BEFORE THE

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

WASHINGTON, D.C.

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In the matter of: :

:

Reports by Air Carriers on Incidents :

Involving Animals During Air Transport : Docket No. DOT–OST–2010–0211

:

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REQUEST TO EXTEND THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

The Airlines for America (A4A), Regional Airline Association (RAA), Air Carrier Association 

of America, Inc. (ACAA) and our respective members, have a strong interest in the proposed

rule (published in the Federal Register at 77 Fed. Reg. 38747 on June 29, 2012) seeking to 

change animal incident reporting regulations. A 60-day comment period, closing August 28, 

2012, has been provided. By this filing, we request that the Department extend the comment 

period an additional 30 days after publishing the preliminary regulatory analysis (PRA) in the 

docket for the reasons explained below. 

First, the docket associated with this rulemaking does not yet include the Department’s PRA, 

which provides the cost and benefit analyses underpinning the proposal.

1

 Without this analysis it 

is extremely difficult for the public to understand how the Department reached the conclusion 

that benefits outweigh the costs of the proposal as required by Executive Orders 12866 and 

13563.

Second, the regulatory evaluation is particularly important in this proceeding because there are 

conflicting statements between the NPRM preamble summary and the Regulatory Analyses and 

Notices (RAN) section, which summarizes the PRA. In the RAN section, the Department states 

“Aside from the December report, a carrier would be required to report only during the months 

where the carrier experiences a reportable animal incident.”2 However, the preamble asks 

whether carriers should be required to file “negative reports,” in other words, should carriers file 

reports in months when no incident takes place. We question whether the NPRM is proposing 

that a carrier file negative reports or not. If the proposal is to file negative reports the RAN 

section of the preamble should be clarified. The public cannot know whether the PRA also 

needs to be changed without the PRA in the docket.

The RAN also states “Currently, 15 of the 36 carriers that would be affected are already required 

to collect information on incidents involving the loss, injury, or death of an animal. For these 15 

carriers, who account for approximately 90 percent of the domestic market, there would be no 

 

1

See 77 Fed. Reg. 38750 stating “A copy of the preliminary regulatory evaluation has been placed in the 

docket. We invite comments on the quantification of costs and benefits for this proposed requirement, as well as the 

methodology used to develop our cost and benefit estimates. We also seek comment on how unquantified costs and 

benefits could be measured.”

2

77 Fed. Reg. 38749.
2

additional costs.”3 However, this statement is not consistent with the proposed definition of 

“animal,” which now includes commercially shipped dogs and cats.

4

 This significant change, 

reporting only pet incidents today versus also reporting commercially shipped dogs and cats 

under the NPRM, would likely incur additional costs to the 15 carriers currently reporting animal 

incidents. The Department should correct this error in the RAN. We do not know if the PRA 

must also be corrected. 

Finally, although the RAN states the scope of animal incident reporting requirements will expand 

from 15 to 36 carriers, the NPRM does not list the carriers, so there is no way to verify if the list 

is accurate. Presumably the PRA lists the potentially impacted carriers and is another reason 

why publishing the PRA in the docket is important and why comment development cannot 

progress until the PRA is available.

In light of the missing PRA and conflicts described above, we respectfully request the 

Department publish the PRA in the docket associated with this rulemaking and extend the 

comment period by 30 days after such publication.

Respectfully submitted,

Douglas Mullen Roger Cohen

Assistant General Counsel President

Airlines for America Regional Airline Association

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 2025 M Street N.W., Suite 800

Washington, DC 20004 Washington, D.C. 20036

(202) 626-4000 (202) 367-1273

dmullen@airlines.org cohen@raa.org

Edward P. Faberman

Executive Director

Air Carrier Association of America

1776 K Street, NW.

Washington DC 20006

(202) 719-7420

epfaberman@acaa1.com

July 20, 2012

 

3

Id.

4

77 Fed. Reg. 38750-38751.