I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 700

To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide enhanced protections

for airline passengers.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 10, 1999

Mr. SHUSTER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide enhanced

protections for airline passengers.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Airline Passenger Bill

5 of Rights Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. AIRLINE PASSENGER PROTECTION.

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 417 of

8 title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the

9 end the following:
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1 ‘‘§ 41716. Air carrier passenger protection

2 ‘‘(a) USE OF SINGLE FLIGHT NUMBER.—No air car3 rier may use a single flight number to denote a flight that

4 the air carrier knows will involve a change in aircraft be5 tween segments of the flight.

6 ‘‘(b) DELAY, CANCELLATION, OR DIVERSION.—

7 ‘‘(1) EXPLANATION REQUIRED.—An announce8 ment by an air carrier of (A) a delay or cancellation

9 of a flight, or (B) a diversion of a flight to an air10 port other than the airport at which the flight is

11 scheduled to land, shall include an explanation of the

12 reason or reasons for the delay, cancellation, or di13 version.

14 ‘‘(2) PROHIBITION ON FALSE OR MISLEADING

15 EXPLANATIONS.—No air carrier shall provide an ex16 planation under paragraph (1) that the air carrier

17 knows or has reason to know is false or misleading.

18 ‘‘(c) EXCESSIVE DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL

19 DELAY.—

20 ‘‘(1) LIABILITY IMPOSED.—An air carrier shall

21 be liable to each passenger on an aircraft for an ex22 cessive departure or arrival delay of the aircraft.

23 ‘‘(2) AMOUNT OF LIABILITY.—

24 ‘‘(A) DELAYS OF MORE THAN 2 BUT LESS

25 THAN 3 HOURS.—If the excessive departure or

26 arrival delay is more than 2 but less than 3
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1 hours, the amount of liability under paragraph

2 (1) shall be 200 percent of the price paid by the

3 passenger for transportation by the air carrier.

4 ‘‘(B) DELAYS OF 3 HOURS OR MORE.—If

5 the excessive departure or arrival delay is 3

6 hours or more, the amount of liability under

7 paragraph (1) shall be—

8 ‘‘(i) the amount determined under

9 subparagraph (A), plus

10 ‘‘(ii) an additional 100 percent of the

11 price paid by the passenger for such trans12 portation multiplied by the number of

13 hours (or portion thereof) that such period

14 exceeds 3 hours.

15 ‘‘(3) EXCESSIVE DEPARTURE OR ARRIVAL

16 DELAY.—In paragraph (1), the term ‘excessive de17 parture or arrival delay’ means a period of time in

18 excess of 2 hours—

19 ‘‘(A) in the case of departure delay, begin20 ning when the door of an aircraft is closed at

21 an airport and ending when the aircraft takes

22 off from the airport or when the door of the air23 craft is open for deplaning of passengers at the

24 airport; and
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1 ‘‘(B) in the case of arrival delay, beginning

2 upon touchdown of an aircraft at an airport

3 and ending when the door of the aircraft is

4 open for deplaning of passengers at the airport.

5 ‘‘(4) DEPARTURE DELAYS CAUSED BY AIR

6 TRAFFIC CONTROL DIRECTIVES.—Notwithstanding

7 paragraph (3), a departure delay in excess of 2

8 hours shall not be treated as an excessive departure

9 delay for purposes of paragraph (1) if the Adminis10 trator of the Federal Aviation Administration deter11 mines that the departure delay was the result of an

12 air traffic control directive and that the carrier did

13 not receive notification that it would receive such di14 rective prior to the scheduled departure time of the

15 flight.

16 ‘‘(d) ECONOMIC CANCELLATIONS.—

17 ‘‘(1) NONSAFETY CANCELLATIONS.—If, on the

18 date a flight of an air carrier is scheduled, the car19 rier cancels the flight for reasons other than safety,

20 the carrier shall provide to each passenger that has

21 purchased air transportation on the flight—

22 ‘‘(A) air transportation in a timely manner

23 to the destination for which such passenger

24 purchased the air transportation; and
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1 ‘‘(B) a refund of the amount paid for the

2 air transportation.

3 ‘‘(2) PATTERNS OF PRACTICE.—

4 ‘‘(A) NOTIFICATION OF SECRETARY.—If

5 an air carrier cancels a flight, the air carrier

6 shall submit to the Secretary of Transportation,

7 in writing before the 30th day following the

8 date of cancellation of the flight, the following

9 information with respect to the flight:

10 ‘‘(i) The flight number.

11 ‘‘(ii) The date and scheduled time of

12 departure of the flight.

13 ‘‘(iii) The percentage of seats on the

14 flight that would have been filled, as of the

15 date of cancellation, if the flight was not

16 canceled.

17 ‘‘(B) PERIODIC REVIEWS.—The Secretary

18 shall periodically review information submitted

19 under subparagraph (A) by each air carrier to

20 determine if there is a pattern of the air carrier

21 canceling a specific flight or canceling flights

22 that are undersold.

23 ‘‘(C) INVESTIGATION.—If the Secretary

24 determines under subparagraph (B) that there

25 is a pattern of an air carrier canceling a spe-
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1 cific flight or canceling flights that are

2 undersold, the Secretary shall conduct an inves3 tigation to determine whether the air carrier is

4 canceling the flight or flights for reasons other

5 than safety.

6 ‘‘(D) RESTITUTION.—If, as a result of an

7 investigation under subparagraph (C), the Sec8 retary determines that a flight is canceled by an

9 air carrier for reasons other than safety, the

10 carrier shall provide a refund to each passenger

11 who purchased air transportation for that flight

12 equal to the amount they paid for that air

13 transportation even if the carrier provided the

14 air transportation to those passengers.

15 ‘‘(E) UNDERSOLD DEFINED.—In this sec16 tion, a flight of an air carrier is undersold as

17 of a certain date if 70 percent or more of the

18 seats on the flight are not purchased on or be19 fore such date.

20 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON CANCELLATIONS FOR REA21 SONS OTHER THAN SAFETY.—In this subsection, a

22 flight shall not be treated as being canceled for rea23 sons other than safety if the flight is canceled be24 cause of, among other things, an insufficient number

25 of crew, weather, or mechanical problems that pre-
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1 vent the safe operation of the flight or prevent the

2 flight from operating in accordance with regulations

3 of the Federal Aviation Administration.

4 ‘‘(e) LOST BAGGAGE.—If an air carrier finds baggage

5 or property that has on it the name of an individual, the

6 carrier shall make a good faith effort to find the individual

7 and return the baggage or property to the individual.

8 ‘‘(f) LIMITATION ON SECURITY SCREENINGS.—No

9 air carrier or airport may conduct or have conducted a

10 security procedure at an airport in a manner that results

11 in a child under 2 years of age being separated from the

12 child’s parent or guardian without the consent of the par13 ent or guardian.

14 ‘‘(g) CODE SHARING.—No air carrier, foreign air car15 rier, or ticket agent may sell air transportation in the

16 United States for a flight that bears a designator code

17 of a carrier other than the carrier that will provide the

18 air transportation unless the air carrier, foreign air car19 rier, or ticket agent selling the air transportation first in20 forms the person purchasing the air transportation that

21 the carrier providing the air transportation will be a car22 rier other than the carrier whose designator code is used

23 to identify the flight.

24 ‘‘(h) AIR CARRIER PRICING POLICIES.—An air car25 rier may not—
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1 ‘‘(1) prohibit a person (including a govern2 mental entity) that purchases air transportation

3 from only using a portion of the air transportation

4 purchased (including using the air transportation

5 purchased only for 1-way travel instead of round-trip

6 travel); and

7 ‘‘(2) assess an additional fee on or charge to—

8 ‘‘(A) such a person; or

9 ‘‘(B) any ticket agent that sold the air

10 transportation to such person.

11 ‘‘(i) FREQUENT FLYER AWARDS.—Upon request of

12 any person (including a governmental entity), an air car13 rier shall disclose the number or percentage of seats that

14 the carrier intends to make available on a specific date

15 for use by a person redeeming an award under a frequent

16 flyer program of the carrier on any route in air transpor17 tation provided by the carrier.

18 ‘‘(j) REGULATIONS.—The Secretary may issue regu19 lations to carry out this section.’’.

20 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of sec21 tions for such title is amended by inserting after the item

22 relating to section 41715 the following:

‘‘41716. Air carrier passenger protection.’’.

23 SEC. 3. CIVIL PENALTIES.

24 Section 46301(a) of title 49, United States Code, is

25 amended—
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1 (1) in paragraph (6) by inserting ‘‘MAXIMUM

2 PENALTY FOR VIOLATIONS RELATING TO AIR SERV3 ICE TERMINATION NOTICES.—’’ before ‘‘Notwith4 standing’’;

5 (2) by aligning paragraph (6) with paragraph

6 (5) of such section; and

7 (3) by adding at the end the following:

8 ‘‘(7) MAXIMUM PENALTY FOR VIOLATIONS RE9 LATING TO SINGLE FLIGHT NUMBER REQUIRE10 MENT.—Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the maxi11 mum civil penalty for an air carrier violating section

12 41716(a) with respect to a flight of an air carrier

13 shall be an amount determined by multiplying the

14 maximum amount of a civil penalty under paragraph

15 (1) by the number of passengers on the flight.

16 ‘‘(8) MAXIMUM PENALTY FOR VIOLATIONS RE17 LATING TO EXPLANATIONS OF DELAYS, CANCELLA18 TIONS, AND DIVERSIONS.—Notwithstanding para19 graph (1), the maximum civil penalty for an air car20 rier violating section 41716(b) with respect to a

21 flight of an air carrier shall be an amount deter22 mined by multiplying the maximum amount of a

23 civil penalty under paragraph (1) by the number of

24 passengers who paid for transportation on the

25 flight.’’.
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1 SEC. 4. UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN.

2 (a) STUDY.—The Secretary of Transportation shall

3 conduct a study to determine if air carriers are providing,

4 during changes of planes, a level of supervision of unac5 companied children under 12 years of age that is sufficient

6 to ensure the safety of such children.

7 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date

8 of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall transmit to

9 Congress a report containing the results of the study con10 ducted under this section.

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