Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 90 / Wednesday, May 9, 2012 / Notices 27267 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary 

[Docket No. DOT–OST–2012–0028] 

Submission of U.S. Carrier and Airport 

Tarmac Delay Contingency Plans to 

Department of Transportation for 

Approval 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), 

Department of Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The FAA Modernization and 

Reform Act of 2012 requires covered 

U.S. carriers and U.S. airports to submit 

to the Secretary of Transportation for 

review and approval tarmac delay 

contingency plans on or before May 14, 

2012. This document provides 

information on how covered U.S. 

carriers and airports can submit the 

required plans to the U.S. Department of 

Transportation’s Office of Aviation 

Enforcement and Proceedings 

(Enforcement Office) through the World 

Wide Web, and addresses frequently 

asked questions about the applicability 

of the statutory provisions. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Livaughn Chapman, Jr., or Laura 

Jennings, Office of the General Counsel, 

U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Ave. SE., W–96–429, 

Washington, DC 20590–0001; Phone: 

(202) 366–9342; Fax: (202) 366–7152; 

Email: Livaughn.Chapman@dot.gov, or 

Laura.Jennings@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On February 14, 2012, President 

Obama signed the FAA Modernization 

and Reform Act of 2012 (the ‘‘Act’’) into 

law. Among other things, the Act 

requires U.S. carriers that operate 

scheduled passenger service or public 

charter service using any aircraft with a 

design capacity of 30 or more seats, and 

operators of large hub, medium hub, 

small hub, or non-hub U.S. airports, to 

submit contingency plans for lengthy 

tarmac delays to the Secretary of 

Transportation for review and approval 

no later than May 14, 2012. The Act also 

requires each covered carrier and airport 

to ensure public access to its plan after 

DOT approval by posting the plan on its 

Web site. 

The requirements of the Act do not 

conflict with the Department’s existing 

tarmac delay rule (14 CFR part 259). The 

Act also permits the Department to 

establish, as necessary, minimum 

standards for contingency plans. As 

such, the specific requirements of Part 

259 remain in effect for U.S. and foreign 

air carriers. 

Under the Act and existing DOT rules, 

U.S. carrier contingency plans must 

contain a provision that a passenger 

shall have the option to deplane an 

aircraft and return to the airport 

terminal when there is an excessive 

tarmac delay (3 hours for domestic 

flights and 4 hours for international 

flights) at each large hub, medium hub, 

small hub, or non-hub U.S. airport at 

which they operate scheduled or public 

charter air service, with the following 

exceptions: (1) Where an air traffic 

controller with authority over the 

aircraft advises the pilot in command 

that permitting a passenger to deplane 

would significantly disrupt airport 

operations; or (2) where the pilot in 

command determines that permitting a 

passenger to deplane would jeopardize 

passenger safety or security. The 

deplaning option also must be offered to 

a passenger if the flight in covered air 

transportation is diverted to a 

commercial airport other than the 

originally scheduled airport. Under the 

Act, U.S. carrier contingency plans must 

also contain a description of how the 

carrier will: (1) Provide adequate food, 

potable water, restroom facilities, 

comfortable cabin temperatures, and 

access to medical treatment for 

passengers onboard an aircraft when the 

departure of a flight is delayed or 

disembarkation of passengers is 

delayed; and (2) share facilities and 

make gates available at the airport in an 

emergency. Existing DOT rules require 

carriers to provide assurance that the 

plan has been coordinated with airport 

authorities (including terminal facility 

operators where applicable), U.S. 

Customs and Border Protection and the 

Transportation Security Administration 

at each U.S. large hub airport, medium 

hub airport, small hub airport and nonhub airport that the carriers serve, as 

well as their regular U.S. diversion 

airports. It should be noted that, unlike 

the Act, DOT rules do not currently 

require sharing of facilities and gates or 

comfortable cabin temperature. The 

DOT rules will be modified in the future 

to reflect these new requirements as 

well as the new requirements relating to 

airports. 

Under the Act, airport contingency 

plans must contain a description of how 

the airport operator, to the maximum 

extent practicable, will: (1) Provide for 

the deplanement of passengers 

following excessive tarmac delays; (2) 

provide for the sharing of facilities and 

make gates available at the airport in an 

emergency; and (3) provide a sterile area 

following excessive tarmac delays for 

passengers who have not yet cleared 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

The Enforcement Office has 

established a Web address for the filing 

of contingency plans at http:// 

filingtarmacdelayplan.dot.gov, similar 

to the Department’s current disability 

complaint reporting system, to enable 

covered U.S. airlines and airports to 

easily submit their required plans 

through the World Wide Web. Carriers 

must use this system to submit their 

plans rather than sending the plans to 

the Department by mail or email. In 

order to use the tarmac delay plan filing 

system, covered U.S. airlines and 

airports will need to register on the Web 

site before they can upload their plans 

to the system. To register, click on the 

hyperlink titled ‘‘Create Account to 

Submit Tarmac Delay Contingency 

Plan’’ in the blue sign-in box on the 

home page, select the registration type 

(i.e., Airline or Airport), select your 

airline or airport name from the 

dropdown list, click continue, and then 

simply fill in and submit the following 

registration information: Representative 

Name; Representative Title; Telephone 

Number; and Email address. Carriers 

and airports may also choose to enter 

additional contact information (i.e., 

address, city state, zip and country), and 

any comments. If your airline or airport 

name is not listed in the dropdown list, 

click the ‘‘CLICK HERE’’ hyperlink 

under the dropdown list, and on the 

landing page, select the registration type 

(i.e., Airline or Airport), enter the 

Airline/Airport Code and Name in the 

appropriate fields, and click the 

‘‘Submit’’ button. Airlines/airports will 

then be able to fill in and submit the 

registration information. 

Each airline/airport representative 

will be assigned a unique username and 

password after DOT has verified the 

authenticity of the registered airline/ 

airport representative, which may take 

up to three days. This step is necessary 

to ensure that only authorized users can 

submit information. We encourage each 

covered airline/airport to register with 

the Web site as soon as possible so that 

the airline/airport representative 

receives a username and password from 

DOT in advance of May 14, 2012, the 

date by which covered U.S. airlines/ 

airports are required to submit their 

plans. 

Once an airline/airport representative 

receives a username and password from 

DOT, that representative will be able to 

access the Web site, upload their plan 

and submit it for approval 

electronically. Airline/airport 

representatives may also change their 

username or password and modify their 

contact information. To change a 

username or password, the 

representative would login with the 

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27268 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 90 / Wednesday, May 9, 2012 / Notices 

given username and password, mouse 

over the ‘‘Account Management’’ tab in 

the blue bar at the top of the screen, and 

then click on the ‘‘Change Password’’ 

link. Similarly, an airline/airport 

representative could modify his/her 

contact information by clicking on the 

‘‘Update Account’’ link in the ‘‘Account 

Management’’ tab. 

After logging into the system, clicking 

on the ‘‘Submit New Plan’’ button will 

take the airline/airport representative to 

a screen where he/she can begin the 

contingency plan submission process. 

At this point, an airline/airport 

representative has the option of either 

choosing the system-generated title for 

the plan or entering his/her own title for 

the plan in the ‘‘Submission Title’’ field. 

Clicking on the ‘‘Create New Plan 

Submission’’ button will then take the 

airline/airport representative to a screen 

where he/she can upload the plan 

document, enter comments and submit 

the plan to DOT for approval. To upload 

a tarmac delay plan document, enter a 

title for the document in the ‘‘Document 

Title’’ field, then click the ‘‘Browse’’ 

button in the ‘‘File’’ field, select the 

appropriate file, and click ‘‘Add New 

Document’’ to upload the selected file 

into the system. Airlines/airports may 

upload multiple documents. When an 

airline/airport representative finishes 

uploading his/her document(s), he/she 

should check the certification box after 

reading and acknowledging the legal 

certification statement prior to clicking 

the ‘‘Submit for Approval’’ button. After 

submission, the documents will be 

forwarded to DOT for review. 

If, after submitting a plan for 

approval, an airline or airport 

determines that it is necessary to 

remove their plan and submit a 

replacement plan for approval, the 

airline/airport representative should 

resubmit their replacement plan under 

the original Submission Title by 

clicking ‘‘Resubmit This Entry’’ after 

logging back into the system and then 

upload the revised plan using the 

uploading procedures noted above. 

Similarly, if after submission DOT 

requires changes to an airline/airport’s 

plan, the airline/airport representative 

should make the requisite changes and 

submit the revised plan under the 

original Submission Title by clicking 

‘‘Resubmit This Entry.’’ 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Since President Obama signed the 

FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 

2012 into law on February 14, 2012, a 

number of airline and airport 

representatives have asked for 

clarification or interpretation of the text 

of the Act. These clarifications and 

interpretations have been disseminated 

primarily through informal 

conversations or emails between DOT 

staff and individual airport or airline 

representatives. The Department 

believes that the guidance provided to 

these airline and airport representatives 

may also be of interest to other members 

of the public. To ensure that this 

guidance will be more accessible to the 

public, and to ensure that the tarmac 

delay contingency plan submission 

requirements of the Act will be more 

readily understandable, we are 

including frequently asked questions 

and DOT responses below regarding the 

tarmac delay contingency plan 

submission requirements of the Act. 

1. Question: Which airports must 

submit tarmac delay contingency plans 

for review and approval? 

Answer: The Act requires operators of 

large hub, medium hub, small hub, or 

non-hub commercial U.S. airports, to 

submit a contingency plan for lengthy 

tarmac delays to the Secretary of 

Transportation for review and approval. 

In defining the hub size of an airport, 

the Department uses the airport-specific 

thresholds published by the 

Department’s Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics (BTS). A large hub airport 

means an airport accounting for at least 

1.00 percent of the total enplanements 

in the United States. A medium hub 

airport means an airport accounting for 

at least 0.25 percent but less than 1.00 

percent of the total enplanements in the 

United States. A small hub airport 

means an airport accounting for at least 

0.05%, but less than 0.25% of the total 

enplanements in the United States. A 

non-hub airport means an airport 

accounting for enplanements of more 

than 10,000 passengers but less than 

0.05% of the total enplanements in the 

United States. A list of airport 

information for calendar year 2010 (the 

latest available data) is available on the 

FAA’s Web site at http://www.faa.gov/ 

airports/planning_capacity/ 

passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/ 

media/cy10_primary_enplanements.pdf. 

2. Question: Does DOT have a sample 

of an approved tarmac delay 

contingency plan or a model tarmac 

delay contingency plan that airports can 

use as a guide in developing their own 

plan? 

Answer: Carriers and airports are 

directed to the model contingency 

planning document, titled 

‘‘Development of Contingency Plans for 

Lengthy Airline On-Board Ground 

Delays,’’ that was developed by the 

Department’s National Task Force to 

Develop Model Contingency Plans to 

Deal with Lengthy Airline On-Board 

Ground Delays for contingency planning 

guidance. See Docket No. DOT–OST– 

2007–0108–0124. This document can 

also be found at http:// 

airconsumer.dot.gov/publications/ 

TarmacTFModelContingencyPlanning 

Document.pdf. We also understand that 

Airports Council International—North 

America and the American Association 

of Airport Executives have developed a 

template that airports can use as a 

reference. Airports can contact those 

organizations for further information. 

The Airport Cooperative Research 

Program (ACRP) has developed some 

guidance materials in this area as well. 

Those materials can be found at 

http://www.trb.org/ACRP/Blurbs/ 

166569.aspx. Due to the varying nature 

and requirements of each airport, 

however, DOT does not plan to publish 

a sample of an approved tarmac delay 

contingency plan. Covered airlines and 

airports are required to post a copy of 

their approved contingency plan on 

their Web site. 

3. Question: Many airports have 

developed comprehensive irregular 

operations plans that deal with issues 

outside of the requirements of the Act. 

Should carriers submit those plans? 

Answer: Airports are free to submit 

plans that cover more than the statutory 

requirements of the Act; however, they 

are not required to do so. The 

Department’s review of airport 

contingency plans will concentrate on 

the statutory requirements for such 

plans. 

4. Question: Are covered U.S. carriers 

required to submit separate airportspecific, station-level contingency plans 

for each airport that they serve? 

Answer: The Act requires each 

covered U.S. carrier to submit a plan for 

each covered airport but does not 

prohibit a carrier from doing so through 

the submission of one overarching 

tarmac delay plan covering all of the 

carrier’s operations that contains the 

requisite assurances required by the 

statute. Of course, airlines are also free 

to submit separate airport-specific, 

station-level plans if they prefer. 

5. Question: Does the requirement for 

air carriers to submit tarmac delay 

contingency plans apply to foreign flag 

carriers? 

Answer: No. The statutory 

requirement for air carriers to submit 

tarmac delay contingency plans does 

not apply to foreign flag carriers. The 

statutory requirement for air carriers to 

submit tarmac delay contingency plans 

applies only to U.S. air carriers that 

operate at least one aircraft with a 

design seat capacity of 30 or more 

passenger seats. 

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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 90 / Wednesday, May 9, 2012 / Notices 27269 

Issued This 2nd Day of May 2012, at 

Washington, DC. 

Blane A. Workie, 

Deputy Assistant General Counsel for 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, U.S. 

Department of Transportation. 

[FR Doc. 2012–11105 Filed 5–8–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–9X–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

[Docket No. FAA–2011–0183] 

Access to Aircraft Situation Display to 

Industry (ASDI) and National Airspace 

System Status Information (NASSI) 

Data 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed process for 

limiting aircraft data displayed via 

ASDI; request for comments. 

SUMMARY: On December 16, 2011, the 

FAA published a notice of an interim 

policy, instructing aircraft owners and 

operators on how they can limit the 

FAA’s dissemination of their aircraft 

data via the FAA’s ASDI program. The 

notice indicated that the FAA would 

later propose specific procedures by 

which aircraft owners and operators can 

in the future express their preference on 

the FAA’s release of their aircraft data 

to the public via ASDI. This document 

is the FAA’s proposal and the FAA’s 

invitation to the public to comment on 

any aspect of it. Until the FAA 

publishes a document that sets forth the 

FAA’s final decision on the ASDI 

blocking process, the FAA will continue 

to operate under the interim policy that 

the FAA described in the notice 

published in December 2011. 

DATES: Any written information that 

responds to the FAA’s proposed 

procedures must be submitted by June 

8, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit written 

information, identified by docket 

number FAA–2011–0183, by any of the 

following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://regulations.gov and follow the 

online instructions for sending your 

comments electronically. 

• Mail: Send comments by mail to 

Docket Operations, U.S. Department of 

Transportation, M–30, Room W12–140, 

1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., 

Washington, DC 20590–0001. Persons 

wishing to receive confirmation of 

receipt of their written submission 

should include a self-addressed 

stamped postcard. 

• Hand Delivery: Deliver comments to 

Docket Operations in Room W12–140 

on the ground floor of the West Building 

at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., 

Washington, DC, between 9:00 a.m. and 

5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, 

except Federal holidays. 

• Facsimile: Fax comments to the 

docket operations personnel at 202– 

493–2251. 

Privacy: We will post all comments 

that we receive, without change, at 

http://www.regulations.gov, including 

any personal information that you 

provide. Using the search function of 

the docket Web site, anyone can find 

and read the electronic form of all 

comments in any of our dockets, 

including the name of the individual 

sending the comment or signing the 

comment on behalf of an association, 

business, labor union, or other entity or 

organization. You may review the DOT’s 

complete Privacy Act Statement in the 

Federal Register at 65 FR 19477–78 

(April 11, 2000), or you may find it at 

http://docketsinfo.dot.gov. 

Reviewing the docket: To read 

background documents or comments 

received, go to http:// 

www.regulations.gov at any time and 

follow the online instructions for 

accessing the docket, or go to Docket 

Operations in Room W12–140 on the 

ground floor of the West Building at 

1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., 

Washington, DC, between 9:00 a.m. and 

5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, 

except Federal holidays. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: You 

may direct any questions on adding 

aircraft to and removing aircraft from 

the ASDI block list to the FAA’s ASDI 

program staff by telephone at (540) 422– 

4649 or by electronic mail at 

ASDIBlock@faa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

November 18, 2011, the President 

signed into law H.R. 2112, the 

‘‘Consolidated and Further Continuing 

Appropriations Act, 2012,’’ which 

provides the U.S. Department of 

Transportation’s appropriation for the 

balance of fiscal year 2012. Section 

119A of that statute provides that: 

[n]otwithstanding any other provision of law, 

none of the funds made available under this 

Act or any prior Act may be used to 

implement or to continue to implement any 

limitation on the ability of any owner or 

operator of a private aircraft to obtain, upon 

a request to the Administrator of the [FAA], 

a blocking of that owner’s or operator’s 

aircraft registration number from any display 

of the [FAA’s ASDI] data that is made 

available to the public, except data made 

available to a Government agency, for the 

noncommercial flights of that owner or 

operator. 

Public Law 112–55, § 119A, 125 Stat. 

552, 649. 

In light of this appropriation 

language, the FAA withdrew a prior 

policy that it published on June 3, 2011, 

which required owners or operators to 

submit a Certified Security Concern in 

order to have their aircraft blocked from 

the public’s view on displays of ASDI 

information. In connection with its 

withdrawal of the June 3 policy, the 

FAA published interim procedures 

under which aircraft owners and 

operators can request that the FAA 

block their aircraft from release to the 

public via the FAA’s ASDI data feed. 78 

FR 78,328 (Dec. 16, 2011). At that time, 

the FAA noted that it would propose 

more detailed procedures for the ASDI 

blocking program and solicit public 

comment on the proposal. This notice is 

the FAA’s proposal, and the FAA 

invites the public to comment on any 

aspect of it in any of the manners 

described in the ADDRESSES section of 

this notice. After the FAA publishes its 

final procedures with respect to 

blocking aircraft data from the public 

ASDI data feed, the FAA may amend its 

memoranda of agreement with the 

subscribers who receive the information 

to clarify the subscriber responsibilities. 

Substance of Aircraft Owner or 

Operator Requests 

Consistent with Congress’ recent 

appropriations directive, the FAA 

proposes to continue to honor all 

aircraft owner or operator requests that 

the FAA block their aircraft from 

appearing in the FAA’s public ASDI 

data feed. Aircraft owners and operators 

can submit requests on their own behalf 

or may do so through their legally 

authorized agent. The FAA does not 

view associations to be agents on behalf 

of their members for this purpose. 

To assist the FAA in accurately and 

efficiently processing the number of 

requests that the FAA expects, the FAA 

intends to ask that all requests for ASDI 

blocking include specific information. 

The receipt of this information could 

influence whether the FAA can add or 

delete aircraft from the ASDI block list 

in a timely way. In particular, the FAA 

expects that its program staff will need: 

• The name of the requestor; 

• The registration number(s) of the 

aircraft to be blocked or unblocked; 

• A certification that the requestor is 

the owner or operator of the specified 

aircraft; 

• A telephone number and electronic 

mail address to which the FAA can 

direct questions about the request; and 

• For a request to block one or more 

aircraft, a statement indicating whether 

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