained in this rule with 

little or no substantive change. To assist 

readers in finding where current 

provisions are located in the proposed 

regulatory text, we have provided a 

reference table at the end of this 

preamble. Preamble language and other 

guidance issued by the Department 

concerning provisions of the existing 

rule text that have not been 

substantively changed may remain 

useful as guidance to carriers and 

passengers, and the Department can 

continue to rely on this information. 

For U.S. carriers, many compliance 

dates (e.g., with respect to including 

certain accessibility features on new 

aircraft, signing and implementing 

agreements with airports concerning 

boarding assistance provided by 

mechanical lifts) have already passed. 

The Department has restated these 

compliance dates in this proposed rule 

for the information of users. The 

Department seeks comment on whether 

doing so is necessary. 

Section-by-Section Analysis 

This portion of the preamble 

discusses each section of the proposed 

rule, highlighting where the Department 

proposes to make substantive changes 

from current Part 382. 

Subpart A—General Provisions 

Section 382.1 What Is the Purpose of 

This Rule? 

This section makes a brief statement 

of the basic purposes of the ACAA and 

mentions that the ACAA’s 

nondiscrimination and accessibility 

requirements apply to foreign as well as 

to U.S. carriers. 

Section 382.3 What Do the Terms in 

This Rule Mean? 

The definition of ‘‘air carrier’’ would 

change to include foreign as well as U.S. 

carriers. We would add a definition of 

the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) for 

clarity. The definition of ‘‘air 

transportation’’ would be changed to 

include the citation for the statutory 

definition of the term. We would add a 

definition of ‘‘assistive device,’’

consistent with concepts used in 

connection with the Americans with 

Disabilities Act (ADA) and section 504 

of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. We 

have also added a definition of ‘‘direct 

threat,’’ also drawn from the ADA and 

Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations 

implementing it. This concept is used in 

determining when it is appropriate to 

place restrictions on or deny service to 

individuals with disabilities. Here, as 

elsewhere in Part 382, we believe it is 

useful to harmonize ACAA practice 

with the ADA and other disability 

nondiscrimination authorities to the 

extent feasible. 

The definition of ‘‘facility’’ would 

include a carrier’s aircraft and any 

portion of an airport that the carrier 

owns, leases, or controls. ‘‘Controls,’’ for 

this purpose, is understood to include 

control of the selection, design, 

construction, or alteration of the facility, 

as well as actual operational control. 

In the definition of ‘‘qualified 

individual with a disability,’’ the 

Department is introducing a new term, 

‘‘passenger with a disability,’’ which the 

proposed rule will use in all situations 

in which a qualified individual with a 

disability is or is trying to be a 

passenger. ‘‘Qualified individual with a 

disability’’ would continue to apply to 

non-passengers as well. Given that this 

rule concerns travel, we seek comment 

on whether ‘‘traveling’’ should be added 

to the standard list of ‘‘major life 

activities’’ that is part of the definition 

of ‘‘individual with a disability.’’

Because of the important role that the 

Transportation Security Administration 

(TSA) now plays in air transportation, 

we are adding that agency to the 

definitions section. 

Section 382.5 To Whom Do the 

Provisions of This Rule Apply? 

This section contains some of the 

most important proposed changes in 

this NPRM, concerning how the 

Department will implement the AIR 21 

amendment applying ACAA 

requirements to foreign air carriers. 

Paragraph (a) of the section, however, 

restates the existing application of the 

rule to U.S. carriers, regardless of where 

their operations takes place. As under 

the existing rule, a U.S. carrier’s 

operations are subject to ACAA 

requirements whether they occur at a 

U.S. or foreign airport, or inside or 

outside of U.S. airspace (although 

certain airport accessibility obligations 

of air carriers apply only to their 

facilities at U.S. airports).

The Department believes that the 

intended scope of the statutory coverage 

of foreign air carriers, consistent with 

international law, focuses on traffic to or 

from the United States. In our view, it 

would exceed the scope of the 

Department’s authority to attempt to 

apply ACAA requirements to all the 

operations of a foreign air carrier. 

Consequently, in paragraph (b) we 

propose to cover only those flights 

operated by a foreign air carrier that 

begin or end at a U.S. airport. Aircraft 

accessibility requirements would apply 

only to those aircraft that are used for 

these flights. 

What is such a flight? We propose that 

it would be a continuous journey 

beginning or ending at a U.S. airport, 

using the same aircraft and/or flight 

number. For example, suppose a foreign 

carrier operates a nonstop flight 

between Paris and Chicago. This flight, 

and all the services connected with it, 

would be required to meet ACAA 

requirements. The aircraft would have 

to meet ACAA accessibility 

requirements. 

In another example, suppose a foreign 

carrier operates service between New 

York and Cairo. The plane is refueled 

and gets a new crew in London, and 

continues on its way. Even though this 

is not a nonstop flight, it is a continuous 

journey on the same aircraft. 

Consequently, both segments of the 

flight would be covered under the 

ACAA. This would still be true even if 

there were a change of aircraft in 

London (sometimes called ‘‘change of 

gauge’’), as long as the flight number 

remained the same. 

However, if there is a change of both 

aircraft and flight numbers, the picture 

would change. Suppose, for example, 

that a foreign carrier operates a nonstop 

flight from Washington, DC, to 

Frankfurt. A passenger then changes to 

a German domestic flight from Frankfurt 

to Berlin, with a different aircraft and 

flight number. The WashingtonFrankfurt leg would be covered by 

ACAA requirements; the FrankfurtBerlin leg would not. The aircraft used 

for the former would be subject to 

ACAA aircraft accessibility 

requirements; the aircraft used for the 

latter would not. 

One of the situations this section 

addresses is ‘‘code-sharing’’ between a 

U.S. and foreign air carrier. A flight that, 

through a code-sharing agreement, is 

listed as the flight of a U.S. carrier is 

covered under the ACAA under the 

requirements that apply to U.S. carriers, 

even if the flight is operated with a 

foreign carrier’s aircraft and crew. If a 

flight is advertised as the flight of a U.S. 

carrier, and the U.S. carrier or another 

party sells tickets to passengers on that 

basis, then it is reasonable for all the 

ACAA requirements applicable to other 

flights held out to the public as flights 

64366 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

of that carrier to apply in this case as 

well. The U.S. carrier and its foreign 

carrier code-sharing partner would work 

out between themselves the details of 

how to meet the ACAA requirements. 

Under this proposed section, if a 

foreign carrier operates an aircraft solely 

between foreign points, even if that 

aircraft is part of a code-shared flight or 

another covered flight (e.g., the aircraft 

used for the Frankfurt—Berlin flight in 

the code-sharing example above, 

assuming the aircraft is used solely for 

operations between two points outside 

the U.S.), ACAA aircraft accessibility 

requirements would not apply to that 

aircraft. Other ACAA requirements (e.g., 

service requirements) would apply, 

however. 

The Department believes that these 

provisions would implement AIR–21 

requirements without unduly burdening 

foreign carriers. The Department seeks 

comment on both the basic principle of 

this provision and on specific 

applications. In particular, given the 

variety of carriers, aircraft, destinations, 

airports, and relationships between U.S. 

and foreign carriers, the Department 

requests suggestions for any more 

specific provisions that might be 

necessary to apply this principle to the 

range of flights that this rule would 

cover, including any unusual situations 

in which its application could cause 

problems. 

Section 382.7 What May Foreign 

Carriers Do If They Believe a Provision 

of a Foreign Nation’s Law Precludes 

Compliance With a Provision of This 

Part? 

The Department recognizes that 

foreign air carriers operate under a 

variety of laws and regulations. If an 

applicable foreign law or regulation 

precludes a foreign carrier from 

complying with a provision of the 

Department’s ACAA rule, this section 

would allow the foreign carrier to 

petition the Department for a waiver of 

compliance with the ACAA provision.

As proposed, this waiver authority 

would apply only to a direct conflict 

between the ACAA and foreign law 

(e.g., an ACAA provision requires 

aircraft to have movable aisle armrests; 

a legal requirement of Country X 

prohibits its aircraft from having 

movable aisle armrests). This waiver 

provision would not cover situations in 

which another country’s laws or 

regulatory provisions may have different 

requirements from those of the ACAA, 

or give a foreign carrier discretion to 

take steps that differ from those of the 

ACAA, but do not actually preclude 

compliance with the ACAA. For 

example, the ACAA rule requires the 

use of boarding lifts at U.S. airports in 

almost all instances where level-entry 

boarding is not otherwise available. A 

foreign law might give carriers 

discretion to provide boarding by handcarrying in these instances. This 

hypothetical law permits a boarding 

method that the ACAA regulations 

prohibit but does not prohibit the use of 

lifts, which the ACAA regulation 

requires. Under these circumstances, the 

foreign carrier would not be able to 

obtain a waiver. The Department seeks 

comment on whether broader waiver 

authority would be justified, and to 

what circumstances any broader waiver 

provision should apply. 

It is important to note that a grant of 

a waiver under this provision would be 

contingent on the carrier providing an 

alternative means to effectively achieve 

the objective of the waived ACAA 

provision, consistent with the foreign 

law involved, or to demonstrate that no 

alternative means of achieving the 

objective was legally permitted. Also, a 

carrier’s obligation to comply with the 

rule would not be stayed while a waiver 

request was pending. The carrier’s 

authority to implement an alternative 

means to achieve the objective of an 

ACAA provision begins only when the 

Department approves the waiver.

We believe that this waiver provision 

may be very useful in addressing issues 

raised by legally binding aviation 

regulations of foreign nations. We are 

aware that, in many situations, foreign 

aviation regulations, rather than FAA or 

TSA rules, govern the actions of foreign 

carriers. In many cases, these foreign 

regulations are likely to be compatible 

with implementing Part 382. However, 

there may be instances in which a 

carrier believes that foreign regulations 

preclude it from implementing a 

provision of Part 382. In such cases, this 

waiver mechanism permits the 

Department to examine the basis for the 

asserted conflict between Part 382 and 

the foreign regulation. We believe 

having the Department make case-bycase decisions on waiver requests is an 

important safeguard of the rights of 

passengers with disabilities under Part 

382. 

We also note that, as an Office of the 

Secretary rule, Part 382 is subject to the 

exemption procedure of 49 CFR 5.11–

5.13. Under these procedures, anyone 

may request an exemption from (or an 

amendment to) an Office of the 

Secretary rule. Long-standing DOT 

standards provide that a party 

requesting an exemption must 

demonstrate that unique or special 

circumstances, not contemplated in the 

rulemaking and not likely to be 

generalizable, make it impracticable for 

the party to comply with the rule as 

written. As with the waiver provision 

described above, the applicant would 

need to present alternative means of 

achieving the objective of the provision 

from which the exemption is sought. 

Section 382.9 When Are Carriers 

Required To Begin Complying With the 

Provisions of This Rule? 

This provision states that, as a general 

matter, carriers to which the rule 

applies must comply with its provisions 

beginning on the effective date of the 

rule. There is an important exception. 

Various individual provisions of the 

rule have delayed effective dates, 

especially for foreign carriers, to permit 

a reasonable phase-in period for 

requirements that are new to these 

carriers. We have designed these 

delayed effective dates to give foreign 

carriers phase-in periods equivalent to 

those that U.S. carriers had when the 

Department first issued its ACAA rule 

in 1990. 

Subpart B—Nondiscrimination and 

Access to Services and Information 

Section 382.11 What Is the General 

Nondiscrimination Requirement of This 

Rule? 

Section 382.13 Do Carriers Have To 

Modify Policies, Practices, and Facilities 

To Ensure Nondiscrimination? 

These sections carry forward the 

provisions of current § 382.7. While the 

language is modified for greater clarity, 

the Department is not proposing 

substantive changes in the present rule. 

Section 382.15 Do Carriers Have To 

Make Sure That Contractors Comply 

With the Requirements of This Part? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.9. In 

addition to modifying the language for 

greater clarity, the proposed language 

also contains statements codifying the 

Department’s interpretations of this 

provision: that contractors (including 

airports) must meet the same 

requirements that would apply to the 

carrier itself in providing the services in 

question, that a contractor’s 

noncompliance with its assurance of 

compliance is a material breach of its 

contract with the carrier, that the 

assurance must commit the contractor to 

complying with all applicable 

provisions of the rule with respect to all 

activities performed for the carrier, that 

the carrier remains responsible for the 

contractor’s compliance, and that 

carriers cannot defend against DOT 

enforcement actions by saying that their 

noncompliance was the contractor’s 

fault. 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64367

Paragraph (c) continues language 

concerning carriers’ contracts or 

agreements of appointment with travel 

agents. As drafted, this language would 

apply only to U.S. carriers with respect 

to U.S. travel agents. The reason for not 

proposing to cover foreign airlines or 

foreign travel agents under this 

provision is that rules concerning 

relationships between U.S. carriers and 

foreign travel agents, or foreign carriers 

and their travel agents, could prove very 

difficult to monitor and enforce. The 

Department seeks comment on this 

aspect of the section. In addition, the 

Department also seeks comment on 

whether there should be additional or 

specific requirements added to this 

section concerning on-line travel 

agencies (e.g., web sites that provide 

schedule and fare information and 

ticketing services for many air carriers). 

Section 382.17 May Carriers Limit the 

Number of Passengers With a Disability 

on a Flight? 

This language carries forward, 

without substantive change, the 

prohibition on number limits that is 

found in current § 382.31(c). We have 

added a cross reference to proposed 

§ 382.27(a)(7), which incorporates the 

provision of current § 382.33(a)(7) 

allowing carriers to require advance 

notice in situations where 10 or more 

passengers with a disability make 

reservations to travel as a group. 

Section 382.19 May Carriers Refuse To 

Provide Transportation on the Basis of 

Disability? 

For the most part, this section carries 

forward the prohibition of refusal to 

provide transportation found in current 

§ 382.31, without substantive change. 

However, the proposed language would 

clarify the basis on which an air carrier 

may deny transportation to a passenger. 

In addition to updating the citations to 

statutory and regulatory provisions that 

provide a basis for excluding passengers 

from a flight and including a reference 

to TSA as well as FAA regulations, the 

NPRM uses the concept of ‘‘direct 

threat’’ as the standard for when a 

carrier may conclude that there is a 

safety basis for excluding a passenger 

from a flight. The use of this concept is 

consistent with current law and practice 

under section 504 of the Rehabilitation 

Act of 1973 and the ADA, and it 

includes the point that if mitigating 

measures short of exclusion are 

available to deal with the direct threat 

to safety of others, then exclusion is not 

appropriate. In a situation where a 

foreign carrier believed that foreign law 

(including a foreign air safety 

regulation) precluded it from complying 

with this provision (i.e., directed the 

carrier to exclude a passenger with a 

given disability that this section 

requires the carrier to transport), the 

foreign carrier could seek a waiver 

under § 382.7. 

As under the current Part 382, this 

section is not intended to preclude 

pilots-in-command from exercising their 

authority over the operation of a flight. 

However, if the action of a pilot-incommand is inconsistent with these 

rules, the airline may be subject to 

subsequent enforcement action by the 

Department. 

We have added clarifying language 

that relates refusals to provide 

transportation to the passenger’s 

‘‘originally scheduled flight.’’ The 

purpose of this language is to make sure 

that everyone understands that if a 

carrier improperly refuses to allow a 

passenger to fly as originally scheduled 

on the basis of disability, the action is 

still a ‘‘refusal’’ even if the carrier places 

the individual on a subsequent flight. Of 

course, the prohibition of refusals 

applies to subsequent flights as well 

(e.g., when the originally scheduled 

flight is cancelled for weather or 

mechanical reasons, the passenger is 

rebooked, and the carrier then refuses to 

carry the passenger on the rebooked 

flight).

Section 382.21 May Carriers Limit 

Access to Transportation on the Basis 

That a Passenger Has a Communicable 

Disease or Other Medical Condition? 

Section 382.23 May Carriers Require a 

Passenger With a Disability To Provide 

a Medical Certificate? 

These provisions carry forward the 

substance of current §§ 382.51–382.53, 

which prohibit carriers from requiring a 

passenger with a disability to provide a 

medical certificate or a doctor’s note 

except as specifically permitted by this 

rule. The placement and wording have 

been changed for greater clarity. In 

Appendix A, the Department’s guidance 

states that carriers may ask for 

documentation with respect to 

emotional support animals. We seek 

comment on whether it would be 

helpful to refer to this documentation in 

§ 382.23. 

Section 382.25 May a Carrier Require 

a Passenger With a Disability To Provide 

Advance Notice That He or She Is 

Traveling on a Flight? 

Section 382.27 May a Carrier Require 

a Passenger With a Disability To Provide 

Advance Notice in Order To Obtain 

Certain Specific Services in Connection 

With a Flight? 

These sections carry forward the 

substance of current § 382.33. Proposed 

§ 382.25 is separated from the rest of the 

text to emphasize the basic principle 

that no passenger with a disability is 

required to provide advance notice of 

the fact that he or she is a passenger 

with a disability traveling on a flight. 

The only situations in which carriers are 

authorized (never required) to insist that 

passengers provide advance notice is 

when the passengers want certain 

services or accommodations specified in 

this section. When a carrier is permitted 

to insist on advance notice, the advance 

notice cannot exceed 48 hours. The 

carrier may also require the passenger to 

check in an hour before the scheduled 

departure time for the flight. 

There are some services an air carrier 

is not required to provide at all, but if 

an air carrier does provide them, the 

carrier may require advance notice. The 

most notable of these is medical oxygen 

for use of passengers. The Department 

has been aware, for many years, of the 

extensive difficulties faced by 

passengers who use oxygen. The 

problem results from DOT hazardous 

materials safety regulations that prohibit 

passengers from bringing their own 

personal oxygen supplies into the cabin 

and that provide that only oxygen 

supplied by carriers may be used on 

aircraft. Not all carriers provide medical 

oxygen, and those that do often charge 

high prices. This can make travel for 

persons who use oxygen very costly, in 

some cases prohibitively so. 

This NPRM does not propose 

provisions to address this problem. 

However, over the last two years, the 

Department has been actively working 

on solutions to this problem with 

parties including the airline industry, 

medical organizations, disability groups, 

and oxygen equipment manufacturers 

and oxygen suppliers, to examine 

whether state-of-the-art technology for 

oxygen delivery systems could be 

accommodated within the existing 

regulatory structure. Because these 

efforts have not yet resolved difficulties 

encountered in air travel by users of 

medical oxygen, the Department has 

begun work to develop proposals to 

make travel for oxygen users much 

easier in the future. These proposals 

64368 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

would be reflected in future DOT 

rulemaking or other initiatives. 

Section 382.29 May a Carrier Require 

a Passenger With a Disability To Travel 

With a Safety Assistant? 

This section uses the term ‘‘safety 

assistant’’ rather than the current term 

‘‘attendant’’ because the new term more 

accurately describes the role of such an 

individual. The section is otherwise 

substantively the same as current 

§ 382.35. 

A safety assistant is someone who 

accompanies a passenger with a 

disability in order to provide assistance 

in the event of an emergency, such as an 

evacuation of the aircraft. This term 

should help everyone keep in mind the 

distinction between the quite different 

roles of the safety assistant and a 

personal care attendant (PCA) or other 

person accompanying a passenger with 

a disability. Under this proposed 

section, as well as current § 382.35, it is 

never appropriate for an air carrier to 

insist that a passenger with a disability 

travel with a PCA or other person to 

help the passenger with personal 

functions or activities. 

Section 382.31 May Carriers Impose 

Special Charges on Passengers With a 

Disability for Providing Services and 

Accommodations Required by This 

Rule? 

This section is based on current 

§ 382.57. It makes two clarifications. 

First, if a carrier provides a service that 

is not required by this rule, the carrier 

may charge for it (e.g., oxygen). Second, 

if a passenger actually occupies more 

than one seat, the carrier can charge for 

the number of seats he or she occupies. 

For example, a person who is large 

enough that he or she needs two seats 

can be charged for two seats, even if the 

individual has a disability. This would 

not be considered a prohibited special 

charge under the rule. This provision 

carries forward the Department’s longstanding requirement of § 382.38(i). 

Section 382.33 May Carriers Impose 

Other Restrictions on Passengers With a 

Disability That They Do Not Impose on 

Other Passengers? 

This section is based in part on 

current § 382.55(b) and (c) and on longstanding interpretations of the 

Department’s rule. This section stresses 

that the enumerated practices that are 

prohibited are not an exhaustive list. As 

a general matter, except where 

otherwise authorized by Part 382 or 

required by an FAA or TSA rule, 

carriers may never impose restrictions 

or requirements on passengers with 

disabilities that they do not impose on 

similarly situated passengers who do 

not have disabilities. We are proposing 

adding one specific prohibition to the 

list, namely the practice of requiring 

ambulatory blind passengers or other 

persons who can walk to use a 

wheelchair in order to be provided 

assistance. This practice is unnecessary 

and offensive to many passengers. As 

noted above, if a foreign carrier believes 

it is required by foreign law to impose 

restrictions on passengers with 

disabilities that Part 382 does not 

permit, the carrier may apply for a 

waiver under § 382.7 

Section 382.35 May Carriers Require 

Passengers With a Disability To Sign 

Waivers or Releases?

This section concerns a specific type 

of restriction or requirement that 

carriers are not allowed to impose on 

passengers with disabilities. Carriers 

would be prohibited under this section 

from making passengers with a 

disability sign a waiver of liability or 

release as a condition of being allowed 

to travel or to receive required 

accommodations for a disability. This 

prohibition specifically includes 

waivers or releases pertaining to the loss 

of or damage to wheelchairs and other 

assistive devices. This latter 

requirement is currently found in 

§ 382.43(c). Carriers could, if they wish, 

make notes of pre-existing damage to 

wheelchairs and other assistive devices. 

Subpart C—Information for Passengers 

Section 382.41 What Flight-Related 

Information Must Carriers Provide to 

Qualified Individuals With a Disability? 

This provision is based on current 

§ 382.45(a), and adds a few 

clarifications. Information about seat 

locations must be made available by 

specific row and seat number, and any 

limitations on storage capacity must 

include information concerning storage 

of a passenger’s assistive devices. 

Section 382.43 Must Information and 

Reservation Services of Carriers be 

Accessible to Individuals With Hearing 

and Vision Impairments? 

The portion of this section concerning 

telephonic communications with 

persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing 

is derived from current § 382.47(a), and 

it provides that a carrier who makes 

telephone information or reservation 

service available to the public must 

make that service available to deaf or 

hard-of-hearing persons through use of 

a TTY. U.S. carriers are already required 

to meet this requirement under the 

current rule. Foreign carriers would 

have a year from the effective date of the 

final rule to ensure that their phone 

information and reservation services 

were accessible to deaf and hard-ofhearing persons. The Department seeks 

comment on whether there are countries 

the communications infrastructures of 

which do not readily permit the use of 

TTYs, such that another means of 

making information and reservations 

available to these persons would be 

necessary. If so, what alternative means 

should be authorized, and under what 

circumstances? 

There are other issues concerning 

provision of services to deaf and hardof-hearing individuals that this NPRM 

does not address, such as requirements 

for visual information displays or 

assistive listening devices in airport 

terminals or on aircraft, and the 

captioning of movies and other 

entertainment videos on aircraft. The 

Department has held a public meeting 

on this subject, and we are working 

through a memorandum of 

understanding (MOU) with the National 

Council on Disability (NCD) to develop 

recommendations in this area. The 

Department anticipates that, after 

receiving recommendations through this 

process, we will be in a position to 

undertake further rulemaking on this 

subject. 

Proposed paragraph (b) is new, and 

concerns the accessibility of web sites, 

which have become an increasingly 

important means through which the 

public obtains information from and 

makes reservations with air carriers. Not 

only is using an airline web site often 

the fastest and most convenient way for 

consumers to learn about and book 

flights, but these web sites are also often 

the only places where passengers have 

access to certain fares or specials. At the 

time the Department originally issued 

Part 382, the internet was not yet an 

important means of interaction between 

airlines and their customers. It is 

important to update this rule to take this 

important change into account, and to 

ensure that passengers with vision 

impairments have nondiscriminatory 

access to airline web sites. 

Consequently, the Department 

proposes that airlines must make their 

web sites accessible to all members of 

the public, including those who are 

blind or visually impaired. We propose 

that standards for accessibility be those 

in 36 CFR Part 1194, which implements 

section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 

1973, as amended. Section 508 applies 

to activities of the Federal government, 

and does not on its own terms cover 

airlines. However, we believe that the 

standards developed under section 508 

are generally the appropriate standards 

for web site accessibility. Use of these 

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standards would result in compliance 

with an airline’s obligations under the 

ACAA to make its services accessible to 

passengers with disabilities. The 

Department seeks comment on whether 

these standards should be modified in 

any way in the airline web site context 

and on whether there are any other 

standards—domestic or foreign—that 

would also be appropriate. In this 

context, we note that the Access Board 

considered and rejected use of private 

sector web accessibility standards such 

as those developed by the World Wide 

Web Consortium Web Accessibility 

Initiative, believing that such standards 

were sometimes too subjective and 

would be difficult to enforce. 

In Access Now v. Southwest Airlines

(227 F.Supp.2d; S.D. Fl., 2002) , the 

District Court concluded that an airline 

was not required to make its web site 

accessible on the authority of Title III of 

the ADA. (The 11th Circuit Court of 

Appeals dismissed an appeal on 

procedural grounds.) The court’s 

decision was based on its view that Title 

III requires accessibility modifications 

of physical places of public 

accommodation and that a web site is 

not such a place. However, the ACAA 

contains no such limitation. The ACAA 

requires that all airline services to the 

public be accessible to persons with 

disabilities and provided in a 

nondiscriminatory manner. This applies 

whether the service is provided in 

person, over the phone, or on the 

internet. 

New web sites going on-line after the 

effective date of this rule would have to 

be accessible from the outset. Existing 

web sites would have two years to 

comply. It should be pointed out that 

under this proposal, web sites that act 

as affiliates, agents, or contractors for a 

number of carriers (e.g., Orbitz, Expedia, 

Travelocity) would be required to be 

accessible, no less than web sites 

serving only a single carrier. 

If a carrier provides written 

information to the public (i.e., in hard 

copy), this section would require that 

the information must be communicated 

effectively to persons with disabilities, 

upon request, including people who are 

blind or have vision impairments. This 

effective communication requirement 

could be met in a variety of ways. The 

Department notes that, in the 

Department of Justice Title III ADA 

regulation for places of public 

accommodation, the auxiliary aids that 

could be provided to communicate 

effectively with persons with impaired 

vision include qualified readers, taped 

texts, audio recordings, brailled 

materials, large print materials, and 

other effective methods of making 

visually delivered materials available to 

individuals with visual impairments 

(see 28 CFR § 36.303(b)(2)). No one 

particular method of providing effective 

communication would be required in all 

instances. In addition, information 

would have to be made available in the 

languages in which the same 

information is made available to the 

general public. The Department seeks 

comment on whether there should be 

greater specificity in this requirement 

and suggestions for how, if at all, the 

rule should define the scope of this 

obligation.

One of the services that carrier web 

sites may provide is the ability to select 

seat assignments or various special 

services (e.g., special meals). Where web 

sites provide services of this kind, it 

would seem reasonable that the web 

sites should also allow passengers to 

request accommodations for disabilities 

(e.g., assistance in connecting to another 

flight or services for which carriers are 

permitted to require advance notice 

under this rule). The Department seeks 

comment on whether the final rule 

should include a requirement that 

carrier web sites that allow passengers 

to request special services should also 

permit passengers to request 

accommodations for disabilities. Such a 

capability would have to be accessible 

to visually-impaired persons and other 

users with disabilities. 

U.S. carriers would have to meet all 

the requirements of this section with 

respect to all their systems and 

activities. Consistent with the coverage 

of foreign carriers outlined in § 382.5, 

foreign carriers’ obligations could be 

somewhat more limited. They would 

have to comply only with respect to 

flights and related activities covered 

under § 382.5. For example, only 

portions of a web site pertaining to 

flights beginning or ending at a U.S. 

airport would have to meet the internet 

accessibility requirement of proposed 

paragraph (b). It would be up to the 

foreign carrier to decide whether it 

made sense to segregate its U.S.-related 

operations from its other operations in 

this way. 

Section 382.45 Must Carriers Make 

Copies of This Rule Available to 

Passengers? 

This section, based on current 

§ 382.45(d), clarifies that the carrier 

must have a current, up-to-date, copy of 

Part 382 available for review not only by 

individuals with disabilities but by any 

member of the public who requests it. 

It must be available at each airport the 

carrier serves. In the case of a foreign 

carrier, this means it must be available 

at any airport serving flights that begin 

or end at a U.S. airport. It would be 

sufficient if the carrier has one copy that 

passengers can review. It is not 

necessary for them to have multiple 

copies to hand out. The effective 

communication requirement of § 382.43 

would apply to the provision of the rule 

to a requesting passenger, except that 

translations of the rule into foreign 

languages would not be required. As 

noted in the discussion of § 382.43 

above, this effective communication 

requirement could be met in a variety of 

ways, including but not limited to the 

provision of materials in alternative 

formats (e.g., in some circumstances it 

could include reading information to 

passengers who asked for it). The 

Department seeks comment on whether 

there should be greater specificity in 

this requirement and suggestions for 

how, if at all, the rule should define the 

scope of this obligation. 

Subpart D—Accessibility of Airport 

Facilities 

Section 382.51 What Requirements 

Must Carriers Meet Concerning the 

Accessibility of Airport Facilities? 

Paragraph (a) concerns accessibility 

requirements for terminal facilities at 

U.S. airports. It applies equally to 

foreign or U.S. carriers with respect to 

the terminal facilities they own, lease, 

or control at a U.S. airport. The 

substantive requirements of the 

proposed paragraph are based on 

current § 382.23, with some additional 

elaboration (e.g., that an accessible path 

is one meeting accessible path 

guidelines in the Americans with 

Disabilities Act Accessibility 

Guidelines). 

Paragraph (b) states requirements 

pertaining to foreign airports. It would 

apply to both U.S. and foreign carriers 

for facilities they lease, own, or operate 

at foreign airports. Consistent with the 

proposed requirements for foreign 

carriers generally, this requirement 

applies to foreign carriers only with 

respect to terminal facilities serving 

flights that begin or end at a U.S. 

airport. It is obvious that, for air travel 

to points outside the U.S. to be 

accessible to passengers with 

disabilities, accessible airport facilities 

are essential at both the U.S. and foreign 

airports involved in a flight. If a carrier’s 

airport facilities at the U.S. end of a 

flight are accessible, but the carrier’s 

facilities at the foreign end of the flight 

are inaccessible, a passenger with a 

disability will be unable to complete the 

journey. Such a denial of access to the 

air travel system is incompatible with 

the purposes of the ACAA. The 

Department is aware that there may be 

64370 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

situations at some foreign airports in 

which a U.S. or foreign carrier does not 

own, lease, or control facilities that are 

important to passenger accessibility. We 

seek comment on how, if at all, the rule 

should address such situations. 

For both U.S. and foreign carriers, the 

NPRM proposes a performance 

requirement, rather than a facilities 

accessibility requirement, as such: 

passengers must be able to move 

through the airport readily and get to 

and from the gate they will be using. 

Carriers meet this obligation through 

any combination of facility accessibility, 

auxiliary aids, equipment, the assistance 

of personnel, or other appropriate 

means consistent with the safety and 

dignity of passengers with a disability. 

The Department proposes to adopt this 

performance standard, rather than 

requiring compliance with the ADAAGs 

or other U.S. accessibility standards, 

because it is questionable whether it 

would be legally and practically sound 

to impose these standards on facilities 

located on foreign soil. The Department 

does not consider physically handcarrying a passenger (i.e., picking the 

person up bodily in the arms of carrier 

personnel to move them through the 

terminal) to be consistent with 

passengers’ safety and dignity. This 

practice would be prohibited under 

proposed § 382.101, as it is prohibited 

now under current § 382.39(a)(2). 

Paragraph (c) establishes compliance 

dates for the requirements of this 

section. Foreign carriers would have a 

year to comply, both at U.S. and foreign 

airports. U.S. carriers are already 

required to comply with these 

requirements at U.S. airports, and 

would have a year to comply at foreign 

airports. The Department seeks 

comment on whether this time frame is 

feasible. 

One feature now found at airports that 

was not present when the original 

ACAA rule was issued in 1990 is the 

electronic ticketing kiosk. Particularly 

for passengers who are traveling without 

checked luggage, these kiosks can save 

considerable time by avoiding the need 

to wait in long lines at the ticket 

counter. The Department seeks 

comment on the accessibility of these 

devices. In terms of approachability, 

height of screens and controls, location 

of slots for credit cards and dispensing 

of boarding passes, are kiosks 

sufficiently accessible to passengers 

with mobility impairments? Is use of the 

devices accessible to persons with 

mobility or vision impairments? Should 

the final ACAA rule contain specific 

accessibility requirements for them and, 

if so, what should the requirements be? 

In this context, we note 36 CFR 1194.25, 

part of the Access Board’s section 508 

standards for ‘‘self-contained closed 

products.’’ This provision requires 

independent access for persons with 

hearing or vision impairments and that 

machines be within specified reach 

ranges. The Department seeks comment 

on whether the final rule should adopt 

these standards by reference for 

electronic kiosks.

Section 382.53 What Accommodations 

Are Required in Airports for Individuals 

With a Vision Impairment and 

Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard-ofHearing? 

This provision is derived from current 

§ 382.45(c), as it pertains to airport 

facilities. Foreign carriers would have a 

year to comply, both at U.S. and foreign 

airports. U.S. carriers are already 

required to comply with these 

requirements at U.S. airports, and 

would have a year to comply at foreign 

airports. Again, the Department seeks 

comment on whether this time frame is 

feasible. As mentioned above, the 

Department is working on a follow-on 

NPRM specifically concerning 

accommodations for deaf and hard-ofhearing passengers. The future NPRM 

will consider such accommodations in 

greater detail. Meanwhile, the current 

NPRM proposes to retain the existing 

requirements for such accommodations 

and would apply them to foreign air 

carriers. 

Section 382.55 What Requirements 

Apply to Carriers’ Security Screening 

Procedures? 

At the time of the publication of the 

original ACAA rule, security screening 

procedures were controlled by air 

carriers and consequently subject to 

regulation under Part 382. However, the 

Transportation Security Administration 

now controls security screening at U.S. 

airports. As a Federal agency, it is not 

subject to regulation under the ACAA. 

Likewise, there may be foreign legal 

requirements for security screening at 

foreign airports that are not subject to 

ACAA regulation. 

Proposed § 382.55 recognizes the role 

of these authorities. However, it is 

possible that some air carriers may 

choose to conduct security screening 

procedures that go beyond those carried 

out under TSA or foreign legal 

requirements. The Department wants to 

ensure that additional air carrier 

security screening procedures do not 

discriminate against passengers with a 

disability. Consequently, for such 

additional carrier-imposed procedures, 

we propose to carry forward the 

substance of current § 382.49. The 

Department seeks comment on whether 

this is necessary and, if so, whether the 

provisions should be modified to reflect 

the kind of additional security screening 

procedures that carriers impose. For 

example, if a carrier interviews 

passengers as part of its security 

screening process, how should it ensure 

effective communication in the 

interview with a passenger having a 

hearing or vision impairment? 

Subpart E—Accessibility of Aircraft 

Section 382.61 What Are the 

Requirements for Movable Aisle 

Armrests? 

This section is based on current 

§ 382.21(a)(1). It would make a number 

of clarifications to the existing language. 

The basic requirement of movable aisle 

armrests on half the aisle seats on the 

aircraft remains the same. The rule 

would specify that the base number of 

passenger aisle seats from which the 50 

percent requirement is calculated would 

not include seats in exit rows or any 

other place where an FAA safety rule 

precludes a passenger with a mobility 

impairment from sitting. 

Paragraph (c) would state explicitly 

that movable aisle armrests must be 

provided proportionately in all classes 

of service in the entire passenger cabin. 

For example, if 80 percent of the aisle 

seats on the aircraft in which passengers 

with mobility impairments may sit are 

in coach, and 20 percent are in first 

class, then 80 percent of the movable 

aisle armrests must be in coach, with 20 

percent in first class. The proposed rule 

would provide a phase-in period for 

U.S. as well as foreign air carriers, to 

prevent undue hardship in cases where 

carriers had not previously installed 

movable armrests in all classes of 

service. 

Paragraph (d) carries forward an 

existing requirement from 

§ 382.21(a)(1)(iii). We would note that, 

consistent with § 382.41, this 

information must be provided 

specifically by seat and row number. 

The current rule includes an 

exception for types of seats in which 

incorporating movable aisle armrests 

would not be feasible. The Department 

is proposing to delete this exception. 

The Department has not seen evidence 

showing that any particular sort of seat 

truly makes the use of movable aisle 

armrests infeasible. Moreover, the 

Department believes that this exception 

has led to a lack of movable armrests in 

some classes of service for some 

carriers. The Department seeks 

comment on this issue. 

U.S. carriers are already subject to 

most of the requirements of this section. 

We propose to require foreign carriers to 

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comply on the effective date of the final 

rule with respect to new aircraft they 

order after that date, or which are 

delivered to them beginning two years 

after the effective date. (Only aircraft 

that would be used in service to U.S. 

airports would be subject to this 

requirement.) This gives foreign carriers 

the same phase-in time that the 

Department made available to U.S. 

carriers when we issued the original 

ACAA rule. 

Section 382.63 What Are the 

Requirements for Accessible Lavatories? 

This section carries forward the 

requirements of current § 382.21(a)(3). It 

would make explicit that carriers may, 

but are not required to, install accessible 

lavatories in single-aisle aircraft. It also 

points out that while retrofit is not 

required, if a lavatory unit is replaced 

on an existing aircraft with more than 

one aisle, it must be replaced with an 

accessible unit. The same would hold 

true for the replacement of a lavatory 

component, even if the entire unit is not 

replaced. As with movable aisle 

armrests, foreign carriers must comply 

with the requirement for new aircraft 

ordered after the effective date of the 

final rule or delivered beginning two 

years after that date. U.S. carriers are 

already required to comply with respect 

to all aircraft ordered or delivered after 

the dates specified in the original Part 

382. 

The Department is aware that the 

absence of accessible lavatories on 

single-aisle aircraft can create 

inconvenience and difficulty for some 

passengers with disabilities. The 

Department has refrained from 

proposing to require accessible 

lavatories in single-aisle aircraft 

primarily out of concern that the cost of 

installing these lavatories could impose 

an undue financial burden on air 

carriers. This potential burden relates 

not only to the cost of the lavatory units 

themselves but also, and more 

importantly, to the continuing revenue 

losses that airlines would encounter 

because they would probably have to 

reduce the seating capacity of the 

aircraft to accommodate the larger 

lavatory unit. Nevertheless, we ask for 

comment on whether it would be 

desirable and feasible, practically and 

economically, to require accessible 

lavatories on at least some new singleaisle aircraft (e.g., those above a certain 

seating capacity). Of course, as in other 

areas of this regulation, the Department 

would not contemplate requiring retrofit 

of existing aircraft.

For some years, the Department has 

had available guidance on the design of 

accessible lavatories both for use in 

single-aisle and double-aisle aircraft. 

This guidance is posted on the 

Department’s Web site (http://

ostpxweb.dot.gov). 

Section 382.65 What Are the 

Requirements Concerning On-Board 

Wheelchairs? 

This section carries forward the 

requirements of current § 382.21(a)(4), 

which requires carriers to have a fulltime on-board wheelchair in the cabin 

of some aircraft, and to provide an onboard wheelchair on any flight using an 

aircraft with more than 60 seats on the 

advance request of a passenger. It would 

propose one substantive change, 

applying on-board wheelchair 

requirements to aircraft with 50 or more 

seats, rather than more than 60 seats as 

is the case under the current rule. This 

change is proposed in light of the 

growing prominence in airline fleets of 

regional jets, which often have a seating 

capacity of 50 passengers. 

U.S. carriers are already required to 

comply with this requirement with 

respect to aircraft with more than 60 

seats. We would provide a year phasein period with respect to aircraft having 

50–60 seats. We would also give foreign 

carriers two years from the effective date 

of the rule to come into compliance. 

Section 382.67 What Is the 

Requirement for Priority Space in the 

Cabin To Store Passenger Wheelchairs? 

This section carries forward the 

requirements of current § 382.21(a)(2), 

which requires newer aircraft with 100 

or more seats to have priority space in 

the cabin for stowage of at least one 

passenger’s folding wheelchair. This 

refers to a different wheelchair and a 

different space than the carrier-supplied 

on-board wheelchair and space 

described in current § 382.21(a)(4) and 

proposed § 382.65 above. In some 

situations, a carrier must accommodate 

both a passenger’s folding wheelchair 

(to minimize the chance of damage and 

to make return of the chair to the 

passenger quicker and more convenient) 

and a carrier-supplied on-board 

wheelchair (to allow a passenger with a 

mobility impairment to get to the 

lavatory during the flight). U.S. carriers 

are already required to comply; we 

would give foreign carriers two years 

from the effective date of the rule to 

come into compliance. 

The Department has always intended, 

and the rule has always meant, that the 

storage space for the passenger’s 

wheelchair must be sufficient for a 

typical adult-size folding wheelchair 

that belongs to a passenger. Recently, 

however, some carriers appear to have 

misunderstood the current rule, 

suggesting that the rule could be 

interpreted to mean that a carrier could 

comply by providing space only for a 

child-size wheelchair, the carrier’s own 

on-board wheelchair, or a multi-piece 

break-down wheelchair, the 

components of which could be stored in 

the overhead compartments and underseat spaces normally used for carry-on 

luggage. We have revised the regulatory 

text to make sure that such 

misunderstandings will not arise in the 

future. We seek comment on whether 

any additional language is needed. We 

also propose specific dimensions for a 

passenger wheelchair that would fit into 

the designated space. These dimensions 

have been used in DOT enforcement 

actions. We seek comment on whether 

the dimensions provide sufficient space 

for typical passenger folding 

wheelchairs and are otherwise 

appropriate. 

Current DOT enforcement policy 

permits carriers to comply with the 

requirements for passenger wheelchair 

stowage space across two or three seats 

using a strap kit approved by the FAA, 

rather than to retrofit an aircraft, 

possibly involving the removal of seats, 

to provide the designated wheelchair 

space. If it is necessary to bump 

passengers to accommodate a passenger 

wheelchair carried in this fashion, the 

bumped passengers receive 

compensation equivalent to denied 

boarding compensation. This approach 

is not mentioned in the current or 

proposed rule text. We seek comment 

on whether the rule text should codify 

this policy or whether the rule should 

require a closet in each aircraft (or, at 

least, each new aircraft) that is capable 

of accommodating a passenger’s folding 

wheelchair. 

If a carrier wishes to use this or 

another alternative means to meet the 

passenger wheelchair stowage 

requirement, it should request approval 

from the Assistant General Counsel for 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, 

U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 

7th Street, SW., Washington DC 20590. 

Approval would be contingent on FAA 

concurrence, where applicable. The 

Department proposes to continue to 

make this compliance option available 

under the proposed rule. 

Section 382.71 What Other Aircraft 

Accessibility Requirements Apply to 

Carriers? 

This section carries forward 

administrative requirements now found 

in § 382.21(d)–(f). 

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Subpart F—Seating Accommodations 

Section 382.81 For Which Passengers 

Must Carriers Make Seating 

Accommodations? 

Section 382.83 Through What 

Mechanisms do Carriers Make Seating 

Accommodations? 

Section 382.85 What Seating 

Accommodations Must Carriers Make to 

Passengers in Circumstances not 

Covered by § 382.81 (a) Through (d)? 

These sections carry forward the 

requirements of current § 382.38, 

restructured for greater clarity. The 

existing language that § 382.81(d) 

incorporates provides that the seating 

accommodation for a person with a 

fused or immobilized leg would be ‘‘on 

the side of an aisle that better 

accommodates the individual’s 

disability.’’ The Department seeks 

comment on whether there have been 

any problems under this provision 

concerning passengers extending a leg 

into the aisle and interfering with 

service carts or pedestrians using the 

aisle. If there have been such problems, 

we seek comment on how to avoid them 

while still accommodating passengers in 

this situation. In addition, we note that 

by an ‘‘immobilized’’ leg, we mean one 

in which there is a severely limited 

range of motion in the knee, such that 

the passenger cannot flex the joint 

readily to any significant degree. We 

also seek comment on whether other 

seating accommodations should be 

added to fill gaps, if any, in the existing 

provision. 

Section 382.87 What Other 

Requirements Pertain to Seating for 

Passengers With a Disability?

This provision carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.37(a) and (b). 

Current § 382.37(c), concerning seating 

for persons traveling with a service 

animal, has been moved to the service 

animal section of the rule (proposed 

§ 382.117(c)). 

Proposed § 382.87(c) concerns one of 

the grounds for excluding a passenger 

from a flight. If the passenger’s 

involuntary active behavior would 

create a direct threat in one seat 

location, but the passenger could be 

transported if seated safely in another 

location (e.g., somewhere away from 

other passengers on a flight that was not 

full), then the carrier would have the 

obligation to offer a seat change to the 

passenger as an alternative to being 

refused transportation. 

Paragraphs (d)–(f) codify existing 

interpretations and the requirements of 

current § 382.38 (h) and (i). With one 

exception, passengers with a disability 

are not required to give up a seating 

accommodation they already have to 

accommodate another passenger with a 

disability, and no one is ever denied 

transportation on a flight to provide 

accommodations required by this 

subpart (except in the ‘‘strapping’’

policy situation discussed in connection 

with § 382.67). Carriers are not required 

to furnish more than one seat per ticket 

(see discussion of § 382.31 above) and 

carriers would not be required to 

provide a seat in a class of service other 

than the one the passenger has 

purchased in order to provide an 

accommodation required by this part. 

The Department seeks comment on 

whether there should be any exceptions 

to this principle (e.g., when a 

documented medical condition would 

preclude a passenger traveling in the 

space available to passengers in coach, 

but the additional room in business or 

first class would permit the individual 

to travel). If any such exceptions were 

permitted, what safeguard should be 

included to prevent abuse or undue 

burdens to the carrier or other 

passengers? 

Paragraph (a) of this section prohibits 

carriers from excluding a passenger with 

a disability from a seat, except to 

comply with FAA regulations. If a 

foreign carrier believes that a foreign 

legal requirement precludes it from 

complying with this section, the carrier 

could apply for a waiver under § 382.7. 

Section 382.89 When Do the 

Requirements of This Subpart Begin 

Applying to Carriers? 

These requirements already apply to 

U.S. carriers. The proposal would give 

foreign carriers six months to come into 

compliance. We suggest six months, 

rather than a longer period, since 

compliance does not require physical 

alterations to aircraft or other facilities. 

Subpart G—Boarding, Deplaning, and 

Connecting Assistance 

Section 382.91 What Assistance Must 

Carriers Provide to Passengers With a 

Disability in Moving Within the 

Terminal? 

This provision would require carriers 

to provide assistance to passengers with 

disabilities in moving around the 

terminal. It includes assistance with 

connections between flights; as under 

the current rule, the carrier that operates 

the arriving flight is responsible for the 

assistance, even if the connecting flight 

is with another carrier, and even if the 

passenger is traveling on two separate 

tickets and with separate reservations. 

The proposed rule would also 

propose requirements concerning 

assistance in moving through the 

terminal other than in connecting flight 

situations. The carrier on whose flight 

the passenger is departing (at the 

beginning of a journey) or arriving (at 

the end of a journey) would be 

responsible for assisting the passenger 

between terminal entrance and gate, as 

well as with accessing ticket and 

baggage locations, rest rooms, or food 

service concessions. As in all aspects of 

carrier assistance to passengers, carrier 

personnel or their contractors are not 

expected to provide personal care 

attendant services, such as assistance 

with eating or using a bathroom. The 

Department seeks comment on whether, 

in the situation where a passenger is 

arriving at an airport to begin a journey, 

it is reasonable for the carrier to be able 

to require advance notice for meeting 

the passenger to provide the assistance 

required in this section. 

Paragraph (c) proposes a new 

requirement, related to the requirement 

to assist passengers in moving through 

the terminal. It would obligate carrier 

and contractor personnel to assist 

passengers with disabilities with carryon and gate-checked luggage as they go 

between connecting flights or between 

terminal entrance and gate. We believe 

that this obligation is implicit in the 

responsibility to assist passengers with 

disabilities in moving through 

terminals, but we believe it is useful to 

state the obligation explicitly to avoid 

any misunderstanding. We also seek 

comment on whether it would be 

reasonable to place limits on this 

obligation (e.g., should the requirement 

apply to individuals other than those 

with mobility impairments?). 

Section 382.93 Must Carriers Offer 

Preboarding to Passengers With a 

Disability? 

When the Department published the 

original ACAA rules in 1990, it was an 

almost invariable carrier practice to 

offer preboarding to passengers with 

disabilities, as well as to families with 

small children and other persons 

needing a little more time to get settled 

into their seats. Some provisions of the 

rule (e.g., concerning stowage of 

wheelchairs in the cabin) were 

explicitly premised on the availability 

of this service. It also stood to reason 

that this practice would accommodate 

the many situations in which passengers 

with disabilities needed more time or 

assistance than other passengers to 

complete seating (e.g., a passenger who 

had to stow crutches or a cane, a blind 

passenger who needed assistance in 

finding a seat, a passenger who needed 

assistance from carrier personnel to 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64373

stow a carry-on bag in the overhead 

compartment). 

In recent years, however, some 

carriers, at least for some flights, have 

abandoned or partially abandoned the 

practice of offering preboarding. The 

ACAA does not concern itself with 

families with small children or other 

situations in which non-disabled 

passengers might need additional time 

for seating. However, the Department 

believes that providing a preboarding 

option for passengers is an essential 

accommodation for seating, stowage, 

and other activities that are more 

difficult for passengers with disabilities 

than other people. For this reason, the 

Department is proposing to require a 

preboarding opportunity for passengers 

with disabilities of which all passengers 

would be notified. 

Section 382.95 What Are Carriers’

General Obligations With Respect to 

Boarding, Deplaning, and Connecting 

Assistance? 

Paragraph (a) of this section carries 

forward the requirement of current 

§ 382.39(a) and (a)(1). It specifies that 

the requirement for assistance, 

consistent with proposed § 382.91, 

includes responsibility for connecting 

flights. This paragraph speaks of carriers 

providing this assistance ‘‘promptly.’’

The Department seeks comment on 

whether this requirement should be 

more specific (e.g., by including a time 

frame, like 10 or 15 minutes or by 

requiring that carriers ensure that 

deplaning assistance is provided to 

passengers with disabilities who will 

use an aisle chair for deplaning no later 

than the time that the aircraft aisle is 

clear of other passengers, such that the 

aisle chair can be brought to the 

passenger’s aircraft seat). Our objective 

is to address situations in which 

passengers who need assistance in 

deplaning have been left on board 

aircraft for an unreasonable length of 

time.

Paragraph (b) rewords the 

requirement of current § 382.39(a)(2) to 

be consistent with the present state of 

requirements for providing boarding 

assistance at U.S. airports. 

Section 382.97 To Which Aircraft Does 

the Requirement To Provide Boarding 

and Deplaning Assistance Through the 

Use of Lifts Apply? 

Section 382.99 What Agreements Must 

Carriers Have With the Airports They 

Serve? 

These sections combine and condense 

the requirements of current §§ 382.40 

and 382.40a on the use of mechanical 

lifts or ramps, without making 

substantive changes in the 

requirements. By this time, compliance 

dates for all requirements to have 

agreements and lifts in place under 

current §§ 382.40 and 382.40a have 

passed for U.S. carriers and U.S. 

airports. The NPRM proposes time 

frames for foreign carrier compliance 

approximately similar to that which 

U.S. carriers had. The training-related 

provisions of the current regulations on 

boarding via lifts or ramps have been 

moved to proposed § 382.141(a)(1). 

One of the most important changes in 

airline service since the publication of 

the original ACAA regulation concerns 

the increasing use of regional jets (RJs) 

by carriers for relatively short flights. 

These aircraft typically carry from 40–

70 passengers and often are boarded 

from the tarmac, rather than via loading 

bridges. At many airport terminals, 

passengers must descend a level from 

the gate area to the tarmac in order to 

board. Under these circumstances, for 

passengers with mobility impairments 

to board these aircraft successfully, 

airlines and airports need to ensure that 

lifts are in place and made available to 

passengers and that there is an 

accessible path from the gate area to the 

tarmac. The Department’s Aviation 

Consumer Protection Division has 

received few complaints about tarmac 

boardings of RJs. Nevertheless, the 

Department seeks information from 

airports, airlines, and passengers about 

whether these conditions are being met. 

Are there accessible paths from gate 

areas to the tarmac, and is lift service 

successful? We also seek comment on 

whether there are any additional 

regulatory provisions that would 

facilitate use of RJs by passengers with 

disabilities. 

Section 382.101 What Other Boarding 

and Deplaning Assistance Must Carriers 

Provide? 

This provision lists the circumstances 

in which use of lifts for boarding and 

deplaning is not required, even in the 

absence of other means of level-entry 

boarding. These include foreign 

airports, a specified category of smaller 

U.S. airports, situations involving 

exempt aircraft, situations prior to the 

compliance deadline for foreign carriers, 

and other situations beyond the control 

of the carrier that prevent use of the 

lifts. In all these situations, the 

obligation to provide boarding and 

deplaning assistance continues. Carriers 

must find other means of accomplishing 

the objective. No one method is 

prescribed; only physically handcarrying a passenger, as described in 

§ 382.101, is prohibited. 

Section 382.103 May a Carrier Leave a 

Passenger Unattended in a Wheelchair 

or Other Device? 

This section carries forward the 

requirement of current § 382.39(a)(3). 

Subpart H—Services on Aircraft 

Section 382.111 What Services Must 

Carriers Provide to Passengers with a 

Disability on Board the Aircraft? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.39(b), and 

adds an ‘‘effective communication’’

requirement similar to the on-aircraft 

portions of present § 382.45(c), with 

some current exceptions eliminated. 

The effective communication would 

have to be with respect to such 

information as weather at the 

destination, connecting gates at the 

arrival airport, and on-board services. 

Section 382.113 What Services Are 

Carriers Not Required To Provide to 

Passengers With a Disability on Board 

the Aircraft? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.39 (c). 

Section 382.115 What Requirements 

Apply to On-Board Safety Briefings? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current §§ 382.45(b) and 

382.47(b). Foreign carriers may comply 

with the requirement for video safety 

briefing materials incrementally, as they 

replace old videos with new ones. As is 

currently the case, carriers are 

prohibited from taking any action 

adverse to a passenger on the basis that 

the passenger has not ‘‘accepted’’ the 

briefing. For example, it would be 

improper for a carrier to take any action 

against a passenger because carrier 

personnel felt that the passenger was 

not paying sufficient attention to the 

briefing (e.g., because he or she was 

reading at the time). While close 

attention to safety briefings is always 

recommended for passengers, carriers 

do not take action against members of 

the general passenger population who 

similarly ignore the general safety 

briefing. Passenger inattention to 

briefings does not prevent crewmembers 

from performing their duties under FAA 

safety rules, which is simply to provide 

the briefings. The Department seeks 

comment on whether any different 

requirements should apply to foreign 

carriers. 

Section 382.117 Must Carriers Permit 

Passengers With a Disability To Travel 

With Service Animals? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.55(a). While 

the substance of this provision has not 

64374 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

changed, new guidance concerning 

service animal issues found in 

Appendix A. The original source of this 

guidance was a series of questions and 

answers the Department published in 

1996 (61 FR 56420). A group convened 

by the NCD and ATA subsequently 

provided recommendations via the NCD 

MOU with the Department. The 

Department made minor modifications 

and additions to the NCD/ATA 

suggestions, and we have previously 

posted this material on the Department’s 

web site. This guidance replaces the 

questions and answers on service 

animal issues the Department published 

in 1996 (61 FR 56420). In Appendix A, 

the Department has made a few 

additional minor modifications to the 

sections on requesting and requiring 

documentation for service animals. The 

Department seeks comment on whether 

any modifications should be made to 

Appendix A. 

Subpart I—Stowage of Wheelchairs, 

Other Mobility Aids, and Other 

Assistive Devices 

Section 382.121 What Mobility Aids 

May Passengers With a Disability Bring 

Into the Aircraft Cabin? 

This section incorporates the 

substance of current § 382.41(a)–(d). It 

adds a reference to TSA as well as FAA 

regulations that may affect the carriage 

of passengers’ items in the cabin. As in 

other situations in which there could be 

a conflict with foreign law, foreign 

carriers could apply for a waiver under 

§ 382.7. 

Section 382.123 What Are the 

Requirements Concerning Priority Cabin 

Stowage Space for Wheelchairs? 

This section carries forward the 

substance of current § 382.41(e). It 

emphasizes the applicability of FAA, 

TSA, and hazardous materials rules to 

the carriage of items in the cabin. As in 

other situations in which there could be 

a conflict with foreign law, foreign 

carriers could apply for a waiver under 

§ 382.7. 

One problem that has sometimes 

occurred concerns competing claims to 

stowage space between passengers’

wheelchairs and crew luggage. On some 

occasions, crew members have argued 

that their own luggage takes precedence 

over a passenger’s folding wheelchair. A 

related problem has arisen in some 

cases where crew members have 

asserted that a passenger’s folding 

wheelchair need not be stowed in the 

cabin because an on-board wheelchair is 

already stowed there. The language of 

this section is intended to address both 

problems. Under this provision, if a 

closet or other stowage space is made 

available for passengers’ items at any 

time, then it must be made available for 

the stowage of passengers’ wheelchairs. 

This use of the space is not trumped by 

crew luggage. Nor is the presence of an 

on-board wheelchair a valid reason for 

denying stowage space to a passenger’s 

wheelchair. The Department’s Aviation 

Enforcement and Proceedings Office has 

made these positions clear to carriers 

under the existing regulation, and we 

maintain these positions under the 

proposed rule. 

Section 382.125 What Procedures Do 

Carriers Follow When Wheelchairs, 

Other Mobility Aids, and Other Assistive 

Devices Must Be Stowed in the Cargo 

Compartment? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.41(f). It again 

makes reference to the potential 

applicability of TSA as well as FAA 

regulations. As in other situations in 

which there could be a conflict with 

foreign law, foreign carriers could apply 

for a waiver under § 382.7. 

Section 382.127 What Procedures 

Apply to Stowage of Battery-Powered 

Wheelchairs? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.41(g). It 

again makes reference to the potential 

applicability of TSA as well as FAA 

regulations. As in other situations in 

which there could be a conflict with 

foreign law, foreign carriers could apply 

for a waiver under § 382.7. 

Section 382.129 What Other 

Requirements Apply When Passengers’

Wheelchairs, Other Mobility Aids, and 

Other Assistive Devices Must Be 

Disassembled for Stowage? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current §§ 382.41(h) and 

382.43 (a). It includes language 

incorporating an existing provision (see 

current § 382.41(h)) that carriers must 

permit a passenger to provide written 

directions concerning the disassembly 

and reassembly of wheelchairs and 

other devices. The carrier would have to 

follow these instructions to the greatest 

extent feasible, consistent with 

applicable FAA and TSA rules. As in 

other situations in which there could be 

a conflict with foreign law, foreign 

carriers could apply for a waiver under 

§ 382.7. 

The purpose of this requirement is to 

reduce the chance for damage to 

wheelchairs and other devices resulting 

from unfamiliarity by carrier personnel 

with the best way of working with the 

devices. The passenger is often the best 

source of information on how to handle 

his or her valuable property.

Section 382.131 Do Baggage Liability 

Limits Apply to Mobility Aids and Other 

Assistive Devices? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.43(b). 

Because the rule now would apply to 

foreign carriers, the Department believes 

it is useful to spell out that the domestic 

baggage liability limits of 14 CFR part 

254, as well as the exception to these 

limits that this section in effect creates, 

do not apply to international 

transportation to which Warsaw or 

Montreal Convention liability limits 

apply. The Department seeks comment 

on how liability for loss of or damage to 

wheelchairs and other assistive devices 

should be handled in the case of 

international transportation. 

Subpart J—Training and 

Administrative Provisions 

Section 382.141 What Training Are 

Carriers Required To Provide for Their 

Personnel? 

This section is based principally on 

current § 382.61 (a)(1)–(3), (5)–(7), and 

(b). The NPRM would add provisions 

concerning training on equipment 

operation and consultation with 

disability community organizations. The 

Department seeks comment on the 

application of this proposed 

requirement to foreign carriers. For 

example, if a foreign carrier can 

demonstrate it made good faith efforts to 

contact disability community 

organizations in its home country, but 

was unable to do so, should the 

requirement be waived? In addition, 

training would cover contractor 

employees who deal with the traveling 

public generally, not only at airports as 

under the current § 382.61(a)(6). For 

example, contract reservationists who 

deal with customers over the phone 

need to know how to apply certain 

provisions of this regulation no less 

than ticket agents located at an airport. 

Section 382.143 When Must Carriers 

Complete Training for Their Personnel? 

This section would establish the 

schedule on which carriers must 

complete the training of their personnel. 

Training of contractor personnel would 

be required to follow the same schedule, 

as if the contractor personnel worked 

directly for the air carrier. Current 

personnel of U.S. carriers are supposed 

to have received ACAA training already. 

However, the final rule will probably 

change some requirements of the rule. 

Consequently, the Department proposes 

that existing U.S. carrier personnel 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64375

would be given training on the revised 

Part 382 within a year of the effective 

date of the final rule. The training could 

be limited to changes in the regulation. 

New U.S. carrier personnel would have 

to receive complete ACAA training 

before they started work, or within 60 

days of doing so, depending on the 

position they occupy. 

For foreign carriers, training 

requirements would be limited to carrier 

and contractor personnel who deal with 

the traveling public in connection with 

flights that begin or end at a U.S. 

airport. Because foreign carriers 

probably would not have experience in 

developing and implementing 

disability-related training programs 

comparable to that of U.S. carriers, 

foreign carriers would not be required to 

complete training for any of their 

personnel until a year from the effective 

date of the rule. Otherwise, the U.S. and 

foreign carrier training requirements 

would be parallel. 

Section 382.145 What Must Carriers 

Incorporate in Their Manuals? 

Current § 382.63 requires carriers to 

establish ACAA compliance programs, 

which major or national U.S. carriers 

must submit to DOT for review. The 

NPRM proposes to delete this 

requirement, which we believe is no 

longer necessary. Rather, this section 

would require all carriers to incorporate 

their procedures for complying with 

ACAA requirements in their manuals, 

training materials, and guidance for 

their personnel. Carriers would not be 

required to submit these materials to 

DOT as a routine matter. However, 

carriers would have to make them 

available to DOT for review on DOT’s 

request. DOT could require a carrier to 

change these materials to comply with 

Part 382. We also seek comment on 

whether it would be beneficial for 

carriers to be required to submit 

certifications of compliance with this 

requirement to the Department. 

Subpart K—Complaints and 

Enforcement Procedures 

Section 382.151 What Are the 

Requirements for Providing Complaints 

Resolution Officials? 

This section is based on current 

§ 382.65 (a)(1)–(4). We propose an 

important addition to the current 

language. In any situation in which a 

person raises a disability-related issue, 

and a carrier’s personnel do not resolve 

the issue immediately to the customer’s 

satisfaction, the carrier’s personnel must 

immediately inform the customer of the 

right to contact a Complaints Resolution 

Official (CRO). Frequently, passengers 

do not know that CROs exist and that 

they can be a resource to solve 

discrimination or accessibility 

problems. We believe it should be the 

airline’s responsibility to make 

passengers aware of this resource when 

a passenger’s disability-related concern 

has not been addressed to the 

customer’s satisfaction by the carrier’s 

staff. A web site, phone reservation 

system, or contractor must also provide 

this same information when such a 

problem arises. To ensure that 

passengers have the necessary tools at 

their disposal to resolve issues, the 

airlines in this situation would also 

have to provide the Department’s tollfree airline accessibility hot line 

number. This number is available only 

for calls made from the U.S. 

The current and proposed regulations 

require carriers to make CRO service 

available at all times when the carrier is 

operating at the airport. In some cases, 

a carrier may have only a few flights a 

week to a given airport. The carrier may 

staff its station at that airport only 

around the times that these flights are 

arriving or departing. In such a case, 

CRO service would only be required 

during those periods. 

Section 382.153 What Actions Do 

CROs Take on Complaints? 

This section is based on current 

§ 382.65(a)(5). It concerns situations 

when a complaint is made directly to a 

CRO, typically by such ‘‘real time’’

means as a personal conversation, 

phone or TTY call, or electronic instant 

message. (Communications to the 

carrier’s organization are discussed 

below in connection with § 382.155.) 

Section 382.155 How Must Carriers 

Respond to Written Complaints? 

This section is unchanged from the 

current § 382.65(b), except that it 

eliminates the 45-day complaint filing 

deadline with respect to complaints 

forwarded to carriers by DOT. 

Section 382.157 What Are Carriers’

Obligations for Recordkeeping and 

Reporting on Disability-Related 

Complaints?

The Department has issued a final 

rule creating a new § 382.70, concerning 

recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements to comply with AIR–21 

mandates. We are not reprinting this 

material here, because we are not 

seeking additional comment on it. When 

the final rule based on this NPRM is 

issued, we will insert the contents of the 

current § 382.70 at this point in the 

revised rule. The Department will also 

incorporate the Appendix created by the 

recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements rulemaking into the Part 

382 final rule as Appendix B. 

Section 382.159 How Are Complaints 

Filed With DOT? 

This section carries forward the 

provisions of current § 382.65(c). 

Appendix A—Guidance Concerning 

Service Animals 

This appendix incorporates into the 

ACAA rule the guidance on service 

animal issues that the Department 

recently issued and placed on its web 

site. The guidance is intended to give 

both air carriers and passengers the 

benefit of the thinking of the 

Department, the airline industry, and 

the disability community on how to 

carry out the rule’s requirements for 

accommodating passengers’ service 

animals. This proposed appendix would 

add three elements to the previously 

published version of the guidance: 

training for emotional support animals, 

a prohibition on requiring 

documentation for most service animals, 

and certain conditions on the use of 

service animals. As noted above, the 

Department is seeking comments on 

whether this guidance should be 

modified in any way. 

One issue of which the Department 

has become aware concerns 

transportation of service animals on 

long-duration flights (e.g., nonstop 

trans-Pacific flights that may take 14–18 

hours). Eating, drinking, and 

elimination functions for service 

animals could prove problematic under 

these circumstances. The Department 

seeks comment on how best to address 

these issues. In addition, in the context 

of connecting flights for passengers 

using service animals, the Department 

has heard suggestions that airports 

provide animal relief areas in terminals. 

(If such a provision were included in 

the rule, it would presumably be in 

Subpart D.) We seek comment on 

whether providing animal relief areas in 

airport terminals is feasible and, if so, 

how it would best be accomplished. 

Reference Table—Placement of Current 

Provisions 

The purpose of this table is to aid 

readers in finding the location, in the 

new proposed rule text, of material 

corresponding to or derived from 

provisions in the current rule text. The 

current and proposed language often is 

not identical, though the subject matters 

covered are similar. The citations from 

the current regulatory text are in the 

left-hand column; the corresponding 

portions of the new proposed regulatory 

text are in the right-hand column.

64376 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

Current rule text New proposed rule 

text 

382.1 ......................... 382.1 

382.3(a)–(d) .............. 382.5 

382.3(e)–(g) .............. 382.9 

382.5 ......................... 382.3 

382.7 ......................... 382.11–382.13 

382.9 ......................... 382.15 

382.21 ....................... 382.61–382.71 

382.31 ....................... 382.19 

382.33 ....................... 382.25–382.27 

382.35 ....................... 382.29 

382.37 ....................... 382.87 

382.38 ....................... 382.81–382.85 

382.39(a) ................... 382.91(a) 

382.39(a)(1) .............. 382.95(a) 

382.39(a)(2) .............. 382.101 

382.39(a)(3) .............. 382.103 

382.39(b) ................... 382.111 

382.39(c) ................... 382.113 

382.40(a), 382.40a(a) 382.95(b) 

382.40(c)(4), 

382.40a(c)(4).

382.97 

382.40(c)(1)–(3), (5)–

(6); 382.40a(c)(1)–

(3), (5)–(6).

382.99 

382.40(d), 382.40a(d) 382.141(a)(1)(ii)–(iii) 

382.41(a)–(d) ............ 382.121 

382.41(e) ................... 382.123 

382.41(f) .................... 382.125 

382.41(g) ................... 382.127 

382.41(h) ................... 382.129(a) 

382.43(a) ................... 382.129(b) 

382.43(b) ................... 382.131 

382.43(c) ................... 382.35 

382.45(a) ................... 382.41 

382.45(b) ................... 382.115(a)–(d) 

382.45(c) ................... 382.53 

382.45(d) ................... 382.45 

382.47(a) ................... 382.43(a) 

382.43(b) ................... 382.115(e) 

382.49 ....................... 382.55 

382.51 ....................... 382.21 

382.53 ....................... 382.23 

382.55(a) ................... 382.117 

382.55(b)–(c) ............. 382.33 

382.61 ....................... 382.141–382.143 

382.63 ....................... 382.145 

382.65(a)(1)–(4) ........ 382.151 

382.65(a)(5) .............. 382.153 

382.65(b) ................... 382.155 

382.55(c)–(d) ............. 382.159 

382.70 ....................... 382.157 (reserved in 

NPRM) 

Regulatory Analyses and Notices 

This proposed rule is a significant 

rule under Executive Order 12886 and 

the Department’s Regulatory Policies 

and Procedures. It is of considerable 

interest to the disability community and 

the aviation industry. It does not, 

however, meet the criteria under the 

Executive Order for an economically 

significant rule. 

The extension of current provisions to 

foreign air carriers will be of significant 

interest to them and the public. The 

Department has attempted to propose 

this extension in as even-handed a 

manner as possible, applying not only 

the same regulatory provisions but the 

same compliance time frames that 

applied to U.S. carriers. As noted above, 

the provisions of the proposed rule 

apply only to foreign aircraft and 

operations involved with flights 

beginning or ending at U.S. airports. 

Other than extending coverage of 

ACAA provisions to foreign carriers, the 

most important new element is the 

requirement for web site accessibility, 

which is an extension of existing 

communications accessibility 

requirements to a medium that did not 

play an important role in the industry 

when the original ACAA rule was 

issued. This new requirement would 

apply to U.S. and foreign carriers alike 

(though, with respect to foreign carriers, 

only with respect to flights to and from 

U.S. airports). 

This rule results from a statutory 

change applying the requirements of the 

ACAA to foreign as well as U.S. air 

carriers. We believe that amending Part 

382 to cover foreign air carriers is the 

most direct and transparent way of 

carrying out this statutory mandate. 

There are alternative approaches the 

Department could consider, though the 

Department does not at this time believe 

they are as feasible. Nevertheless, the 

Department seeks comment on these 

and any other alternatives that 

commenters may want to suggest. 

Since the statute now applies to 

foreign air carriers, the Department 

could simply rely on the efforts of our 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings 

office to respond to complaints of 

discrimination by passengers against 

foreign air carriers. While enforcement 

is an important task of the Department 

under the ACAA, using enforcement 

alone to implement the statute has 

disadvantages. The statute does not 

provide to foreign air carriers detailed 

advance notice of what the 

Department’s expectations for 

compliance are, leading to considerable 

uncertainty. This approach would also 

result in case-by-case adjudications 

being the only way of determining what 

detailed requirements were, which 

would serve passengers less well than 

an articulated set of generally applicable 

standards. This approach would also 

create a disparity between the way U.S. 

carriers and foreign carriers would be 

expected to comply with the same 

underlying statutory requirement, 

contrary to the apparent intent of 

Congress that all carriers serving U.S. 

airports be treated similarly. 

The Department could also wait for 

international action (e.g., through the 

International Air Transport Association 

(IATA) or via bilateral or multilateral 

international agreements) to establish 

standards for air travel throughout the 

world. However, IATA frequently takes 

a long time to devise standards, and its 

standards are often advisory rather than 

mandatory. In any case, it would 

probably be much more difficult for the 

Department to enforce IATA materials 

than to enforce a DOT regulation. The 

issue of different compliance 

responsibilities for U.S. and foreign air 

carriers arises in this context as well. 

International agreements also typically 

take a much longer time to establish 

than a generally applicable rulemaking, 

and may not deal with accessibility 

issues in a uniform way that is 

transparent to passengers.

Because the rule will impose 

compliance requirements on U.S. and 

foreign carriers, the Department has 

produced a regulatory evaluation for 

this proposal, which we have placed 

into the docket. The evaluation 

estimates that incremental compliance 

costs will be approximately $16–21 

million per year, plus an additional onetime cost of about $300,000 for web site 

accessibility. Twenty-year present value 

costs for compliance are estimated to 

range between $166 and $205 million. 

As foreign air carrier service becomes 

more accessible, there will be obvious, 

though nonquantifiable, benefits to 

passengers with disabilities and persons 

traveling with them. The analysis also 

estimates that there will be tangible 

economic benefits to foreign air carriers 

themselves, in terms of increased 

revenue from the additional passengers 

that will be able to travel as barriers to 

travel are reduced. The range of these 

benefits is estimated to be 

approximately $326 to $615 million in 

20-year present value terms, with the 

most probable benefit being $443 

million. 

Given the scale of the projected 

economic benefits of the rule, and the 

likelihood that foreign carriers do not 

face legal or regulatory barriers 

preventing them from providing 

accommodations that would produce 

these benefits, the question of why 

carriers have not voluntarily adopted 

such accommodations may arise. That 

is, since airlines presumably are no less 

interested than the next economic actor 

in maximizing profits, why have they 

not recognized these potential benefits 

and voluntarily taken the opportunity of 

increasing their income and profits by 

providing accommodations to 

passengers with disabilities, even in the 

absence of regulation? 

The Department does not have 

information in its record concerning the 

thought processes of airline 

managements on this question. One 

possibility is that the notion that 

providing improved accommodations to 

passengers with disabilities can be a 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64377

source of additional revenue—and not 

merely a source of additional costs—has 

not occurred to airline managements. 

Alternatively, it might also be possible 

that, because the population of people 

with disabilities is perceived in some 

sectors to be much smaller than it 

actually is, the business case for 

accessibility improvements is not 

seriously examined. In either case, data 

would not have been collected on which 

to base carrier decisions. Economically 

rational, profit-maximizing behavior, 

flows—at least in theory—from accurate 

and complete information about market 

factors. If an economic actor has not 

looked for or seen the possibility of 

information about a given factor, then 

ideal-typical behavior may not occur. In 

this event, a failure to obtain data leads 

to a kind of market failure, which may 

be rectified as airlines implement the 

accommodations called for in the 

proposed rule. 

The Department seeks information 

and comments on this matter, as well as 

on the regulatory assessment’s approach 

to, and the accuracy of, its estimates of 

costs and benefits. 

There are a number of other points of 

interest in the regulatory assessment to 

which the Department would call 

attention. One is the fact that much of 

the benefits analysis is based on 

Canadian data. The analysis then 

extrapolates from these data to the 

situation of foreign air carriers. As the 

regulatory assessment points out, this 

extrapolation involves a good deal of 

uncertainty, since the situations of other 

nations’ air carriers and passenger 

populations may not replicate Canadian 

data and trends. This uncertainty is the 

primary reason for conducting the 

sensitivity analysis in Chapter 5 of the 

assessment. Nevertheless, the Canadian 

data is the most complete the 

Department has been able to find at this 

time. We seek comment and additional 

data from carriers, international 

organizations, and other sources that 

will augment the information available 

to the Department for purposes of the 

final rule. 

There are also some classes of 

potential beneficiaries besides 

passengers with disabilities that the 

assessment mentions. These include 

friends and relatives of passengers with 

disabilities and some airline employees. 

The former would benefit by being able 

to travel more readily with a passenger 

with a disability (indeed, a family 

member of a disabled passenger might 

well forego the opportunity to travel if 

his or her spouse or child could not 

readily travel because of barriers that 

this proposed regulation tries to 

address). The latter would benefit 

because lift boarding requirements of 

the rule would reduce the chances of 

injury and time lost from work as the 

result of having to hand-carry 

passengers with disabilities onto and off 

of aircraft. The Department seeks 

comments on these and other potential 

classes of beneficiaries as well as any 

additional data that would help us more 

precisely analyze the effects of the 

proposed regulation on beneficiaries. 

The Department certifies that, if 

adopted, this proposed rule would not 

have a significant economic effect on a 

substantial number of small entities. 

The vast majority of passenger air traffic 

on international routes to and from U.S. 

airports is carried on airlines that are 

not small entities; the economic effects 

of the proposal on small carriers that fly 

international routes into and out of the 

U.S. (e.g., commuter carriers on routes 

from Mexico, Canada, or the Caribbean) 

are not expected to be substantial. The 

proposed rule does not regulate state 

and local governments, and therefore 

would not have any Federalism impacts 

warranting a Federalism assessment. 

The proposed rule would not create any 

new information collection 

requirements for which a Paperwork 

Reduction Act submission to the Office 

of Management and Budget would be 

needed. 

There are a number of other statutes 

and Executive Orders that apply to the 

rulemaking process that the Department 

considers in all rulemakings. However, 

none of them are relevant to this NPRM. 

These include the Unfunded Mandates 

Reform Act (which does not apply to 

nondiscrimination/civil rights 

requirements), the National 

Environmental Policy Act, E.O. 12630 

(concerning property rights), E.O. 12988 

(concerning civil justice reform), and 

E.O. 13045 (protection of children from 

environmental risks).

Issued this 22nd day of October, 2004, at 

Washington, DC. 

Norman Y. Mineta, 

Secretary of Transportation.

List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 382 

Air carriers, Civil rights, Individuals 

with disabilities, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements.

For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, the Department proposes to 

amend 14 CFR Part 382 as follows: 

1. Revise Part 382 to read as follows:

PART 382—NONDISCRIMINATION ON 

THE BASIS OF DISABILITY IN AIR 

TRAVEL

Subpart A—General Provisions 

Sec. 

382.1 What is the purpose of this part? 

382.3 What do the terms in this part mean? 

382.5 To whom do the provisions of this 

part apply? 

382.7 What may foreign carriers do if they 

believe a provision of a foreign nation’s 

law prohibits compliance with a 

provision of this part? 

382.9 When are foreign carriers required to 

begin complying with the provisions of 

this part?

Subpart B—Nondiscrimination and Access 

to Services and Information 

382.11 What is the general 

nondiscrimination requirement of this 

part? 

382.13 Do carriers have to modify policies, 

practices, and facilities to ensure 

nondiscrimination? 

382.15 Do carriers have to make sure that 

contractors comply with the 

requirements of this part? 

382.17 May carriers limit the number of 

passengers with a disability on a flight? 

382.19 May carriers refuse to provide 

transportation on the basis of disability? 

382.21 May carriers limit access to 

transportation on the basis that a 

passenger has a communicable disease or 

other medical condition?

382.23 May carriers require a passenger 

with a disability to provide a medical 

certificate? 

382.25 May a carrier require a passenger 

with a disability to provide advance 

notice that he or she is traveling on a 

flight? 

382.27 May a carrier require a passenger 

with a disability to provide advance 

notice in order to obtain certain specific 

services in connection with a flight? 

382.29 May a carrier require a passenger 

with a disability to travel with a safety 

assistant? 

382.31 May carriers impose special charges 

on passengers with a disability for 

providing services and accommodations 

required by this rule? 

382.33 May carriers impose other 

restrictions on passengers with a 

disability that they do not impose on 

other passengers? 

382.35 May carriers require passengers with 

a disability to sign waivers or releases?

Subpart C—Information for Passengers 

382.41 What flight-related information must 

carriers provide to qualified individuals 

with a disability? 

382.43 Must information and reservation 

services of carriers be accessible to 

individuals with hearing and vision 

impairments? 

382.45 Must carriers make copies of this 

part available to passengers?

Subpart D—Accessibility of Airport 

Facilities 

382.51 What requirements must carriers 

meet concerning the accessibility of 

airport facilities? 

382.53 What accommodations are required 

in airports for individuals with a vision 

64378 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

impairment and individuals who are 

deaf or hard-of-hearing? 

382.55 May carriers impose security 

screening procedures for passengers with 

disabilities that go beyond TSA 

requirements?

Subpart E—Accessibility of Aircraft 

382.61 What are the requirements for 

movable aisle armrests? 

382.63 What are the requirements for 

accessible lavatories? 

382.65 What are the requirements 

concerning on-board wheelchairs? 

382.67 What is the requirement for priority 

space in the cabin to store passengers’

wheelchairs? 

382.69 [Reserved] 

382.71 What other aircraft accessibility 

requirements apply to carriers?

Subpart F—Seating Accommodations 

382.81 For which passengers must carriers 

make seating accommodations? 

382.83 Through what mechanisms do 

carriers make seating accommodations? 

382.85 What seating accommodations must 

carriers make to passengers in 

circumstances not covered by § 382.81 

(a) through (d)? 

382.87 What other requirements pertain to 

seating for passengers with a disability? 

382.89 When do the requirements of this 

subpart begin applying to foreign 

carriers?

Subpart G—Boarding, Deplaning, and 

Connecting Assistance 

382.91 What assistance must carriers 

provide to passengers with a disability in 

moving within the terminal? 

382.93 Must carriers offer preboarding to 

passengers with a disability? 

382. 95 What are carriers’ general 

obligations with respect to boarding, 

deplaning, and connecting assistance? 

382.97 To which aircraft does the 

requirement to provide boarding and 

deplaning assistance through the use of 

lifts apply? 

382.99 What agreements must carriers have 

with the airports they serve? 

382.101 What other boarding and deplaning 

assistance must carriers provide?. 

382.103 May a carrier leave a passenger 

unattended in a wheelchair or other 

device?

Subpart H—Services on Aircraft 

382.111 What services must carriers 

provide to passengers with a disability 

on board the aircraft? 

382.113 What services are carriers not 

required to provide to passengers with a 

disability on board the aircraft? 

382.115 What requirements apply to onboard safety briefings? 

382.117 Must carriers permit passengers 

with a disability to travel with service 

animals?

Subpart I—Stowage of Wheelchairs, Other 

Mobility Aids, and Other Assistive Devices 

382.121 What mobility aids and other 

assistive devices may passengers with a 

disability bring into the aircraft cabin? 

382.123 What are the requirements 

concerning priority cabin stowage space 

for wheelchairs? 

382.125 What procedures do carriers follow 

when wheelchairs, other mobility aids, 

and other assistive devices must be 

stowed in the cargo compartment? 

382.127 What procedures apply to stowage 

of battery-powered wheelchairs? 

382.129 What other requirements apply 

when passengers’ wheelchairs, other 

mobility aids, and other assistive devices 

must be disassembled for stowage? 

382.131 Do baggage liability limits apply to 

mobility aids and other assistive 

devices?

Subpart J—Training and Administrative 

Provisions 

382.141 What training are carriers required 

to provide for their personnel? 

382.143 When must carriers complete 

training for their personnel? 

382.145 What must carriers incorporate in 

their manuals?

Subpart K—Complaints and Enforcement 

Procedures 

382.151 What are the requirements for 

providing Complaints Resolution 

Officials? 

382.153 What actions do CROs take on 

complaints? 

382.155 How must carriers respond to 

written complaints? 

382.157 What are carriers’ obligations for 

recordkeeping and reporting on 

disability-related complaints? [Reserved] 

382.159 How are complaints filed with 

DOT? 

Appendix A to Part 382—Guidance 

Concerning Service Animals 

Appendix B to Part 382—Disability 

Complaint Reporting Form [Reserved]

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 41702, 41310, 47105, 

and 41712.

Subpart A—General Provisions

§ 382.1 What is the purpose of this part? 

The purpose of this part is to carry out 

the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, as 

amended. This rule prohibits both U.S. 

and foreign air carriers from 

discriminating against passengers on the 

basis of disability; requires carriers to 

make aircraft, other facilities, and 

services accessible; and requires carriers 

to take steps to accommodate passengers 

with a disability.

§ 382.3 What do the terms in this part 

mean? 

In this part, the terms listed in this 

section have the following meanings: 

Air carrier or Carrier means a U.S. or 

foreign citizen that undertakes, directly 

or indirectly, or by a lease or any other 

arrangement, to engage in air 

transportation. 

Air Carrier Access Act or ACAA

means the Air Carrier Access Act of 

1986, as amended, the statute that 

provides the principal authority for this 

part. 

Air transportation means interstate or 

foreign air transportation, or the 

transportation of mail by aircraft, as 

defined in 49 U.S.C. 40102. 

Assistive device means any piece of 

equipment that assists a passenger with 

a disability to cope with the effects of 

his or her disability. Such devices are 

intended to assist a passenger with a 

disability to hear, see, communicate, 

maneuver, or perform other functions of 

daily life, and may include medical 

devices and medications.

Department or DOT means the United 

States Department of Transportation. 

Direct threat means a significant risk 

to the health or safety of others that 

cannot be eliminated by a modification 

of policies, practices, or procedures, or 

by the provision of auxiliary aids or 

services. 

FAA means the Federal Aviation 

Administration, an operating 

administration of the Department. 

Facility means a carrier’s aircraft and 

any portion of an airport that a carrier 

owns, leases, or controls (e.g.,

structures, roads, walks, parking lots, 

ticketing areas, baggage drop-off and 

retrieval sites, gates, other boarding 

locations, loading bridges) normally 

used by passengers or other members of 

the public. 

Indirect air carrier means a person not 

directly involved in the operation of an 

aircraft who sells air transportation 

services to the general public other than 

as an authorized agent of an air carrier. 

Individual with a disability means any 

individual who has a physical or mental 

impairment that, on a permanent or 

temporary basis, substantially limits one 

or more major life activities, has a 

record of such an impairment, or is 

regarded as having such an impairment. 

As used in this definition, the phrase: 

(a) Physical or mental impairment

means: 

(1) Any physiological disorder or 

condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or 

anatomical loss affecting one or more of 

the following body systems: 

neurological, musculoskeletal, special 

sense organs, respiratory including 

speech organs, cardio-vascular, 

reproductive, digestive, genito-urinary, 

hemic and lymphatic, skin, and 

endocrine; or 

(2) Any mental or psychological 

disorder, such as mental retardation, 

organic brain syndrome, emotional or 

mental illness, and specific learning 

disabilities. The term physical or mental 

impairment includes, but is not limited 

to, such diseases and conditions as 

orthopedic, visual, speech, and hearing 

impairments; cerebral palsy, epilepsy, 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64379

muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, 

cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental 

retardation, emotional illness, drug 

addiction, and alcoholism. 

(b) Major life activities means 

functions such as caring for one’s self, 

performing manual tasks, walking, 

seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, 

learning, and working. 

(c) Has a record of such impairment

means has a history of, or has been 

classified, or misclassified, as having a 

mental or physical impairment that 

substantially limits one or more major 

life activities. 

(d) Is regarded as having an 

impairment means: 

(1) Has a physical or mental 

impairment that does not substantially 

limit major life activities but that is 

treated by an air carrier as constituting 

such a limitation; 

(2) Has a physical or mental 

impairment that substantially limits a 

major life activity only as a result of the 

attitudes of others toward such an 

impairment; or 

(3) Has none of the impairments set 

forth in this definition but is treated by 

an air carrier as having such an 

impairment. 

Qualified individual with a disability

means an individual with a disability—

(a) Who, as a passenger (referred to as 

a ‘‘passenger with a disability’’), (1) 

With respect to obtaining a ticket for air 

transportation on an air carrier, offers, 

or makes a good faith attempt to offer, 

to purchase or otherwise validly to 

obtain such a ticket; 

(2) With respect to obtaining air 

transportation, or other services or 

accommodations required by this part, 

(i) Buys or otherwise validly obtains, or 

makes a good faith effort to obtain, a 

ticket for air transportation on a carrier 

and presents himself or herself at the 

airport for the purpose of traveling on 

the flight to which the ticket pertains; 

and 

(ii) Meets reasonable, 

nondiscriminatory contract of carriage 

requirements applicable to all 

passengers; or 

(b) Who, with respect to 

accompanying or meeting a traveler, 

using ground transportation, using 

terminal facilities, or obtaining 

information about schedules, fares, 

reservations, or policies, takes those 

actions necessary to use facilities or 

services offered by an air carrier to the 

general public, with reasonable 

accommodations, as needed, provided 

by the carrier; 

Scheduled air service means any 

flight scheduled in the current edition 

of the Official Airline Guide, the 

carrier’s published schedule, or the 

computer reservation system used by 

the carrier. 

TSA means the Transportation 

Security Administration, an agency of 

the Department of Homeland Security. 

United States or U.S. means the 

United States of America, including its 

territories and possessions.

§ 382.5 To whom do the provisions of this 

part apply? 

(a) If you are a U.S. air carrier, this 

part applies to you with respect to all 

your operations and aircraft, regardless 

of where your operations take place. 

(b) Except as provided in paragraph 

(c) of this section, if you are a foreign 

air carrier, this part applies to you only 

with respect to flights that begin or end 

at a U.S. airport and to aircraft used for 

these flights. For purposes of this part, 

a ‘‘flight’’ means a continuous journey 

in the same aircraft or with one flight 

number that begins or ends at a U.S. 

airport. The following are some 

examples of the application of this term:

Example 1: A passenger books a nonstop 

flight from Paris to Chicago. This is a ‘‘flight’’

for purposes of this part.

Example 2: A passenger books a journey on 

a foreign carrier from Washington, DC, to 

Berlin. The foreign carrier flies nonstop to 

Frankfurt. The passenger gets off the plane in 

Frankfurt and boards a connecting flight, on 

the same or a different foreign carrier, that 

goes to Berlin. The Washington-Frankfurt leg 

of the journey is a ‘‘flight’’ for purposes of 

this part; the Frankfurt-Berlin leg is not 

(unless it is a code-shared flight with a U.S. 

carrier; see paragraph (c) of this section).

Example 3: A passenger books a journey on 

a foreign carrier from New York to Cairo. The 

plane stops for refueling and a crew change 

in London. The passengers reboard the 

aircraft (or a different aircraft, assuming the 

flight number remains the same) and 

continue to Cairo. Both legs are parts of a 

covered ‘‘flight’’ for purposes of this part, 

with respect to passengers who board the 

flight in New York.

Example 4: In Example 3, the carrier is not 

required to provide services under this part 

to a passenger who boards the aircraft in 

London and goes to Cairo. Likewise, on the 

return trip, the foreign carrier is not required 

to provide services under this part to a 

passenger who boards the aircraft in Cairo 

and whose journey ends in London.

Example 5: If you are a foreign carrier that 

actually operates a flight that is also listed as 

a flight of a U.S. carrier through a codesharing arrangement, the provisions of this 

part covering U.S. carriers apply to the flight.

(c) Notwithstanding any other 

provision of this section, if you are a 

foreign carrier that uses a particular 

aircraft in flights only between foreign 

airports, and you do not use the aircraft 

for any flights that begin or end at a U.S. 

airport, you are not required to comply 

with the aircraft accessibility 

requirements of Subpart E of this part 

with respect to that aircraft. However, 

you must comply with the servicerelated requirements of this part for any 

flight that is covered by this part (e.g.,

a code-shared flight). 

(d) Unless a provision of this part 

specifies application to a U.S. carrier or 

a foreign carrier, the provision applies 

to both U.S. and foreign carriers. 

(e) If you are an indirect air carrier, 

§§ 382.17 through 382.157 of this part 

do not apply to you. 

(f) Notwithstanding any provisions of 

this part, you must comply with all FAA 

safety regulations and TSA security 

regulations that apply to you.

§ 382.7 What may foreign carriers do if 

they believe a provision of a foreign 

nation’s law prohibits compliance with a 

provision of this part? 

(a) If you are a foreign carrier, and you 

believe that an applicable provision of 

the law of a foreign nation precludes 

you from complying with a provision of 

this part, you may request a waiver of 

the provision of this part. 

(b) You must send such a waiver 

request to the following address: 

Assistant General Counsel for 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, 

U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 

7th Street, SW., Room 4116, 

Washington, DC 20590. 

(c) Your waiver request must include 

the following elements: 

(1) A copy, in the English language, of 

the foreign law involved; 

(2) A description of how the foreign 

law applies and how it precludes 

compliance with a provision of this 

part; 

(3) A description of the alternative 

means the carrier will use, if the waiver 

is granted, to effectively achieve the 

objective of the provision of this part 

subject to the waiver or, if applicable, a 

justification of why it would be 

impossible to achieve this objective in 

any way. 

(d) The Assistant General Counsel for 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings 

may grant the waiver request if he or she 

determines that the foreign law applies, 

that it does preclude compliance with a 

provision of this part, and that the 

carrier has provided an effective 

alternative means of achieving the 

objective of the provision of this part 

subject to the waiver or clear and 

convincing evidence that it would be 

impossible to achieve this objective in 

any way. 

(e) Until and unless the Assistant 

General Counsel for Aviation 

Enforcement and Proceedings grants a 

waiver request, the carrier requesting 

the waiver remains subject to the 

provision of this part for which the 

waiver is sought.

64380 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

§ 382.9 When are foreign air carriers 

required to begin complying with the 

provisions of this rule? 

As a foreign air carrier, you are 

required to comply with the 

requirements of this part beginning 

[effective date of this part], except as 

otherwise provided in individual 

sections of this part.

Subpart B—Nondiscrimination and 

Access to Services and Information

§ 382.11 What is the general 

nondiscrimination requirement of this part? 

(a) As a carrier, you must not do any 

of the following things, either directly or 

through a contractual, licensing, or 

other arrangement: 

(1) You must not discriminate against 

any qualified individual with a 

disability, by reason of such disability, 

in the provision of air transportation; 

(2) You must not require a qualified 

individual with a disability to accept 

special services (including, but not 

limited to, preboarding) that the 

individual does not request. However, 

you may require preboarding as a 

condition of receiving certain seating or 

in-cabin stowage accommodations, as 

specified in §§ 382.83(b), 382.85(b), and 

382.123(b). 

(3) You must not exclude a qualified 

individual with a disability from or 

deny the person the benefit of any air 

transportation or related services that 

are available to other persons. This is 

true even if there are separate or 

different services available for 

individuals with a disability, except 

when specifically permitted by another 

section of this part; and 

(4) You must not take any action 

against an individual (e.g., refusing to 

provide transportation) because the 

individual asserts, on his or her own 

behalf or through or on behalf of others, 

rights protected by this part or the Air 

Carrier Access Act. 

(b) If, as an indirect air carrier, you 

provide facilities or services for 

passengers that are covered for other 

carriers by sections §§ 382.17–382.157, 

you must do so in a manner consistent 

with those sections.

§ 382.13 Do carriers have to modify 

policies, practices, and facilities to ensure 

nondiscrimination? 

(a) As a carrier, you must modify your 

policies and practices as needed to 

ensure nondiscrimination, consistent 

with the standards of section 504 of the 

Rehabilitation Act, as amended. 

(b) As a carrier, you must modify your 

facilities as needed to ensure 

nondiscrimination, consistent with the 

standards of the Americans with 

Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines 

(ADAAGs), as adopted by the 

Department of Transportation in 49 CFR 

part 37, appendix A. 

(b) This requirement is part of your 

general nondiscrimination obligation, 

and is in addition to your duty to make 

the specific accommodations required 

by this part. 

(c) However, you are not required to 

make modifications that would 

constitute an undue burden or would 

fundamentally alter your program.

§ 382.15 Do carriers have to make sure 

that contractors comply with the 

requirements of this part? 

(a) As a carrier, you must make sure 

that your contractors who provide 

services to the public (including airports 

where applicable) meet the 

requirements of this part that would 

apply to you if you provided the 

services yourself. 

(b) As a carrier, you must include an 

assurance of compliance with this part 

in your contracts with any contractors 

who provide to the public services that 

are subject to the requirements of this 

part. Noncompliance with this 

assurance is a material breach of the 

contract on the contractor’s part. 

(1) This assurance must commit the 

contractor to compliance with all 

applicable provisions of this part in 

activities performed on behalf of the 

carrier. 

(2) The assurance must also commit 

the contractor to implementing 

directives issued by your Complaints 

Resolution Officials (CROs) under 

§§ 382.151 through 382.153. 

(c) As a U.S. carrier, you must also 

include such an assurance of 

compliance in your contracts or 

agreements of appointment with U.S. 

travel agents. You are not required to 

include such an assurance in contracts 

with foreign travel agents. 

(d) You remain responsible for your 

contractors’ compliance with this part 

and with the assurances in your 

contracts with them. 

(e) It is not a defense to an 

enforcement action by the Department 

under this part that your noncompliance 

resulted from action or inaction by a 

contractor.

§ 382.17 May carriers limit the number of 

passengers with a disability on a flight? 

As a carrier, you must not limit the 

number of passengers with a disability 

who travel on a flight. (See also 

§ 382.27(b)(7).)

§ 382.19 May carriers refuse to provide 

transportation on the basis of disability? 

(a) As a carrier, you must not refuse 

to provide transportation to a passenger 

with a disability on the basis of his or 

her disability, except as specifically 

permitted by this part. 

(b) You must not refuse to provide 

transportation to a passenger with a 

disability because the person’s disability 

results in appearance or involuntary 

behavior that may offend, annoy, or 

inconvenience crewmembers or other 

passengers. 

(c) You may refuse to provide 

transportation to any passenger on the 

basis of safety, as provided in 49 U.S.C. 

44902 or 14 CFR 121.533, or to any 

passenger whose carriage would violate 

FAA or TSA requirements. 

(1) You can determine that there is a 

disability-related safety basis for 

refusing to provide transportation to a 

passenger with a disability if you are 

able to demonstrate that the passenger 

poses a direct threat (see definition in 

§ 382.3). In determining whether an 

individual poses a direct threat, you 

must make an individualized 

assessment, based on reasonable 

judgment that relies on current medical 

knowledge or on the best available 

objective evidence, to ascertain: 

(i) The nature, duration, and severity 

of the risk; 

(ii) The probability that the potential 

harm to the health and safety of others 

will actually occur; and 

(iii) Whether reasonable modifications 

of policies, practices, or procedures will 

mitigate the risk. 

(2) If you determine that the passenger 

does pose a direct threat, you must 

select the least restrictive response from 

the point of view of the passenger, 

consistent with protecting the health 

and safety of others. For example, you 

must not refuse transportation to the 

passenger if you can protect the health 

and safety of others by means short of 

a refusal. 

(3) In exercising this authority, you 

must not act inconsistently with the 

provisions of this part. 

(4) If your actions are inconsistent 

with any of the provisions of this part, 

you are subject to enforcement action 

under Subpart K of this part. 

(d) If you refuse to provide 

transportation to a passenger on his or 

her originally-scheduled flight on a 

basis relating to the individual’s 

disability, you must provide to the 

person a written statement of the reason 

for the refusal. This statement must 

include the specific basis for the 

carrier’s opinion that the refusal meets 

the standards of paragraph (c) of this 

section or is otherwise specifically 

permitted by this part. You must 

provide this written statement to the 

person within 10 calendar days of the 

refusal of transportation.

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64381

§ 382.21 May carriers limit access to 

transportation on the basis that a 

passenger has a communicable disease or 

other medical condition? 

(a) You must not do any of the 

following things on the basis that a 

passenger has a communicable disease 

or infection, unless you determine that 

the passenger’s condition poses a direct 

threat: 

(1) Refuse to provide transportation to 

the passenger; 

(2) Delay the passenger’s 

transportation (e.g., require the 

passenger to take a later flight); 

(3) Impose on the passenger any 

condition, restriction, or requirement 

not imposed on other passengers; or 

(4) Require the passenger to provide a 

medical certificate. 

(b) In assessing whether the 

passenger’s condition poses a direct 

threat and determining the least 

restrictive means of dealing with such a 

threat, you must apply the provisions of 

§ 382.19(c)(1) through (2). For example, 

suppose a passenger with a 

communicable disease gives you a 

medical certificate of the kind described 

in § 382.23(c)(2) that describes measures 

for preventing transmission of the 

disease during the normal course of the 

flight. You must provide transportation 

to the passenger, unless you are unable 

to carry out the measures. 

(c) If your action under this section 

results in the postponement of a 

passenger’s travel, you must permit the 

passenger to travel at a later time (up to 

90 days from the date of the postponed 

travel) at the fare that would have 

applied to the passenger’s originally 

scheduled trip without penalty or, at the 

passenger’s discretion, provide a refund 

for any unused flights, including return 

flights. 

(d) If you take any action under this 

section that restricts a passenger’s 

travel, you must, on the passenger’s 

request, provide a written explanation 

within 10 days of the request.

§ 382.23 May carriers require a passenger 

with a disability to provide a medical 

certificate? 

(a) Except as provided in this section, 

you must not require a passenger with 

a disability to have a medical certificate 

as a condition for being provided 

transportation. 

(b)(1) You may require a medical 

certificate for a passenger with a 

disability—

(i) Who is traveling in a stretcher or 

incubator; 

(ii) Who needs medical oxygen during 

a flight; or 

(iii) Whose medical condition is such 

that there is reasonable doubt that the 

individual can complete the flight 

safely, without requiring extraordinary 

medical assistance during the flight. 

(2) For purposes of this paragraph, a 

medical certificate is a written statement 

from the passenger’s physician saying 

that the passenger is capable of 

completing the flight safely, without 

requiring extraordinary medical 

assistance during the flight. 

(c)(1) You may also require a medical 

certificate for a passenger if he or she 

has a communicable disease or 

condition that poses a direct threat to 

the health or safety of others. 

(2) For purposes of this paragraph, a 

medical certificate is a written statement 

from the passenger’s physician saying 

that the disease or infection would not, 

under the present conditions in the 

particular passenger’s case, be 

communicable to other persons during 

the normal course of a flight. The 

medical certificate must state any 

conditions or precautions that would 

have to be observed to prevent the 

transmission of the disease or infection 

to other persons in the normal course of 

a flight. It must be dated within ten days 

of the date of the flight for which it is 

presented.

§ 382.25 May a carrier require a passenger 

with a disability to provide advance notice 

that he or she is traveling on a flight? 

As a carrier, you must not require a 

passenger with a disability to provide 

advance notice of the fact that he or she 

is traveling on a flight.

§ 382.27 May a carrier require a passenger 

with a disability to provide advance notice 

in order to obtain certain specific services 

in connection with a flight? 

(a) Except as provided in paragraph 

(b) of this section, as a carrier you must 

not require a passenger with a disability 

to provide advance notice in order to 

obtain services or accommodations 

required by this part. 

(b) You may require a passenger with 

a disability to provide up to 48 hours’

advance notice and one-hour advance 

check-in to receive the following 

services and accommodations. The 

services listed in paragraphs (b)(1) 

through (4) of this paragraph are 

optional; you are not required to 

provide them, but you may choose to do 

so. 

(1) Medical oxygen for use on board 

the aircraft; 

(2) Carriage of an incubator; 

(3) Hook-up for a respirator to the 

aircraft electrical power supply; 

(4) Accommodation for a passenger 

who must travel in a stretcher; 

(5) Transportation for an electric 

wheelchair on a flight scheduled to be 

made with an aircraft with fewer than 

60 seats; 

(6) Provision by the carrier of 

hazardous materials packaging for a 

battery for a wheelchair or other 

assistive device; 

(7) Accommodation for a group of ten 

or more qualified individuals with a 

disability, who make reservations and 

travel as a group; and 

(8) Provision of an on-board 

wheelchair on an aircraft with more 

than 50 seats that does not have an 

accessible lavatory. 

(c) If the passenger with a disability 

provides the advance notice you 

require, consistent this section, for a 

service that you must provide (see 

paragraphs (b)(5) through (8) of this 

section) or choose to provide (see 

paragraphs (b)(1) through (4) of this 

section), you must provide the 

requested service or accommodation. 

(d) Your reservation and other 

administrative systems must ensure that 

when passengers provide the advance 

notice that you require, consistent with 

this section, for services and 

accommodations, the notice is 

communicated, clearly and on time, to 

the people responsible for providing the 

requested service or accommodation. 

(e) If a passenger with a disability 

provides the advance notice you 

require, consistent with this section, 

and the passenger is forced to change to 

another flight (e.g., because of a flight 

cancellation), you must, to the 

maximum extent feasible, provide the 

accommodation on the new flight. If the 

new flight is another carrier’s flight, you 

must provide the maximum feasible 

assistance to the other carrier in 

providing the accommodation the 

passenger requested from you. 

(f) If a passenger does not meet 

advance notice or check-in requirements 

you establish consistent with this 

section, you must still provide the 

service or accommodation if you can do 

so by making reasonable efforts, without 

delaying the flight.

§ 382.29 May a carrier require a passenger 

with a disability to travel with a safety 

assistant? 

(a) Except as provided in paragraph 

(b) of this section, you must not require 

that a passenger with a disability travel 

with another person as a condition of 

being provided air transportation. 

(b) You may require a passenger with 

a disability in one of the following 

categories to travel with a safety 

assistant as a condition of being 

provided air transportation, if you 

determine that a safety assistant is 

essential for safety: 

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(1) A passenger traveling in a stretcher 

or incubator. The safety assistant for 

such a person must be capable of 

attending to the passenger’s in-flight 

medical needs; 

(2) A passenger who, because of a 

mental disability, is unable to 

comprehend or respond appropriately to 

safety instructions from carrier 

personnel, including the safety briefing 

required by 14 CFR 121.571(a)(3) and 

(a)(4) or 14 CFR 135.117(b) or ICAO 

Standards and Recommended Practices, 

as applicable; 

(3) A passenger with a mobility 

impairment so severe that the person is 

unable to assist in his or her own 

evacuation of the aircraft; 

(4) A passenger who has both severe 

hearing and severe vision impairments, 

if the person cannot establish some 

means of communication with carrier 

personnel, adequate to permit 

transmission of the safety briefing 

required by 14 CFR 121.571(a)(3) and 

(a)(4), 14 CFR 135.117(b), or ICAO 

Standards and Recommended Practices, 

as applicable. 

(c) If you determine that a person 

meeting the criteria of paragraph (b)(2), 

(b)(3) or (b)(4) of this section must travel 

with a safety assistant, contrary to the 

individual’s self-assessment that he or 

she is capable of traveling 

independently, you must not charge for 

the transportation of the safety assistant. 

However, if a passenger voluntarily 

chooses to travel with a personal care 

attendant or a safety assistant that you 

do not require, you may charge for the 

transportation of that person. 

(d) If, because there is not a seat 

available on a flight for a safety assistant 

whom the carrier has determined to be 

necessary, a passenger with a disability 

holding a confirmed reservation is 

unable to travel on the flight, the 

passenger is eligible for denied boarding 

compensation under 14 CFR Part 250, if 

Part 250 applies to the flight. 

(e) For purposes of determining 

whether a seat is available for a safety 

assistant, you must deem the safety 

assistant to have checked in at the same 

time as the passenger with a disability. 

(f) Concern that a passenger with a 

disability may need personal care 

services (e.g., assistance in using 

lavatory facilities or with eating) is not 

a basis for requiring the passenger to 

travel with a safety assistant. You must 

explain this clearly in training or 

information you provide to your 

employees.

§ 382.31 May carriers impose special 

charges on passengers with a disability for 

providing services and accommodations 

required by this rule? 

(a) As a carrier, you must not impose 

charges for providing facilities, 

equipment, or services that this rule 

requires to be provided to passengers 

with a disability. You may charge for 

services that this part does not require 

(e.g., oxygen). 

(b) You may charge a passenger for 

the use of more than one seat if the 

passenger’s size or condition (e.g., use of 

a stretcher) causes him or her to occupy 

the space of more than one seat. This is 

not considered a special charge under 

this section.

§ 382.33 May carriers impose other 

restrictions on passengers with a disability 

that they do not impose on other 

passengers? 

(a) As a carrier, you must not subject 

passengers with a disability to 

restrictions that do not apply to other 

passengers, except as otherwise 

permitted in this part (e.g., advance 

notice requirements for certain services 

permitted by § 382.27). 

(b) Restrictions you must not impose 

on passengers with a disability include, 

but are not limited to, the following: 

(1) Restricting passengers’ movement 

within the terminal; 

(2) Requiring passengers to remain in 

a holding area or other location in order 

to receive transportation, services, or 

accommodations; 

(3) Making passengers sit on blankets 

on the aircraft; 

(4) Making passengers wear badges or 

other special identification (e.g., similar 

to badges worn by unaccompanied 

minors); 

(5) Requiring ambulatory passengers, 

including but not limited to blind or 

visually impaired passengers, to use a 

wheelchair in order to receive assistance 

required by this part (e.g., by § 382.91) 

or otherwise offered to the passenger; or 

(6) Otherwise mandating separate 

treatment for passengers with a 

disability, unless permitted or required 

by this part or other applicable Federal 

requirements.

§ 382.35 May carriers require passengers 

with a disability to sign waivers or 

releases? 

(a) As a carrier, you must not require 

passengers with a disability to sign a 

release or waiver of liability in order to 

receive transportation or to receive 

services or accommodations for a 

disability. 

(b) You must not require passengers 

with a disability to sign waivers of 

liability for damage to or loss of 

wheelchairs or other assistive devices.

Subpart C—Information for 

Passengers

§ 382.41 What flight-related information 

must carriers provide to qualified 

individuals with a disability? 

As a carrier, you must provide the 

following information, on request, to 

qualified individuals with a disability or 

persons making inquiries on their 

behalf. The information you provide 

must be specific to the type of aircraft 

and, where feasible, the specific aircraft 

you expect to use for a flight: 

(a) The specific location of seats, if 

any, with movable armrests (i.e., by row 

and seat number); 

(b) The specific location of seats (i.e., 

by row and seat number) that the 

carrier, consistent with this part, does 

not make available to passengers with a 

disability (e.g., exit row seats); 

(c) Any limitations on the ability of 

the aircraft to accommodate passengers 

with a disability, including limitations 

on the availability of boarding 

assistance to the aircraft at any airport 

involved with the flight. You must 

provide this information to any 

passenger who states that he or she uses 

a wheelchair for boarding, even if the 

passenger does not explicitly request the 

information. 

(d) Any limitations on the availability 

of storage facilities, in the cabin or in 

the cargo bay, for mobility aids or other 

assistive devices commonly used by 

passengers with a disability, including 

storage in the cabin of a passenger’s 

wheelchair as provided in §§ 382.67 and 

382.123; and 

(e) Whether the aircraft has an 

accessible lavatory.

§ 382.43 Must information and reservation 

services of carriers be accessible to 

individuals with hearing and vision 

impairments? 

(a) If, as a carrier, you provide 

telephone reservation or information 

service to the public, you must make 

this service available to individuals who 

are deaf or hard-of-hearing through use 

of a text telephone (TTY). 

(1) You must make TTY service 

available during the same hours as 

telephone service for the general public. 

(2) Your response time to TTY calls 

must be equivalent to your response 

time for your telephone service to the 

general public. 

(3) If you are a foreign carrier, you 

must meet this requirement by [date one 

year from the effective date of this part]. 

(b) If you provide information or 

reservation services to the public 

through an internet web site (including 

a web site maintained by a contractor or 

agent for you or for you and other air 

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carriers), you must ensure that the web 

site is accessible to and usable by 

individuals with vision impairments 

and other disabilities. 

(1) In making web sites accessible, 

you must use as your standards the 

provisions of 36 CFR Part 1194. 

(2) New Web sites placed on line after 

[effective date of this part] must meet 

these accessibility standards from the 

time they are placed on line. 

(3) Web sites that were placed on line 

before [effective date of this part] must 

meet these accessibility standards by 

[date two years from the effective date 

of this part]. 

(c) If, as a carrier, you provide written 

(i.e., hard copy) information to the 

public, you must ensure that this 

information is able to be communicated 

effectively, on request, to persons with 

vision impairments. You must provide 

this information in the same 

languages(s) in which it is available to 

the general public. 

(d) If you are a U.S. carrier, the 

requirements of this section apply with 

respect to all your information and 

reservation services. If you are a foreign 

air carrier, the requirements of this 

section apply only with respect to your 

information and reservations services 

concerning flights covered by § 382.5.

§ 382.45 Must carriers make copies of this 

part available to passengers? 

As a carrier, you must keep a current 

copy of this part at each airport you 

serve. As a foreign carrier, this means 

that you must keep the copy at any 

airport serving a flight that begins or 

ends at a U.S. airport. You must make 

the copy available for review by any 

member of the public on request.

Subpart D—Accessibility of Airport 

Facilities

§ 382.51 What requirements must carriers 

meet concerning the accessibility of airport 

facilities? 

(a) As a carrier, you must comply with 

the following requirements with respect 

to all terminal facilities you own, lease, 

or control at a U.S. airport: 

(1) You must ensure that terminal 

facilities are readily accessible to and 

usable by individuals with disabilities, 

including individuals who use 

wheelchairs. You are deemed to comply 

with this obligation if the facilities meet 

requirements applying to places of 

public accommodation under 

Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations 

implementing Title III of the Americans 

with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

(2) With respect to any situation in 

which boarding and deplaning by levelentry loading bridges or accessible 

passenger lounges to and from an 

aircraft is not available, you must ensure 

that there is an accessible route between 

the gate and the area from which aircraft 

are boarded (e.g., the tarmac in a 

situation in which level-entry boarding 

is not available). An accessible route is 

one meeting the requirements of the 

Americans with Disabilities Act 

Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), 

sections 4.3.3–4.3.10. 

(3) You must ensure that systems of 

intra- and inter-terminal transportation, 

including, but not limited to, moving 

sidewalks, shuttle vehicles and people 

movers, comply with applicable 

requirements of the Department of 

Transportation’s ADA rules (49 CFR 

Parts 37 and 38). 

(4) Your contracts or leases with 

airport operators concerning the use of 

airport facilities must set forth your 

airport accessibility responsibility under 

this part and that of the airport operator 

under applicable section 504 and ADA 

rules of the Department of 

Transportation and Department of 

Justice. 

(b) As a carrier, you must ensure that 

passengers with a disability can readily 

use all terminal facilities you own, 

lease, or control at a foreign airport. In 

the case of foreign carriers, this 

requirement applies only to terminal 

facilities that serve flights that begin or 

end in the U.S. 

(1) This means that passengers with a 

disability must be able to move readily 

through such terminal facilities to get to 

or from the gate and any other area from 

which passengers board the aircraft you 

use for such flights (e.g., the tarmac in 

the case of flights that do not use levelentry boarding). This obligation is in 

addition to your obligation to provide 

boarding assistance to passengers. 

(2) You may meet this obligation 

through any combination of facility 

accessibility, auxiliary aids, equipment, 

the assistance of personnel, or other 

appropriate means consistent with the 

safety and dignity of passengers with a 

disability. 

(c) As a foreign air carrier, you must 

meet the requirements of this section by 

[date one year from the effective date of 

this part]. As a U.S. carrier, you must 

meet the requirements of paragraph (b) 

of this section by [date one year from 

the effective date of this part].

§ 382.53 What accommodations are 

required at airports for individuals with a 

vision impairment or individuals who are 

deaf or hard-of-hearing? 

(a ) As a carrier, you must ensure that 

individuals with impaired vision and 

deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals 

have access to the information you 

provide to the general public at airports. 

To the extent that this information is not 

available to these individuals through 

signage and verbal public address 

announcements, your personnel must 

promptly provide the information to 

such individuals on their request, in 

languages in which the information is 

provided to the general public. 

(1)(i) As a U.S. carrier, you must make 

this information available at each gate, 

baggage claim area, ticketing area, or 

other terminal facility that you own, 

lease, or control at any U.S. or foreign 

airport. 

(ii) As a foreign carrier, you must 

make this information available at each 

gate, baggage claim area, ticketing area, 

or other terminal facility that you own, 

lease, or control at any U.S. airport. At 

foreign airports, you must make this 

information available only at terminal 

facilities that serve flights that begin or 

end in the U.S. 

(2) The types of information you must 

make available include, but are not 

limited to, information concerning 

ticketing, flight delays, schedule 

changes, changes to the aircraft being 

used for a flight, connections, flight 

check-in, gate assignments and changes, 

and the checking and claiming of 

luggage.

(b) As a foreign air carrier at a U.S. 

airport, or a U.S. or foreign air carrier at 

a foreign airport, you must meet the 

requirements of this section by [date one 

year from effective date of this rule].

§ 382.55 May carriers impose security 

screening procedures for passengers with 

disabilities that go beyond TSA 

requirements? 

(a) All passengers, including those 

with disabilities, are subject to TSA 

security screening requirements at U.S. 

airports. In addition, passengers at 

foreign airports, including those with 

disabilities, may be subject to security 

screening measures required by law of 

the country in which the airport is 

located. 

(b) If, as an air carrier, you impose 

security screening procedures for 

passengers with disabilities that go 

beyond those mandated by TSA (or, at 

a foreign airport, by legal requirements 

of the country in which the airport is 

located), you must ensure that they meet 

the following requirements: 

(1) You must apply security screening 

procedures to passengers with 

disabilities in the same manner as to 

other passengers. 

(2) You must not subject a passenger 

with a disability to special screening 

procedures because the person is 

traveling with a mobility aid or other 

assistive device if the person using the 

64384 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

aid or device clears the security system 

without activating it. 

(i) However, your security personnel 

may examine a mobility aid or assistive 

device which, in their judgment, may 

conceal a weapon or other prohibited 

item. 

(ii) You may conduct security 

searches of qualified individuals with a 

disability whose aids activate the 

security system in the same manner as 

for other passengers. 

(3) You must not require private 

security screenings of passengers with a 

disability to a greater extent, or for any 

different reason, than for other 

passengers. 

(c) Except as provided in paragraph 

(c) of this section, if a passenger with a 

disability requests a private screening in 

a timely manner, you must provide it in 

time for the passenger to enplane. 

(d) If you use technology that can 

conduct an appropriate screening of a 

passenger with a disability without 

necessitating a physical search of the 

person, you are not required to provide 

a private screening.

Subpart E—Accessibility of Aircraft

§ 382.61 What are the requirements for 

movable aisle armrests? 

(a) As a carrier, you must ensure that 

aircraft with 30 or more passenger seats 

on which passenger aisle seats have 

armrests are equipped with movable 

aisle armrests on at least one-half of the 

aisle seats in which passengers with 

mobility impairments are permitted to 

sit under FAA safety rules. 

(b) You are not required to provide 

movable armrests on aisle seats which a 

passenger with a mobility impairment is 

precluded from using by an FAA safety 

rule. 

(c) You must ensure that these 

movable aisle armrests are provided 

proportionately in all classes of service 

in the cabin. For example, if 80 percent 

of the aisle seats in which passengers 

with mobility impairments may sit are 

in coach, and 20 percent are in first 

class, then 80 percent of the movable 

aisle armrests must be in coach, with 20 

percent in first class. 

(d) For aircraft equipped with 

movable aisle armrests, you must 

configure cabins, or establish 

administrative systems, to ensure that 

individuals with mobility impairments 

or other passengers with a disability can 

readily identify and obtain seating in 

rows with movable aisle armrests. You 

must provide this information by 

specific seat and row number. 

(e) You are not required to retrofit 

cabin interiors of existing aircraft to 

comply with the requirements of this 

section. However, if you replace an 

aircraft’s seats with newly manufactured 

seats, you must provide movable aisle 

armrests as required by this section. 

(f) As a foreign carrier, you must 

comply with the requirements of 

paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section 

with respect to new aircraft you operate 

that were initially ordered after 

[effective date of this part] or which are 

delivered to you after [date two years 

from the effective date of this part]. As 

a U.S. carrier, this requirement applies 

to you with respect to new aircraft you 

operate that are initially ordered after 

April 5, 1990, or which are delivered to 

you after April 5, 1992. 

(g) As a U.S. carrier, you must comply 

with paragraph (c) of this section with 

respect to new aircraft that are ordered 

after [effective date of this part] or that 

are delivered after [date two years from 

the effective date of this part]. 

(h) As a foreign carrier, you must 

comply with the requirements of 

paragraph (e) of this section with 

respect to seats ordered on or after 

[effective date of this part].

§ 382.63 What are the requirements for 

accessible lavatories? 

(a) As a carrier, you must ensure that 

aircraft with more than one aisle in 

which lavatories are provided shall 

include at least one accessible lavatory. 

(1) The accessible lavatory must 

permit a qualified individual with a 

disability to enter, maneuver within as 

necessary to use all lavatory facilities, 

and leave, by means of the aircraft’s onboard wheelchair. 

(2) The accessible lavatory must 

afford privacy to persons using the onboard wheelchair equivalent to that 

afforded ambulatory users. 

(3) The lavatory shall provide door 

locks, accessible call buttons, grab bars, 

faucets and other controls, and 

dispensers usable by qualified 

individuals with a disability, including 

wheelchair users and persons with 

manual impairments. 

(b) With respect to aircraft with only 

one aisle in which lavatories are 

provided, you may, but are not required 

to, provide an accessible lavatory. 

(c) You are not required to retrofit 

cabin interiors of existing aircraft to 

comply with the requirements of this 

section. However, if you replace a 

lavatory on an aircraft with more than 

one aisle, you must replace it with an 

accessible lavatory. If you replace a 

component of an inaccessible lavatory 

(e.g., the sink) on an aircraft with more 

than one aisle, you must replace it with 

an accessible component. 

(d ) As a foreign carrier, you must 

comply with the requirements of 

paragraph (a) of this section with 

respect to new aircraft you operate that 

were initially ordered after [effective 

date of this part] or which are delivered 

to you after [date two years from the 

effective date of this part]. As a U.S. 

carrier, this requirement applies to you 

with respect to new aircraft you operate 

that were initially ordered after April 5, 

1990, or which are delivered to you on 

or after April 5, 1992. 

(e) As a foreign carrier, you must 

comply with the requirements of 

paragraph (c) of this section beginning 

[effective date of this part].

§ 382.65 What are the requirements 

concerning on-board wheelchairs? 

(a) As a carrier, you must equip 

aircraft that have 50 or more passenger 

seats, and that have an accessible 

lavatory (whether or not having such a 

lavatory is required by § 382.63) with an 

on-board wheelchair. 

(b) If a passenger asks you to provide 

an on-board wheelchair on a particular 

flight, you must provide it if the aircraft 

being used for the flight has 50 or more 

passenger seats, even if the aircraft does 

not have an accessible lavatory. 

(1) The basis of the passenger’s 

request must be that he or she can use 

an inaccessible lavatory but cannot 

reach it from a seat without using an onboard wheelchair. 

(2) You may require the passenger to 

provide the advance notice specified in 

§ 382.27 to receive this service. 

(c) You must ensure that on-board 

wheelchairs meet the following 

standards: 

(1) On-board wheelchairs must 

include footrests, armrests which are 

movable or removable, adequate 

occupant restraint systems, a backrest 

height that permits assistance to 

passengers in transferring, structurally 

sound handles for maneuvering the 

occupied chair, and wheel locks or 

another adequate means to prevent chair 

movement during transfer or turbulence. 

(2) The chair must be designed to be 

compatible with the maneuvering space, 

aisle width, and seat height of the 

aircraft on which it is to be used, and 

to be easily pushed, pulled, and turned 

in the cabin environment by carrier 

personnel. 

(d) As a foreign carrier, you must meet 

this requirement as of [date two years 

from the effective date of this part]. As 

a U.S. carrier, you must meet this 

requirement by [date two years from the 

effective date of this part] with respect 

to aircraft with 50–60 passenger seats.

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§ 382.67 What is the requirement for 

priority space in the cabin to store 

passengers’ wheelchairs?

(a) As a carrier, you must designate, 

in each aircraft with 100 or more 

passenger seats, a priority space in the 

cabin of sufficient size to stow at least 

one folding, collapsible, or break-down 

passenger wheelchair the dimensions of 

which are within a space of 13 inches 

by 36 inches by 42 inches without 

having to remove the wheels or 

otherwise disassemble it. If a wheelchair 

exceeds this space while fully 

assembled but will fit if wheels or other 

components can be removed without 

the use of tools, you must remove the 

applicable components and stow the 

wheelchair in the designated space. In 

this case, stow the removed components 

in areas provided for stowage of carryon luggage. 

(b) As a foreign carrier, you must meet 

the requirement of paragraph (a) of this 

section by [date two years from the 

effective date of this part]. As a U.S. 

carrier, this requirement applies to you 

with respect to new aircraft you operate 

that were initially ordered after April 5, 

1990, or which are delivered to you on 

or after April 5, 1992.

§ 382.69 [Reserved]

§ 382.71 What other aircraft accessibility 

requirements apply to carriers? 

(a) As a carrier, you must maintain all 

aircraft accessibility features in proper 

working order. 

(b) You must ensure that any 

replacement or refurbishing of the 

aircraft cabin or its elements does not 

reduce accessibility to a level below that 

specified in this part.

Subpart F—Seating Accommodations

§ 382.81 For which passengers must 

carriers make seating accommodations? 

As a carrier, you must provide the 

following seating accommodations to 

the following passengers on request, if 

the passenger self-identifies to you as 

having a disability specified in this 

section: 

(a) For a passenger who uses an aisle 

chair to access the aircraft and who 

cannot readily transfer over a fixed aisle 

armrest, you must provide a seat in a 

row with a movable aisle armrest, if the 

aircraft is required to be equipped with 

such armrests. You must ensure that 

your personnel are trained in the 

location and proper use of movable aisle 

armrests, including appropriate transfer 

techniques. 

(b) You must provide an adjoining 

seat for a person assisting a passenger 

with a disability in the following 

circumstances: 

(1) When a passenger with a disability 

is traveling with a personal care 

attendant who will be performing a 

function for the individual during the 

flight that airline personnel are not 

required to perform (e.g., assistance 

with eating); 

(2) When a passenger with a vision 

impairment is traveling with a reader/

assistant who will be performing 

functions for the individual during the 

flight; 

(3) When a passenger with a hearing 

impairment is traveling with an 

interpreter who will be performing 

functions for the individual during the 

flight; or 

(4) When you require a passenger to 

travel with a safety assistant (see 

§ 382.29). 

(c) For a passenger with a disability 

traveling with a service animal, you 

must provide, as the passenger requests, 

either a bulkhead seat or a seat other 

than a bulkhead seat. 

(d) For a passenger with a fused or 

immobilized leg, you must provide a 

bulkhead seat or other seat that provides 

greater legroom than other seats, on the 

side of an aisle that better 

accommodates the individual’s 

disability.

§ 382.83 Through what mechanisms do 

carriers make seating accommodations? 

(a) If you are a carrier that provides 

advance seat assignments to passengers 

(i.e., offers seat assignments to 

passengers before the day of the flight), 

you must comply with the requirements 

of § 382.81 by any of the following 

methods: 

(1) You may ‘‘block’’ an adequate 

number of the seats used to provide the 

seating accommodations required by 

§ 382.81. 

(i) You must not assign these seats to 

passengers who do not meet the criteria 

of § 382.81 until 24 hours before the 

scheduled departure of the flight. 

(ii) At any time up until 24 hours 

before the scheduled departure of the 

flight, you must assign a seat meeting 

the requirements of this section to a 

passenger with a disability meeting one 

or more of the requirements of § 382.81 

who requests it, at the time the 

passenger initially makes the request. 

(iii) If a passenger with a disability 

specified in § 382.81 does not make a 

request at least 24 hours before the 

scheduled departure of the flight, you 

must meet the passenger’s request to the 

extent practicable, but you are not 

required to reassign a seat assigned to 

another passenger in order to do so. 

(2) You may designate an adequate 

number of the seats used to provide 

seating accommodations required by 

§ 382.81 as ‘‘priority seats’’ for 

passengers with a disability. 

(i) You must provide notice that all 

passengers assigned these seats (other 

than passengers with a disability listed 

in § 382.81) are subject to being 

reassigned to another seat if necessary to 

provide a seating accommodation 

required by this section. 

(ii) You may provide this notice 

through your computer reservation 

system, verbal information provided by 

reservation personnel, ticket notices, 

gate announcements, counter signs, seat 

cards or notices, frequent-flier literature, 

or other appropriate means. 

(iii) You must assign a seat meeting 

the requirements of this section to a 

passenger with a disability listed in 

§ 382.81 who requests the 

accommodation at the time the 

passenger makes the request. You may 

require such a passenger to check in at 

least one hour before the scheduled 

departure of the flight. If all designated 

priority seats that would accommodate 

the passenger have been assigned to 

other passengers, you must reassign the 

seats of the other passengers as needed 

to provide the requested 

accommodation. 

(iv) If a passenger with a disability 

listed in § 382.81 does not check in at 

least an hour before the scheduled 

departure of the flight, you must meet 

the individual’s request to the extent 

practicable, but you are not required to 

reassign a seat assigned to another 

passenger in order to do so. 

(b) If you assign seats to passengers, 

but not until the date of the flight, you 

must use the ‘‘priority seating’’

approach of paragraph (a)(2) of this 

section. 

(c) If you do not assign seats to 

passengers , you must allow passengers 

specified in § 382.81 to board the 

aircraft before other passengers, 

including other ‘‘preboarded’’

passengers, so that the passengers 

needing seating accommodations can 

select seats that best meet their needs. 

(d) As a carrier, if you wish to use a 

different method of providing seating 

assignment accommodations to 

passengers with disabilities from those 

specified in this subpart, you must 

obtain the written concurrence of the 

Department of Transportation. Contact 

the Department at the address cited in 

§ 382.159.

§ 382.85 What seating accommodations 

must carriers make to passengers in 

circumstances not covered by § 382.81 (a) 

through (d)? 

As a carrier, you must provide the 

following seating accommodations to a 

passenger who self-identifies as having 

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a disability other than one in the four 

categories listed in § 382.81 (a) through 

(d) and as needing a seat assignment 

accommodation in order to readily 

access and use the carrier’s air 

transportation services: 

(a) As a carrier that assigns seats in 

advance, you must provide 

accommodations in the following ways: 

(1) If you use the ‘‘seat-blocking’’

mechanism of § 382.83(a)(1) c, you must 

implement the requirements of this 

section as follows: 

(i) When a passenger with a disability 

not described in § 382.81(a) through (d) 

makes a reservation more than 24 hours 

before the scheduled departure time of 

the flight, you are not required to offer 

the passenger one of the seats blocked 

for the use of passengers with a 

disability listed under § 382.81. 

(ii) However, you must assign to the 

passenger any seat, not already assigned 

to another passenger, that 

accommodates the passenger’s needs, 

even if that seat is not available for 

assignment to the general passenger 

population at the time of the request. 

(2) If you use the ‘‘designated priority 

seats’’ mechanism of § 382.83(a)(2), you 

must implement the requirements of 

this section as follows: 

(i) When a passenger with a disability 

not described in § 382.81 makes a 

reservation, you must assign to the 

passenger any seat, not already assigned 

to another passenger, that 

accommodates the passenger’s needs, 

even if that seat is not available for 

assignment to the general passenger 

population at the time of the request. 

You may require a passenger making 

such a request to check in one hour 

before the departure time of the flight. 

(ii) If such a passenger is assigned to 

a designated priority seat, he or she is 

subject to being reassigned to another 

seat as provided in § 382.83(a)(2)(i). 

(b) On flights where advance seat 

assignments are not offered, you must 

provide seating accommodations under 

this section by allowing passengers to 

board the aircraft before other 

passengers, including other 

‘‘preboarded’’ passengers, so that the 

individuals needing seating 

accommodations can select seats that 

best meet their needs.

§ 382.87 What other requirements pertain 

to seating for passengers with a disability? 

(a) As a carrier, you must not exclude 

any passenger with a disability from any 

seat or require that a passenger with a 

disability sit in any particular seat, on 

the basis of disability, except to comply 

with FAA safety requirements. 

(b) In responding to requests from 

individuals for accommodations under 

this subpart, you must comply with 

FAA safety requirements, including 

those pertaining to exit seating (see 14 

CFR 121.585 and 135.129). 

(c) If a passenger’s disability results in 

involuntary active behavior that would 

result in the person properly being 

refused transportation under § 382.19, 

and the passenger could be transported 

safely if seated in another location, you 

must offer to let the passenger sit in that 

location as an alternative to being 

refused transportation. 

(d) If you have already provided a seat 

to a passenger with a disability to 

furnish an accommodation required by 

this subpart, you must not (except in the 

circumstance described in 

§ 382.85(a)(2)(ii)) reassign that passenger 

to another seat in response to a 

subsequent request from another 

passenger with a disability, without the 

first passenger’s consent. 

(e) You must never deny 

transportation to any passenger in order 

to provide accommodations required by 

this subpart. 

(f) You are not required to furnish 

more than one seat per ticket or to 

provide a seat in a class of service other 

than the one the passenger has 

purchased in order to provide an 

accommodation required by this part.

§ 382.89 When do the requirements of this 

subpart begin applying to foreign carriers? 

As a foreign carrier, the obligations of 

this subpart apply to you on [date 6 

months from the effective date of this 

part].

Subpart G—Boarding, Deplaning, and 

Connecting Assistance

§ 382.91 What assistance must carriers 

provide to passengers with a disability in 

moving within the terminal? 

(a) As an air carrier, you must provide 

assistance requested by or on behalf of 

a passenger with a disability in 

transportation between gates to make a 

connection to another flight. If the 

arriving flight and the departing 

connecting flight are operated by 

different carriers, the carrier that 

operated the arriving flight is 

responsible for providing this 

assistance, even if the passenger holds 

a separate ticket and/or reservation for 

the departing flight. 

(b) You must also provide assistance 

requested by or on behalf of a passenger 

with a disability in moving from the 

terminal entrance (or a vehicle drop-off 

point adjacent to the entrance) through 

the airport to the gate for a departing 

flight, or from the gate to the terminal 

entrance (or a vehicle pick-up point 

adjacent to the entrance) after an 

arriving flight. This requirement 

includes assistance in accessing key 

functional areas of the terminal, such as 

ticket counters and baggage claim. It 

also includes a brief stop upon request 

at an accessible rest room or nearby 

takeout food vendor. 

(c) As part of your obligation to 

provide assistance to passengers with 

disabilities in moving around the 

terminal (e.g., between the terminal 

entrance and the gate, between gate and 

aircraft, from gate to gate for a 

connecting flight), you must assist 

passengers with disabilities, on request, 

with transporting their carry-on luggage. 

This obligation applies only to carry-on 

luggage which can be transported in the 

cabin, consistent with your carry-on 

luggage policy, this part, and FAA and 

TSA rules, or gate-checked.

§ 382.93 Must carriers offer preboarding to 

passengers with a disability? 

As a carrier, you must offer 

preboarding to passengers with a 

disability who self-identify as needing 

additional time or assistance to board, 

stow accessibility equipment, or be 

seated. You must make the availability 

of this service known (i.e., through an 

announcement) to all passengers in the 

gate area before each flight.

§ 382. 95 What are carriers’ general 

obligations with respect to boarding, 

deplaning, and connecting assistance? 

(a) As a carrier, you must promptly 

provide assistance requested by or on 

behalf of passengers with a disability, or 

offered by air carrier personnel and 

accepted by passengers with a 

disability, in enplaning, deplaning, and 

connecting to other flights. This 

assistance must include, as needed, the 

services of personnel and the use of 

ground wheelchairs, accessible 

motorized carts, boarding wheelchairs, 

and/or on-board wheelchairs where 

provided in accordance with this part, 

and ramps or mechanical lifts. 

(b) As a carrier, you must, except as 

otherwise provided in this subpart, 

provide boarding and deplaning 

assistance through the use of lifts or 

ramps at any U.S. commercial service 

airport with 10,000 or more annual 

enplanements where boarding and 

deplaning by level-entry loading bridges 

or accessible passenger lounges is not 

available.

§ 382.97 To which aircraft does the 

requirement to provide boarding and 

deplaning assistance through the use of 

lifts apply? 

The requirement to provide boarding 

and deplaning assistance through the 

use of lifts applies with respect to all 

aircraft with a passenger capacity of 19 

or more, with the following exceptions: 

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(a) Float planes; 

(b) The following aircraft models: the 

Fairchild Metro, the Jetstream 31 and 

32, the Beech 1900 (C and D models), 

and the Embraer EMB–120; 

(c) Any other aircraft model 

determined by the Department of 

Transportation to be unsuitable for 

boarding and deplaning assistance by 

lift, ramp, or other suitable device. The 

Department will make such a 

determination if it concludes that—

(1) No existing boarding and 

deplaning assistance device on the 

market will provide access to the 

aircraft without a significant risk of 

serious damage to the aircraft or injury 

to passengers or employees, or 

(2) Internal barriers are present in the 

aircraft that would preclude passengers 

who use a boarding or aisle chair from 

reaching a non-exit row seat.

§ 382.99 What agreements must carriers 

have with the airports they serve? 

(a) As a carrier, you must negotiate in 

good faith with the airport operator of 

each airport described in § 382.95(b) to 

ensure the provision of lifts for boarding 

and deplaning. 

(b) You must have a written, signed 

agreement with the airport operator 

allocating responsibility for meeting the 

boarding and deplaning assistance 

requirements of this subpart between or 

among the parties. For foreign carriers, 

with respect to all covered aircraft, this 

requirement becomes effective [date one 

year from the effective date of this part]. 

(c) For foreign carriers, the agreement 

must provide that all actions necessary 

to ensure accessible boarding and 

deplaning for passengers with a 

disability are completed as soon as 

practicable, but no later than [date 24 

months from the effective date of this 

part], with respect to all covered aircraft 

serving an airport described in 

§ 382.95(b). 

(d) Under the agreement, you may, as 

a carrier, require that passengers 

wishing to receive boarding and 

deplaning assistance requiring the use 

of a lift for a flight check in for the flight 

one hour before the scheduled departure 

time for the flight. If the passenger 

checks in after this time, you must 

nonetheless provide the boarding and 

deplaning assistance by lift if you can 

do so by making a reasonable effort, 

without delaying the flight. 

(e) The agreement must ensure that all 

lifts and other accessibility equipment 

are maintained in proper working 

condition, and that inoperable lifts and 

equipment must be repaired or replaced 

expeditiously. 

(f) All air carriers and airport 

operators involved are jointly and 

severally responsible for the timely and 

complete implementation of the 

agreement. 

(g) You must make this agreement 

available, on request, to representatives 

of the Department of Transportation.

§ 382.101 What other boarding and 

deplaning assistance must carriers 

provide? 

When level-entry boarding and 

deplaning assistance is not required to 

be provided under this subpart, you 

must, as a carrier, provide boarding and 

deplaning assistance by any available 

means to which the passenger consents. 

However, you must never use handcarrying (i.e., directly picking up the 

passenger’s body in the arms of one or 

more personnel to effect a level change 

the passenger needs to enter or leave the 

aircraft), even if the passenger consents. 

The situations in which level-entry 

boarding is not required but in which 

you must provide this boarding and 

deplaning assistance include, but are 

not limited to, the following: 

(a) The boarding or deplaning process 

occurs at a U.S. airport that is not a 

commercial service airport that has 

10,000 or more enplanements per year; 

(b) The boarding or deplaning process 

occurs at a foreign airport; 

(c) You are using an aircraft subject to 

an exception from lift boarding and 

deplaning assistance requirements 

under § 382.97 (a) through (c); 

(d) The deadlines established in 

§ 382.99(c)(2) through (3) have not yet 

passed; or 

(e) Circumstances beyond your 

control (e.g., unusually severe weather; 

unexpected short-duration mechanical 

problems) prevent the use of a lift.

§ 382.103 May a carrier leave a passenger 

unattended in a wheelchair or other device? 

As a carrier, you must not leave a 

passenger who has requested assistance 

unattended by your personnel in a 

ground wheelchair, boarding 

wheelchair, or other device, in which 

the passenger is not independently 

mobile, for more than 30 minutes. This 

requirement applies even if another 

person (e.g., family member, personal 

care attendant) is accompanying the 

passenger, unless the passenger 

explicitly waives the restriction.

Subpart H—Services on Aircraft

§ 382.111 What services must carriers 

provide to passengers with a disability on 

board the aircraft? 

As a carrier, you must provide 

services within the aircraft cabin as 

requested by or on behalf of passengers 

with a disability, or when offered by air 

carrier personnel and accepted by 

passengers with a disability, as follows: 

(a) Assistance in moving to and from 

seats, as part of the enplaning and 

deplaning processes; 

(b) Assistance in preparation for 

eating, such as opening packages and 

identifying food; 

(c) If there is an on-board wheelchair 

on the aircraft, assistance with the use 

of the on-board wheelchair to enable the 

person to move to and from a lavatory; 

(d) Assistance to a semiambulatory 

person in moving to and from the 

lavatory, not involving lifting or 

carrying the person; or 

(e) Assistance in stowing and 

retrieving carry-on items, including 

mobility aids and other assistive devices 

stowed in the cabin. 

(f) Effective communication with 

passengers who have vision 

impairments or who are deaf or hard-ofhearing, so that these passengers have 

timely access to information the carrier 

provides to other passengers (e.g., 

weather, on-board services, flight 

delays, connecting gates at the next 

airport).

§ 382.113 What services are carriers not 

required to provide to passengers with a 

disability on board the aircraft? 

As a carrier, you are not required to 

provide extensive special assistance to 

qualified individuals with a disability. 

For purposes of this section, extensive 

special assistance includes the 

following activities: 

(a) Assistance in actual eating; 

(b) Assistance within the restroom or 

assistance at the passenger’s seat with 

elimination functions; and 

(c) Provision of medical equipment or 

services, except as required by this part 

or FAA rules.

§ 382.115 What requirements apply to onboard safety briefings? 

As a carrier, you must comply with 

the following requirements with respect 

to on-board safety briefings:

(a) You must conduct an individual 

safety briefing for any passenger where 

required by 14 CFR 121.571 (a)(3) and 

(a)(4), 14 CFR 135.117(b), or other FAA 

requirements. 

(b) You may offer an individual 

briefing to any other passenger, but you 

may not require an individual to have 

such a briefing except as provided in 

paragraph (a) of this section. 

(c) You must not require any 

passenger with a disability to 

demonstrate that he or she has listened 

to, read, or understood the information 

presented, except to the extent that 

carrier personnel impose such a 

requirement on all passengers with 

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respect to the general safety briefing. 

You must not take any action adverse to 

a qualified individual with a disability 

on the basis that the person has not 

‘‘accepted’’ the briefing. 

(d) When you conduct an individual 

safety briefing for a passenger with a 

disability, you must do so as 

inconspicuously and discreetly as 

possible. 

(e) As a carrier, if you present onboard safety briefings to passengers on 

video screens, you must ensure that the 

safety-video presentation is accessible to 

passengers with impaired hearing (e.g., 

through use of open captioning or 

placement of a sign language interpreter 

in the video). 

(1) You may use an equivalent nonvideo alternative to this requirement 

only if neither open captioning nor a 

sign language interpreter inset can be 

placed in the video presentation 

without so interfering with it as to 

render it ineffective or it would not be 

large enough to be readable. 

(2) If you are a foreign carrier, you 

may implement the requirements of this 

section by substituting captioned or 

interpreted video materials for 

uncaptioned/uninterpreted video 

materials as the uncaptioned/

uninterpreted materials are replaced in 

the normal course of the carrier’s 

operations.

§ 382.117 Must carriers permit passengers 

with a disability to travel with service 

animals? 

(a) As a carrier, you must permit a 

service animal to accompany a 

passenger with a disability. 

(b) You must permit the service 

animal to accompany the passenger 

with a disability in any seat in which 

the passenger sits, unless the animal 

obstructs an aisle or other area that must 

remain unobstructed to facilitate an 

emergency evacuation. 

(c) If a service animal cannot be 

accommodated at the seat location of 

the passenger with a disability who is 

using the animal, you must offer the 

passenger the opportunity to move with 

the animal to a seat location, if present 

on the aircraft, where the animal can be 

accommodated, as an alternative to 

requiring that the animal travel in the 

cargo hold. 

(d) You must accept as evidence that 

an animal is a service animal 

identification cards, other written 

documentation, presence of harnesses, 

tags, or the credible verbal assurances of 

a qualified individual with a disability 

using the animal. 

(e) Whenever you decide not to accept 

an animal as a service animal, you must 

explain the reason for your decision to 

the passenger and document it in 

writing. A copy of the explanation must 

be provided to the passenger either at 

the airport, or within ten calendar days 

of the incident. 

(f) Guidance concerning the carriage 

of service animals is found in appendix 

A to this part.

Subpart I—Stowage of Wheelchairs, 

Other Mobility Aids, and Other 

Assistive Devices

§ 382.121 What mobility aids and other 

assistive devices may passengers with a 

disability bring into the aircraft cabin? 

(a) As a carrier, you must permit 

passengers with a disability to bring the 

following kinds of items into the aircraft 

cabin, provided that they can be stowed 

in designated priority storage areas or in 

overhead compartments or under seats, 

consistent with FAA and TSA 

requirements concerning security, 

safety, and hazardous materials with 

respect to the stowage of carry-on items. 

(1) Wheelchairs, including manual 

wheelchairs and break-down or 

collapsible battery-powered 

wheelchairs; 

(2) Other mobility aids, such as canes 

(including those used by persons with 

impaired vision), crutches, and walkers; 

and 

(3) Other assistive devices for stowage 

or use within the cabin (e.g., visionenhancing devices, personal ventilators 

and respirators that use non-spillable 

batteries). 

(b) In implementing your carry-on 

baggage policies, you must not count 

assistive devices (including the kinds of 

items listed in paragraph (a) of this 

section) toward a limit on carry-on 

baggage.

§ 382.123 What are the requirements 

concerning priority cabin stowage space for 

wheelchairs? 

(a) In an aircraft in which a closet or 

other approved stowage area is provided 

in the cabin for passengers’ carry-on 

items, of a size that will accommodate 

a passenger’s typical adult-sized, 

folding, collapsible, or break-down 

wheelchair (including such batterypowered wheelchairs), you must, as a 

carrier, designate priority stowage 

space, as described below, for at least 

one such folding, collapsible, or breakdown passenger wheelchair. This space 

must be other than the overhead 

compartments and under-seat spaces 

routinely used for passengers’ carry-on 

items. 

(b) If you are a passenger with a 

disability who uses a wheelchair and 

takes advantage of a carrier’s offer of the 

opportunity to preboard the aircraft, you 

may stow your wheelchair in this area, 

with priority over other items brought 

onto the aircraft by other passengers 

enplaning at the same airport, consistent 

with FAA and TSA requirements 

concerning security, safety, and 

hazardous materials with respect to the 

stowage of carry-on items. 

(c) If you are a passenger with a 

disability who does not take advantage 

of a carrier offer of the opportunity to 

preboard, you may use the area to stow 

your wheelchair on a first-come, firstserved basis along with all other 

passengers seeking to stow carry-on 

items in the area.

§ 382.125 What procedures do carriers 

follow when wheelchairs, other mobility 

aids, and other assistive devices must be 

stowed in the cargo compartment? 

(a) As a carrier, you must stow 

wheelchairs, other mobility aids, or 

other assistive devices in the baggage 

compartment if an approved stowage 

area is not available in the cabin or the 

items cannot be transported in the cabin 

consistent with FAA and TSA 

requirements concerning security, 

safety, and hazardous materials with 

respect to the stowage of carry-on items. 

(b) You must give wheelchairs, other 

mobility aids, and other assistive 

devices priority for stowage in the 

baggage compartment over other cargo 

and baggage. Where this priority results 

in other passengers’ baggage being 

unable to be carried on the flight, you 

must make your best efforts to ensure 

that the other baggage reaches the 

passengers’ destination within four 

hours of the scheduled arrival time of 

the flight. 

(c) You must provide for the checking 

and timely return of passengers’

wheelchairs, other mobility aids, and 

other assistive devices as close as 

possible to the door of the aircraft, so 

that passengers may use their own 

equipment to the extent possible, 

except: 

(1) Where this practice would be 

inconsistent with Federal regulations 

governing transportation security or the 

transportation of hazardous materials; or 

(2) When the passenger requests the 

return of the items at the baggage claim 

area instead of at the door of the aircraft. 

(d) In order to achieve the timely 

return of wheelchairs, you must ensure 

that passengers’ wheelchairs, other 

mobility aids, and other assistive 

devices are among the first items 

retrieved from the baggage 

compartment.

§ 382.127 What procedures apply to 

stowage of battery-powered wheelchairs? 

(a) Whenever baggage compartment 

size and aircraft airworthiness 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64389

considerations do not prohibit doing so, 

you must, as a carrier, accept a 

passenger’s battery-powered wheelchair, 

including the battery, as checked 

baggage, consistent with the 

requirements of 49 CFR 175.10(a)(19) 

and (20) and the provisions of paragraph 

(f) of this section. 

(b) You may require that passengers 

with a disability wishing to have 

battery-powered wheelchairs 

transported on a flight (including in the 

cabin) check in one hour before the 

scheduled departure time of the flight. 

If the passenger checks in after this 

time, you must nonetheless carry the 

wheelchair if you can do so by making 

a reasonable effort, without delaying the 

flight. 

(c) If the battery on the passenger’s 

wheelchair has been labeled by the 

manufacturer as non-spillable as 

provided in 49 CFR 173.159(d)(2), or if 

a battery-powered wheelchair with a 

spillable battery can be loaded, stored, 

secured and unloaded in an upright 

position, you must not require the 

battery to be removed and separately 

packaged. Notwithstanding this 

requirement, you may remove and 

package separately any battery that 

appears to be damaged or leaking (or 

even deny transportation to the battery 

if the potential safety hazard is serious 

enough). 

(d) When it is necessary to detach the 

battery from the wheelchair, you must, 

upon request, provide packaging for the 

battery meeting the requirements of 49 

CFR 175.10(a)(19) and (20) and package 

the battery. You may refuse to use 

packaging materials or devices other 

than those you normally use for this 

purpose. 

(e) You must not drain batteries. 

(f) At the request of a passenger, you 

must stow a folding, break-down or 

collapsible battery-powered wheelchair 

in the passenger cabin stowage area as 

provided in § 382.123, consistent with 

FAA and TSA requirements concerning 

security, safety, and hazardous materials 

with respect to the stowage of carry-on 

items. If the wheelchair can be stowed 

in the cabin without removing the 

battery, you must not remove the 

battery. If the wheelchair cannot be 

stowed in the cabin without removing 

the battery, you must remove the battery 

and stow it in the baggage compartment 

as provided in paragraphs (c) and (d) of 

this section. In this case, you must 

permit the wheelchair, with battery 

removed, to be stowed in the cabin.

§ 382.129 What other requirements apply 

when passengers’ wheelchairs, other 

mobility aids, and other assistive devices 

must be disassembled for stowage? 

(a) As a carrier, you must permit 

passengers with a disability to provide 

written directions concerning the 

disassembly and reassembly of their 

wheelchairs, other mobility aids, and 

other assistive devices. You must carry 

out these instructions to the greatest 

extent feasible, consistent with FAA and 

TSA requirements concerning security, 

safety, and hazardous materials with 

respect to the stowage of carry-on items. 

(b) When wheelchairs, other mobility 

aids, or other assistive devices are 

disassembled by the carrier for stowage, 

you must reassemble them and ensure 

their prompt return to the passenger. 

You must return wheelchairs, other 

mobility aids, and other assistive 

devices to the passenger in the 

condition in which you received them.

§ 382.131 Do baggage liability limits apply 

to mobility aids and other assistive 

devices? 

With respect to domestic 

transportation (i.e., transportation to 

which Warsaw or Montreal Convention 

liability limits do not apply), the 

baggage liability limits of 14 CFR part 

254 do not apply to liability for loss, 

damage, or delay concerning 

wheelchairs or other assistive devices. 

The criterion for calculating the 

compensation for a lost, damaged, or 

destroyed wheelchair or other assistive 

device shall be the original purchase 

price of the device.

Subpart J—Training and 

Administrative Provisions

§ 382.141 What training are carriers 

required to provide for their personnel? 

(a) As a carrier that operates aircraft 

with 19 or more passenger seats, you 

must provide training, meeting the 

requirements of this paragraph, for all 

personnel who deal with the traveling 

public, as appropriate to the duties of 

each employee. 

(1) You must ensure training to 

proficiency concerning: 

(i) The requirements of this part and 

other applicable Federal regulations 

affecting the provision of air travel to 

passengers with a disability; 

(ii) Your procedures, consistent with 

this part, concerning the provision of air 

travel to passengers with a disability, 

including the proper and safe operation 

of any equipment used to accommodate 

passengers with a disability; and 

(iii) For those personnel involved in 

providing boarding and deplaning 

assistance, the use of the boarding and 

deplaning assistance equipment used by 

the carrier and appropriate boarding and 

deplaning assistance procedures that 

safeguard the safety and dignity of 

passengers. 

(2) You must also train such 

employees with respect to awareness 

and appropriate responses to passengers 

with a disability, including persons 

with physical, sensory, mental, and 

emotional disabilities, including how to 

distinguish among the differing abilities 

of individuals with a disability. 

(3) You must consult with 

organizations representing persons with 

disabilities in developing your training 

program and your policies and 

procedures. 

(4) You must ensure that all personnel 

who are required to receive training 

receive refresher training on the matters 

covered by this section, as appropriate 

to the duties of each employee, as 

needed to maintain proficiency. 

(5) You must provide, or require your 

contractors to provide, training to the 

contractors’ employees concerning 

travel by passengers with a disability. 

This training is required only for those 

contractor employees who deal directly 

with the traveling public, and it must be 

tailored to the employees’ functions. 

Training for contractor employees must 

meet the requirements of paragraphs 

(a)(1) through (a)(5) of this section. 

(6) The employees you designate as 

Complaints Resolution Officials (CROs), 

for purposes of § 382.151, must receive 

training concerning the requirements of 

this part and the duties of a CRO by 

[date 60 days from the effective date of 

this part]. For employees who have 

already received CRO training, this 

training may be limited to changes from 

the previous version of Part 382. 

Employees subsequently designated as 

Complaints Resolution Officials shall 

receive this training before assuming 

their duties under § 382.151. You must 

ensure that all employees performing 

the Complaints Resolution Official 

function receive annual refresher 

training concerning their duties and the 

provisions of this part. 

(b) If you are a carrier that operates 

only aircraft with fewer than 19 

passenger seats, you must provide 

training for flight crewmembers and 

appropriate personnel to ensure that 

they are familiar with the matters listed 

in paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(2) of this 

section and that they comply with the 

requirements of this part.

§ 382.143 When must carriers complete 

training for their personnel? 

(a) As a U.S. carrier, you must meet 

the training requirements of § 382.141 

by the following times: 

64390 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

(1) For crewmembers and other 

personnel subject to training required 

under 14 CFR part 121 or 135, who are 

employed on [effective date of this rule], 

within one year of that date or as part 

of their next scheduled recurrent 

training, whichever comes first. 

(2) For crewmembers subject to 

training requirements under 14 CFR part 

121 or 135 whose employment in any 

given position commences after 

[effective date of this rule], before they 

assume their duties; and 

(3) For other personnel whose 

employment in any given position 

commences after [effective date of this 

rule], within 60 days after the date on 

which they assume their duties. 

(b) As a foreign carrier that operates 

aircraft with 19 or more passenger seats, 

you must provide training meeting the 

requirements of paragraph (a) of this 

section for all personnel who deal with 

the traveling public in connection with 

flights that begin or end at a U.S. 

airport, as appropriate to the duties of 

each employee. You must ensure that 

personnel required to receive training 

complete the training by the following 

times: 

(1) For crewmembers or other 

personnel who are employed on 

[effective date of this rule], within one 

year of that date; 

(2) For crewmembers whose 

employment commences after [date one 

year from the effective date of this rule], 

before they assume their duties; 

(3) For other personnel whose 

employment in any given position 

commences after [date one year from the 

effective date of this rule], within 60 

days after the date on which they 

assume their duties; and 

(4) For crewmembers and other 

personnel who become employed after 

[effective date of this rule] but before 

[date one year from the effective date of 

this rule], by [date one year from the 

effective date of this rule] or a date 60 

days from the date of their employment, 

whichever is later.

§ 382.145 What must carriers incorporate 

in their manuals? 

(a) As a carrier that operates aircraft 

with 19 or more seats, you must 

incorporate procedures implementing 

the requirements of this part in the 

manuals or other guidance or 

instructional materials provided for the 

personnel who provide services to 

passengers, including, but not limited 

to, pilots, flight attendants, reservation 

and ticket counter personnel, gate 

agents, ramp and baggage handling 

personnel, and passenger service office 

personnel. 

(b) You must make your manuals and 

other materials implementing this part 

available for review by the Department 

on the Department’s request. If, upon 

such review, the Department determines 

that any portion of these materials must 

be changed in order to comply with this 

part, DOT will direct you to make 

appropriate changes. You must 

incorporate and implement these 

changes.

Subpart K—Complaints and 

Enforcement Procedures

§ 382.151 What are the requirements for 

providing Complaints Resolution Officials? 

(a ) As a carrier, you must designate 

one or more complaints resolution 

officials (CROs). 

(b) You must make a CRO available at 

each airport you serve, during all times 

you are operating at that airport. You 

must make CRO service available in the 

language(s) in which you make your 

other services available to the general 

public. 

(c) You may make the CRO available 

in person at the airport or via telephone, 

at no cost to the passenger. If a 

telephone link to the CRO is used, TTY 

service must be available so that persons 

with hearing impairments may readily 

communicate with the CRO. 

(d) You must make passengers with a 

disability aware of the availability of a 

CRO and how to contact the CRO in the 

following circumstances: 

(1) In any situation in which any 

person complains or raises a concern 

with your personnel about 

discrimination, accommodations, or 

services with respect to passengers with 

a disability, and your personnel do not 

immediately resolve the issue to the 

customer’s satisfaction or provide a 

requested accommodation, your 

personnel must immediately inform the 

passenger of the right to contact a CRO 

and the location and/or phone number 

of the CRO available at the airport. Your 

personnel must provide this information 

to the passenger in a format he or she 

can use. 

(2) Your reservation agents, 

contractors, and web sites must provide 

information equivalent to that required 

by paragraph (d)(1) of this section to 

passengers with a disability using those 

services. 

(3) In the situations covered by 

paragraphs (1) and (2) of this paragraph, 

the passenger must also be given the 

Department of Transportation’s airline 

accessibility toll-free hot line phone 

number (800–778–4838 (voice); 800–

455–9880 (TTY)). 

(e) Each CRO must be thoroughly 

familiar with the requirements of this 

part and the carrier’s procedures with 

respect to passengers with a disability. 

The CRO is intended to be the carrier’s 

‘‘expert’’ in compliance with the 

requirements of this part. 

(f) You must ensure that each of your 

CROs has the authority to make 

dispositive resolution of complaints on 

behalf of the carrier. This means that the 

CRO must have the power to overrule 

the decision of any other personnel, 

except that the CRO is not required to 

be given authority to countermand a 

decision of the pilot-in-command of an 

aircraft based on safety.

§ 382.153 What actions do CROs take on 

complaints? 

When a complaint is made directly to 

a CRO (e.g., orally, by phone, TTY) the 

CRO must promptly take dispositive 

action as follows: 

(a) If the complaint is made to a CRO 

before the action or proposed action of 

carrier personnel has resulted in a 

violation of a provision of this part, the 

CRO must take, or direct other carrier 

personnel to take, whatever action is 

necessary to ensure compliance with 

this part. 

(b) If an alleged violation of a 

provision of this part has already 

occurred, and the CRO agrees that a 

violation has occurred, the CRO must 

provide to the complainant a written 

statement setting forth a summary of the 

facts and what steps, if any, the carrier 

proposes to take in response to the 

violation. 

(c) If the CRO determines that the 

carrier’s action does not violate a 

provision of this part, the CRO must 

provide to the complainant a written 

statement including a summary of the 

facts and the reasons, under this part, 

for the determination. 

(d) The statements required to be 

provided under this section must inform 

the complainant of his or her right to 

pursue DOT enforcement action under 

this part. The CRO must provide the 

statement in person to the complainant 

at the airport if possible; otherwise, it 

must be forwarded to the complainant 

within 10 calendar days of the 

complaint.

§ 382.155 How must carriers respond to 

written complaints? 

(a) As a carrier, you must respond to 

written complaints received by any 

means (e.g., letter, fax, e-mail, electronic 

instant message) concerning matters 

covered by this part. 

(b) As a passenger making a written 

complaint, you must state whether you 

had contacted a CRO in the matter, 

provide the name of the CRO and the 

date of the contact, if available, and 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64391

1 61 FR 56409, 56420 (Nov. 1, 1996).

2See Glossary for definition of this and other 

terms.

enclose any written response you 

received from the CRO. 

(c) As a carrier, you are not required 

to respond to a complaint postmarked or 

transmitted more than 45 days after the 

date of the incident, except for 

complaints referred to you by the 

Department of Transportation. 

(d) As a carrier, you must make a 

dispositive written response to a written 

disability complaint within 30 days of 

its receipt. The response must 

specifically admit or deny that a 

violation of this part has occurred. 

(1) If you admit that a violation has 

occurred, you must provide to the 

complainant a written statement setting 

forth a summary of the facts and the 

steps, if any, you will take in response 

to the violation. 

(2) If you deny that a violation has 

occurred, your response must include a 

summary of the facts and your reasons, 

under this part, for the determination. 

(3) Your response must also inform 

the complainant of his or her right to 

pursue DOT enforcement action under 

this part.

§ 382.157 What are carriers’ obligations for 

recordkeeping and reporting on disabilityrelated complaints? [Reserved]

§ 382.159 How are complaints filed with 

DOT? 

(a) Any person believing that a carrier 

has violated any provision of this part 

may contact the following office for 

assistance: U.S. Department of 

Transportation, Aviation Consumer 

Protection Division, 400 7th Street, SW., 

Washington, DC, 20590. The Web site 

for this office is http://

airconsumer.ost.dot.gov.

(b) Any person believing that a carrier 

has violated any provision of this part 

may also file a formal complaint under 

the applicable procedures of 14 CFR 

Part 302. 

(c) Requests for assistance and 

complaints must be filed no later than 

18 months after the incident to ensure 

that they can be investigated.

Appendix A to Part 382—Guidance 

Concerning Service Animals 

Introduction 

In 1990, the U.S. Department of 

Transportation (DOT) promulgated the 

official regulations implementing the Air 

Carrier Access Act (ACAA). Those rules are 

entitled Nondiscrimination on the Basis of 

Disability in Air Travel (14 CFR Part 382). 

Since then the number of people with 

disabilities traveling by air has grown 

steadily. This growth has increased the 

demand for air transportation accessible to 

all people with disabilities and the 

importance of understanding DOT’s 

regulations and how to apply them. This 

document expands on an earlier DOT 

guidance document published in 19961, 

which was based on an earlier Americans 

with Disabilities Act (ADA) service animal 

guide issued by the Department of Justice 

(DOJ) in July 1996. The purpose of this 

document is to aid airline employees and 

people with disabilities in understanding and 

applying the ACAA and the provisions of 

Part 382 with respect to service animals in 

determining:

(1) Whether an animal is a service animal 

and its user a qualified individual with a 

disability; 

(2) How to accommodate a qualified person 

with a disability with a service animal in the 

aircraft cabin; and 

(3) When a service animal legally can be 

refused carriage in the cabin. This guidance 

will also be used by Department of 

Transportation staff in reviewing the 

implementation of § 382.117 by air carriers. 

Background 

The 1996 DOT guidance document defines 

a service animal as ‘‘any guide dog, signal 

dog, or other animal individually trained to 

provide assistance to an individual with a 

disability. If the animal meets this definition, 

it is considered a service animal regardless of 

whether it has been licensed or certified by 

a state or local government.’’ This document 

refines DOT’s previous definition of service 

animal 2 by making it clear that animals that 

assist persons with disabilities by providing 

emotional support qualify as service animals 

and ensuring that, in situations concerning 

emotional support animals, the authority of 

airline personnel to require documentation of 

the individual’s disability and the medical 

necessity of the passenger traveling with the 

animal is understood.

Today, both the public and people with 

disabilities use many different terms to 

identify animals that can meet the legal 

definition of ‘‘service animal.’’ These range 

from umbrella terms such as ‘‘assistance 

animal’’ to specific labels such as ‘‘hearing,’’

‘‘signal,’’ ‘‘seizure alert,’’ ‘‘psychiatric 

service,’’ ‘‘emotional support’’ animal, etc. 

that describe how the animal assists a person 

with a disability. 

When Part 382 was promulgated, most 

service animals were guide or hearing dogs. 

Since then, a wider variety of animals (e.g., 

cats, monkeys, etc.) have been individually 

trained to assist people with disabilities. 

Service animals also perform a much wider 

variety of functions than ever before (e.g., 

alerting a person with epilepsy of imminent 

seizure onset, pulling a wheelchair, assisting 

persons with mobility impairments with 

balance). These developments can make it 

difficult for airline employees to distinguish 

service animals from pets, especially when a 

passenger does not appear to be disabled, or 

the animal has no obvious indicators that it 

is a service animal. Passengers may claim 

that their animals are service animals at 

times to get around airline policies that 

restrict the carriage of pets. Clear guidelines 

are needed to assist airline personnel and 

people with disabilities in knowing what to 

expect and what to do when these 

assessments are made. 

Since airlines also are obliged to provide 

all accommodations in accordance with FAA 

safety regulations, educated consumers help 

assure that airlines provide accommodations 

consistent with the carriers’ safety duties and 

responsibilities. Educated consumers also 

assist the airline in providing them the 

services they want, including 

accommodations, as quickly and efficiently 

as possible. 

General Requirements of Part 382 

In a nutshell, the main requirements of Part 

382 regarding service animals are: 

• Carriers shall permit dogs and other 

service animals used by persons with 

disabilities to accompany the persons on a 

flight. See § 382.117(a). 

fl Carriers shall accept as evidence that 

an animal is a service animal identifiers such 

as identification cards, other written 

documentation, presence of harnesses, tags or 

the credible verbal assurances of a qualified 

individual with a disability using the animal. 

fl Carriers shall permit a service animal 

to accompany a qualified individual with a 

disability in any seat in which the person 

sits, unless the animal obstructs an aisle or 

other area that must remain unobstructed in 

order to facilitate an emergency evacuation or 

to comply with FAA regulations. 

• If a service animal cannot be 

accommodated at the seat location of the 

qualified individual with a disability whom 

the animal is accompanying, the carrier shall 

offer the passenger the opportunity to move 

with the animal to a seat location in the same 

class of service, if present on the aircraft, 

where the animal can be accommodated, as 

an alternative to requiring that the animal 

travel in the cargo hold (see § 382.117(c)). 

• Carriers shall not impose charges for 

providing facilities, equipment, or services 

that are required by this part to be provided 

to qualified individuals with a disability (see 

§ 382.31). 

Two Steps for Airline Personnel 

To determine whether an animal is a 

service animal and should be allowed to 

accompany its user in the cabin, airline 

personnel should: 

1. Establish whether the animal is a pet or 

a service animal, and whether the passenger 

is a qualified individual with a disability; 

and then 

2. Determine if the service animal presents 

either 

• A ‘‘direct threat to the health or safety of 

others,’’ or 

• A significant threat of disruption to the 

airline service in the cabin (i.e. a 

‘‘fundamental alteration’’ to passenger 

service). See § 382.19(c). 

Service Animals 

How do I know it’s a service animal and not 

a pet? 

Remember: In most situations the key is 

TRAINING. Generally, a service animal is 

individually trained to perform functions to 

assist the passenger who is a qualified 

individual with a disability. In a few 

extremely limited situations, an animal such 

64392 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

3Service animal users typically refer to the 

person who accompanies the animal as the 

‘‘handler.’’

4See Glossary.

as a seizure alert animal may be capable of 

performing functions to assist a qualified 

person with a disability without 

individualized training. Also, an animal used 

for emotional support need not have specific 

training for that function. Similar to an 

animal that has been individually trained, 

the definition of a service animal includes: 

an animal that has been shown to have the 

innate ability to assist a person with a 

disability; or an emotional support animal.

These five steps can help one determine 

whether an animal is a service animal or a 

pet: 

1. Obtain credible verbal assurances: Ask 

the passenger: ‘‘Is this your pet?’’ If the 

passenger responds that the animal is a 

service animal and not a pet, but uncertainty 

remains about the animal, appropriate 

follow-up questions would include: 

fl ‘‘What tasks or functions does your 

animal perform for you?’’ or 

fl ‘‘What has it been trained to do for 

you?’’

fl ‘‘Would you describe how the animal 

performs this task (or function) for you?’’

• As noted earlier, functions include, but 

are not limited to: 

A. Helping blind or visually impaired 

people to safely negotiate their surroundings; 

B. Alerting deaf and hard-of-hearing 

persons to sounds; 

C. Helping people with mobility 

impairments to open and close doors, 

retrieve objects, transfer from one seat to 

another, maintain balance; or 

D. Alert or respond to a disability-related 

need or emergency (e.g., seizure, extreme 

social anxiety or panic attack). 

• Note that to be a service animal that can 

properly travel in the cabin, the animal need 

not necessarily perform a function for the 

passenger during the flight. For example, 

some dogs are trained to help pull a 

passenger’s wheelchair or carry items that the 

passenger cannot readily carry while using 

his or her wheelchair. It would not be 

appropriate to deny transportation in the 

cabin to such a dog. 

• If a passenger cannot provide credible 

assurances that an animal has been 

individually trained or is able to perform 

some task or function to assist the passenger 

with his or her disability, the animal might 

not be a service animal. In this case, the 

airline personnel may require documentation 

(see Documentation below). 

• There may be cases in which a passenger 

with a disability has personally trained an 

animal to perform a specific function (e.g., 

seizure alert). Such an animal may not have 

been trained through a formal training 

program (e.g., a ‘‘school’’ for service animals). 

If the passenger can provide a reasonable 

explanation of how the animal was trained or 

how it performs the function for which it is 

being used, this can constitute a ‘‘credible 

verbal assurance’’ that the animal has been 

trained to perform a function for the 

passenger. 

2. Look for physical indicators on the 

animal: Some service animals wear 

harnesses, vests, capes or backpacks. 

Markings on these items or on the animal’s 

tags may identify it as a service animal. It 

should be noted, however, that the absence 

of such equipment does not necessarily mean 

the animal is not a service animal. 

3. Request documentation for service 

animals other than emotional support 

animals: The law allows airline personnel to 

ask for documentation as a means of 

verifying that the animal is a service animal. 

Carriers are not to require documentation as 

a condition for permitting an individual to 

travel with his or her service animal in the 

cabin unless a passenger’s verbal assurance is 

not credible. In that case, the airline may 

require documentation as a condition for 

allowing the animal to travel in the cabin. 

This should be an infrequent situation. The 

purpose of documentation is to substantiate 

the passenger’s disability-related need for the 

animal’s accompaniment, which the airline 

may require as a condition to permit the 

animal to travel in the cabin. Examples of 

documentation include a letter from a 

licensed professional treating the passenger’s 

condition (e.g., physician, mental health 

professional, vocational case manager, etc.) 

4. Require documentation for emotional 

support animals: With respect to an animal 

used for emotional support (which need not 

have specific training for that function but 

must be trained to behave appropriately in a 

public setting), airline personnel may require 

current documentation (i.e., not more than 

one year old) on letterhead from a mental 

health professional stating (1) that the 

passenger has a mental health-related 

disability listed in the Diagnostic and 

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 

IV); (2) that having the animal accompany the 

passenger is necessary to the passenger’s 

mental health or treatment; and (3) that the 

individual providing the assessment of the 

passenger is a licensed mental health 

professional and the passenger is under his 

or her professional care. An airline is 

allowed, but not required, to insist that the 

documentation include the date, type, and 

state of the mental health professional’s 

license. Airline personnel may require this 

documentation as a condition of permitting 

the animal to accompany the passenger in the 

cabin. The purpose of this provision is to 

prevent abuse by passengers that do not have 

a medical need for an emotional support 

animal and to ensure that passengers who 

have a legitimate need for emotional support 

animals are permitted to travel with their 

service animals on the aircraft. Airlines are 

not permitted to require the documentation 

to specify the type of mental health 

disability, e.g., panic attacks. 

5. Observe behavior of animals: Service 

animals are trained to behave properly in 

public settings. For example, a properly 

trained guide dog will remain at its owner’s 

feet. It does not run freely around an aircraft 

or an airport gate area, bark or growl 

repeatedly at other persons on the aircraft, 

bite or jump on people, or urinate or defecate 

in the cabin or gate area. An animal that 

engages in such disruptive behavior shows 

that it has not been successfully trained to 

function as a service animal in public 

settings. Therefore, airlines are not required 

to treat it as a service animal, even if the 

animal performs an assistive function for a 

passenger with a disability or is necessary for 

a passenger’s emotional well-being. 

What about service animals in training? 

Part 382 requires airlines to allow service 

animals to accompany their handlers 3 in the 

cabin of the aircraft, but airlines are not 

required otherwise to carry animals of any 

kind either in the cabin or in the cargo hold. 

Airlines are free to adopt any policy they 

choose regarding the carriage of pets and 

other animals provided that they comply 

with other applicable requirements (e.g., the 

Animal Welfare Act). Although ‘‘service 

animals in training’’ are not pets, the ACAA 

does not include them, because ‘‘in training’’

status indicates that they do not yet meet the 

legal definition of service animal. However, 

like pet policies, airline policies regarding 

service animals in training vary. Some 

airlines permit qualified trainers to bring 

service animals in training aboard an aircraft 

for training purposes. Trainers of service 

animals should consult with airlines, and 

become familiar with their policies.

What about a service animal that is not 

accompanying a qualified individual with a 

disability? 

When a service animal is not 

accompanying a passenger with a disability, 

the airline’s general policies on the carriage 

of animals usually apply. Airline personnel 

should know their company’s policies on 

pets, service animals in training, and the 

carriage of animals generally. Individuals 

planning to travel with a service animal other 

than their own should inquire about the 

applicable policies in advance. 

Qualified Individuals With Disabilities 4

How do I know if a passenger is a qualified 

individual with a disability who is entitled 

to bring a service animal in the cabin of the 

aircraft if the disability is not readily 

apparent? 

• Ask the passenger about his or her 

disability as it relates to the need for a service 

animal. Once the passenger identifies the 

animal as a service animal, you may ask, 

‘‘How does your animal assist you with your 

disability?’’ Avoid the question ‘‘What is 

your disability?’’ as this implies you are 

asking for a medical label or the cause of the 

disability, which is intrusive and 

inconsistent with the intent of the ACAA. 

Remember, Part 382 is intended to facilitate 

travel by people with disabilities by requiring 

airlines to accommodate them on an 

individual basis.

• Ask the passenger whether he or she has 

documentation as a means of verifying the 

medical necessity of the passenger traveling 

with the animal. Keep in mind that you can 

ask but cannot require documentation as 

proof of service animal status UNLESS (1) a 

passenger’s verbal assurance is not credible 

and the airline personnel cannot in good 

faith determine whether the animal is a 

service animal without documentation, or (2) 

a passenger indicates that the animal is to be 

used as an emotional support animal. 

• Using the questions and other factors 

above, you must decide whether it is 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64393

reasonable to believe that the passenger is a 

qualified individual with a disability, and the 

animal is a service animal. 

Denying a Service Animal Carriage in the 

Cabin 

What do I do if I believe that carriage of the 

animal in the cabin of the aircraft would 

inconvenience non-disabled passengers? 

Part 382 requires airlines to permit 

qualified individuals with a disability to be 

accompanied by their service animals in the 

cabin, as long as the animals do not (1) pose 

a direct threat to the health or safety of others 

(e.g., animal displays threatening behaviors 

by growling, snarling, lunging at, or 

attempting to bite other persons on the 

aircraft) or (2) cause a significant disruption 

in cabin service (i.e. a ‘‘fundamental 

alteration’’ to passenger service). 

Inconvenience of other passengers is not 

sufficient grounds to deny a service animal 

carriage in the cabin; as indicated later in this 

document, however, airlines are not required 

to ask other passengers to relinquish space 

that they would normally use in order to 

accommodate a service animal (e.g., space 

under the seat in front of the non-disabled 

passenger). 

What do I do if I believe that a passenger’s 

assertions about having a disability or a 

service animal are not credible? 

• Ask if the passenger has documentation 

that satisfies the requirements for 

determining that the animal is a service 

animal (see discussion of ‘‘Documentation’’

above). 

• If the passenger has no documents, then 

explain to the passenger that the animal 

cannot be carried in the cabin, because it 

does not meet the criteria for service animals. 

Explain your airline’s policy on pets (i.e., 

will or will not accept for carriage in the 

cabin or cargo hold), and what procedures to 

follow. 

• If the passenger does not accept your 

explanation, avoid getting into an argument. 

Ask the passenger to wait while you contact 

your airline’s complaint resolution official 

(CRO). Part 382 requires all airlines to have 

a CRO available at each airport they serve 

during all hours of operation. The CRO may 

be made available by telephone. The CRO is 

a resource for resolving difficulties related to 

disability accommodation. 

• Consult with the CRO immediately, if 

possible. The CRO normally has the authority 

to make the final decision regarding carriage 

of service animals. In the rare instance that 

a service animal would raise a concern 

regarding flight safety, the CRO may consult 

with the pilot-in-command. If the pilot-incommand makes a decision to restrict the 

animal from the cabin or the flight for safety 

reasons, the CRO cannot countermand the 

pilot’s decision. This does not preclude the 

Department from taking subsequent 

enforcement action, however, if it is 

determined that the pilot’s decision was 

inconsistent with part 382. 

• If a CRO makes the final decision not to 

accept an animal as a service animal, then 

the CRO must provide a written statement to 

the passenger within 10 days explaining the 

reason(s) for that determination. If carrier 

personnel other than the CRO make the final 

decision, a written explanation is not 

required; however, because denying carriage 

of a legitimate service animal is a potential 

civil rights violation, it is recommended that 

carrier personnel explain to the passenger the 

reason the animal will not be accepted as a 

service animal. A recommended practice may 

include sending passengers whose animals 

are not accepted as service animals a letter 

within ten business days explaining the basis 

for such a decision. 

In considering whether a service animal 

should be excluded from the cabin, keep 

these things in mind: 

• Certain unusual service animals (i.e.

snakes, other reptiles, ferrets, rodents and 

spiders) pose unavoidable safety and/or 

public health concerns and airlines are not 

required to transport them. 

• In all other circumstances, each situation 

must be considered individually. Do not 

make assumptions about how a particular 

unusual animal is likely to behave based on 

past experience with other animals. You may 

inquire, however, about whether a particular 

animal has been trained to behave properly 

in a public setting. 

• Before deciding to exclude the animal, 

you should consider and try available means 

of mitigating the problem (e.g., muzzling a 

dog that barks frequently, allowing the 

passenger a reasonable amount of time under 

the circumstances to correct the disruptive 

behavior, offering the passenger a different 

seat where the animal won’t block the aisle.) 

If it is determined that the animal should 

not accompany the disabled passenger in the 

cabin at this time, offer the passenger 

alternative accommodations in accordance 

with Part 382 and company policy (e.g., 

accept the animal for carriage in the cargo 

compartment at no cost to the passenger). 

What about unusual service animals? 

• As indicated above, certain unusual 

service animals, i.e. snakes, other reptiles, 

ferrets, rodents and spiders, pose 

unavoidable safety and/or public health 

concerns and airlines are not required to 

transport them. The release of such an animal 

in the aircraft cabin could result in a direct 

threat to the health or safety of passengers 

and crewmembers. For these reasons, airlines 

are not required to transport these types of 

service animals in the cabin, and carriage in 

the cargo hold will be in accordance with 

company policies on the carriage of animals 

generally. 

• Other unusual animals such as miniature 

horses, pigs and monkeys should be 

evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Factors to 

consider are the animal’s size, weight, state 

and foreign country restrictions, and whether 

or not the animal would pose a direct threat 

to the health or safety of others, or cause a 

fundamental alteration (significant 

disruption) in the cabin service. If none of 

these factors apply, the animal may 

accompany the passenger in the cabin. In 

most other situations, the animal should be 

carried in the cargo hold in accordance with 

company policy. 

Miscellaneous Questions 

What about the passenger who has two or 

more service animals? 

• A single passenger legitimately may have 

two or more service animals. In these 

circumstances, you should make every 

reasonable effort to accommodate them in the 

cabin in accordance with part 382 and 

company policies on seating. This might 

include permitting the passenger to purchase 

a second seat so that the animals can be 

accommodated in accordance with FAA 

safety regulations. You may offer the 

passenger a seat on a later flight if the 

passenger and animals cannot be 

accommodated together at a single passenger 

seat. Airlines may not charge passengers for 

accommodations that are required by part 

382, including transporting service animals 

in the cargo compartment. If carriage in the 

cargo compartment is unavoidable, notify the 

destination station to return the service 

animal(s) to the passenger at the gate as soon 

as possible, or to assist the passenger as 

necessary to retrieve them in the appropriate 

location. 

What if the service animal is too large to fit 

under the seat in front of the customer? 

• If the service animal does not fit in the 

assigned location, you should relocate the 

passenger and the service animal to some 

other place in the cabin in the same class of 

service where the animal will fit under the 

seat in front of the passenger and not create 

an obstruction, such as the bulkhead. If no 

single seat in the cabin will accommodate the 

animal and passenger without causing an 

obstruction, you may offer the option of 

purchasing a second seat, traveling on a later 

flight or having the service animal travel in 

the cargo hold. As indicated above, airlines 

may not charge passengers with disabilities 

for services required by part 382, including 

transporting their oversized service animals 

in the cargo compartment. 

Should passengers provide advance notice 

to the airline concerning multiple or large 

service animals? 

In most cases, airlines may not insist on 

advance notice or health certificates for 

service animals under the ACAA regulations. 

However, it is very useful for passengers to 

contact the airline well in advance if one or 

more of their service animals may need to be 

transported in the cargo compartment. The 

passenger will need to understand airline 

policies and should find out what type of 

documents the carrier would need to ensure 

the safe passage of the service animal in the 

cargo compartment and any restrictions for 

cargo travel that might apply (e.g., 

temperature conditions that limit live animal 

transport).

What if an airline employee or another 

passenger on board is allergic or has an 

adverse reaction to a passenger’s service 

animal? 

Passengers who state they have allergies or 

other animal aversions should be located as 

far away from the service animal as 

practicable. Whether or not an individual’s 

allergies or animal aversions are disabilities 

(an issue this Guidance does not address), 

each individual’s needs should be addressed 

64394 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 

to the fullest extent possible under the 

circumstances and in accordance with the 

requirements of part 382 and company 

policy. 

Accommodating Passengers With Service 

Animals in the Cabin 

How can airline personnel help ensure that 

passengers with service animals are assigned 

and obtain appropriate seats on the aircraft? 

• Let passengers know the airline’s policy 

about seat assignments for people with 

disabilities. For instance: (1) Should the 

passenger request pre-boarding at the gate? or 

(2) should the passenger request an advance 

seat assignment (a priority seat such as a 

bulkhead seat or aisle seat) up to 24 hours 

before departure? or (3) should the passenger 

request an advance seat assignment at the 

gate on the day of departure? When assigning 

priority seats, ask the passenger what 

location best fits his/her needs. 

• Passengers generally know what kinds of 

seats best suit their service animals. In 

certain circumstances, passengers with 

service animals must either be provided their 

pre-requested priority seats, or if their 

requested seat location cannot be made 

available, they must be assigned to other 

available priority seats of their choice in the 

same cabin class. Part 382.38 requires 

airlines to provide a bulkhead seat or a seat 

other than a bulkhead seat at the request of 

an individual traveling with a service animal. 

• Passengers should comply with airline 

recommendations or requirements regarding 

when they should arrive at the gate before a 

flight. This may vary from airport to airport 

and airline to airline. Not all airlines 

announce pre-boarding for passengers with 

special needs, although it may be available. 

If you wish to request pre-boarding, tell the 

agent at the gate. 

• Unless pre-boarding is not part of your 

carrier’s business operation, a timely request 

for pre-boarding by a passenger with a 

disability should be honored (382.38(d)). 

• Part 382 does not require carriers to 

make modifications that would constitute an 

undue burden or would fundamentally alter 

their programs (382.7(c)). Therefore, the 

following are not required in providing 

accommodations for users of service animals 

and are examples of what might realistically 

be viewed as creating an undue burden: 

fl Asking another passenger to give up 

the space in front of his or her seat to 

accommodate a service animal; 

fl Denying transportation to any 

individual on a flight in order to provide an 

accommodation to a passenger with a service 

animal; 

fl Furnishing more than one seat per 

ticket; and 

fl Providing a seat in a class of service 

other than the one the passenger has 

purchased. 

Are airline personnel responsible for the care 

and feeding of service animals? 

Airline personnel are not required to 

provide care, food, or special facilities for 

service animals. The care and supervision of 

a service animal is solely the responsibility 

of the passenger with a disability whom the 

animal is accompanying. 

May an air carrier charge a maintenance or 

cleaning fee to passengers who travel with 

service animals? 

Part 382 prohibits air carriers from 

imposing special charges for 

accommodations required by the regulation, 

such as carriage of a service animal. 

However, an air carrier may charge 

passengers with a disability if a service 

animal causes damage, as long as it is its 

regular practice to charge non-disabled 

passengers for similar kinds of damage. For 

example, it could charge a passenger with a 

disability for the cost of repairing or cleaning 

a seat damaged by a service animal, assuming 

that it is its policy to charge when a nondisabled passenger or his or her pet causes 

similar damage. 

Advice for Passengers With Service Animals 

• Ask about the airline’s policy on advance 

seat assignments for people with disabilities. 

For instance: (1) Should a passenger request 

pre-boarding at the gate? or (2) should a 

passenger request an advance seat 

assignment (a priority seat such as a 

(bulkhead seat or aisle seat)) up to 24 hours 

before departure? or (3) should a passenger 

request an advance seat assignment at the 

gate on the day of departure?

• Although airlines are not permitted to 

automatically require documentation for 

service animals other than emotional support 

animals, if you think it would help you 

explain the need for a service animal, you 

may want to carry documentation from your 

physician or other licensed professional 

confirming your need for the service animal. 

Passengers with unusual service animals also 

may want to carry documentation confirming 

that their animal has been trained to perform 

a function or task for them. 

• If you need a specific seat assignment for 

yourself and your service animal, make your 

reservation as far in advance as you can, and 

identify your need at that time. 

• You may have to be flexible if your 

assigned seat unexpectedly turns out to be in 

an emergency exit row. When an aircraft is 

changed at the last minute, seating may be 

reassigned automatically. Automatic systems 

generally do not recognize special needs, and 

may make inappropriate seat assignments. In 

that case, you may be required by FAA 

regulations to move to another seat. 

• Arrive at the gate when instructed by the 

airline, typically at least one hour before 

departure, and ask the gate agent for preboarding—if that is your desire. 

• Remember that your assigned seat may 

be reassigned if you fail to check in on time; 

airlines typically release seat assignments not 

claimed 30 minutes before scheduled 

departure. In addition, if you fail to check in 

on time you may not be able to take 

advantage of the airline’s pre-board offer. 

• If you have a very large service animal 

or multiple animals that might need to be 

transported in the cargo compartment, 

contact the airline well in advance of your 

travel date. In most cases, airlines cannot 

insist on advance notice or health certificates 

for service animals under the ACAA 

regulations. However, it is very useful for 

passengers to contact the airline well in 

advance if one or more of their service 

animals may need to be transported in the 

cargo compartment. The passenger will need 

to understand airline policies and should 

find out what type of documents the carrier 

would need to ensure the safe passage of the 

service animal in the cargo compartment and 

any restrictions for cargo travel that might 

apply (e.g., temperature conditions that limit 

live animal transport). 

• If you are having difficulty receiving an 

appropriate accommodation, ask the airline 

employee to contact the airline’s complaint 

resolution official (CRO). Part 382 requires all 

airlines to have a CRO available during all 

hours of operation. The CRO is a resource for 

resolving difficulties related to disability 

accommodations. 

• Another resource for resolving issues 

related to disability accommodations is the 

U.S. Department of Transportation’s aviation 

consumer disability hotline. The toll-free 

number is 1–800–778–4838 (voice) and 1–

800–455–9880 (TTY). 

Glossary 

Direct Threat to the Health or Safety of 

Others 

A significant risk to the health or safety of 

others that cannot be eliminated by a 

modification of policies, practices, or 

procedures, or by the provision of auxiliary 

aids or services. 

Fundamental Alteration 

A modification that substantially alters the 

basic nature or purpose of a program, service, 

product or activity. 

Individual With a Disability 

‘‘Any individual who has a physical or 

mental impairment that, on a permanent or 

temporary basis, substantially limits one or 

more major life activities, has a record of 

such an impairment, or is regarded as having 

such an impairment.’’ (Section 382.3). 

Qualified Individual With a Disability 

Any individual with a disability who: 

(1) ‘‘takes those actions necessary to avail 

himself or herself of facilities or services 

offered by an air carrier to the general public 

with respect to accompanying or meeting a 

traveler, use of ground transportation, using 

terminal facilities, or obtaining information 

about schedules, fares or policies’’; 

(2) ‘‘offers, or makes a good faith attempt 

to offer, to purchase or otherwise validly to 

obtain * * * a ticket’’ ‘‘for air transportation 

on an air carrier’’; or 

(3) ‘‘purchases or possesses a valid ticket 

for air transportation on an air carrier and 

presents himself or herself at the airport for 

the purpose of traveling on the flight for 

which the ticket has been purchased or 

obtained; and meets reasonable, 

nondiscriminatory contract of carriage 

requirements applicable to all passengers.’’

(Section 382.3). 

Service Animal 

Any animal that is individually trained or 

able to provide assistance to a qualified 

person with a disability; or any animal 

shown by documentation to be necessary for 

the emotional well-being of a passenger. 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 213 / Thursday, November 4, 2004 / Proposed Rules 64395

Sources 

In addition to applicable provisions of part 

382, the sources for this guidance include the 

following: ‘‘Guidance Concerning Service 

Animals in Air Transportation,’’ (61 FR 

56420–56422, (November 1, 1996)), 

‘‘Commonly Asked Questions About Service 

Animals in Places of Business’’ (Department 

of Justice, July, 1996), and ‘‘ADA Business 

Brief: Service Animals’’ (Department of 

Justice, April 2002).

Appendix B to Part 382—Disability 

Complain Reporting Form 

Disability Complaint Reporting Form 

[Reserved] 

[FR Doc. 04–24371 Filed 11–3–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–62–P