BEFORE THE 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

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In the matter of: : 

 : 

Final Rule : 

Enhancing Airline : Docket No. DOT-OST-2007-0022 

Passenger Protections : 

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REQUEST TO EXTEND EFFECTIVE DATE 

The Air Transport Association of America, Inc.,1

 the Regional Airline Association2 and the Air 

Carrier Association of America on behalf of our members, have a strong interest in the final rule 

published in the Federal Register at 74 FR 68983 on December 30, 2009 with an effective date of 

April 29, 2010. By this filing, ATA requests the Department extend the effective date 90 days 

for the disclosure requirements in 14 CFR 234.11(b) that will require extensive changes to 

carrier reporting systems. 

The Department mandates several reporting requirements in this final rule that will require 

system and protocol changes, design work, programming, and testing of the new procedures to 

ensure data integrity. Specifically, the Department mandates that for each domestic flight for 

which schedule information is available on its Web site, including domestic code-share flights, a 

reporting carrier must display (1) the percentage of arrivals that were on time, i.e. a flight that 

arrives less than 15 minutes after its published arrival time, (2) the percentage of arrivals that 

were more than 30 minutes late, (3) special highlighting if the flight was more than 30 minutes 

late more than 50 percent of the time, (4) the percentage of flight cancellations if 5 percent or 

more of the flight’s operations were canceled in the month covered.3

Most carriers already comply with the first item but all of the remaining items represent new 

parameters and items (2) and (3) are not currently reported to the Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics. Each carrier will have to develop a method to capture the percentage of arrivals more 

than 30 minutes late and to identify any flights that are 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of 

the time. In addition to designing how the information will be captured, each carrier will have to 

 

1

 ATA airline members are: ABX Air, Inc.; AirTran Airways; Alaska Airlines, Inc.; American Airlines, Inc.; 

ASTAR Air Cargo, Inc.; Atlas Air, Inc.; Continental Airlines, Inc.; Delta Air Lines, Inc.; Evergreen International 

Airlines, Inc.; Federal Express Corporation; Hawaiian Airlines; JetBlue Airways Corp.; Southwest Airlines Co.; 

United Airlines, Inc.; UPS Airlines; and US Airways, Inc. ATA Airline Associate Members are: Air Canada; Air 

Jamaica Ltd.; and Mexicana. 

2

 Aerolitoral; Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp.; AirNet Systems Inc.; American Eagle Airlines; Atlantic 

Southeast Airlines; Cape Air; Chautauqua Airlines; Colgan Air; Comair; CommutAir; Compass Airlines; Empire 

Airlines; Era Aviation; ExpressJet; GoJet; Grand Canyon Airlines/Scenic; Great Lakes Aviation; Gulfstream Int'l 

Airlines; Horizon Air; Island Air; Jazz Air; Lynx Aviation, Inc.; Mesaba Aviation; New England Airlines; Piedmont 

Airlines; Pinnacle Airlines, Inc.; PSA Airlines; Republic Airlines; Shuttle America; SkyWest Airlines, Inc; 

Trans States Airlines 

3

 See 14 CFR 234.11, 74 FR 69002. 
program their internal systems to make these changes and test the new procedures to ensure data 

integrity. Carriers will also have to modify their websites to display this new information. 

Finally, in addition to all of the internal carrier changes, each carrier will also have to complete 

the same processes for each domestic code-share partner whose flights are displayed on its 

website. This inter-carrier coordination to display historic flight information for domestic codeshare partner(s) is unprecedented and will take a significant amount of time. 

As the Department is aware, it is extremely important that carriers have enough time to 

thoroughly test and audit any publicly displayed information. Given the extensive coordination 

this regulation will require and the importance of presenting this new information correctly, the 

current compliance period is inadequate. We therefore request that the effective date for 14 CFR 

234.11(b) be extended for 90 days. 

Respectfully submitted, 

 Douglas Mullen Roger Cohen 

Senior Attorney Regulatory Affairs President 

Air Transport Association of America, Inc. Regional Airline Association 

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 2025 M Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20004 Washington, DC 20036 

202-626-4000 (202) 367-1250 

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

January 22, 2009 

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