BEFORE THE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHINGTON, D.C.

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: 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 Association 2 and the Air

Carrier Association of America on behalf of our me mbers, have a strong inte rest 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 requirem ents in this final rule that will require system and protocol changes, design work, pr ogramming, and testing of the new procedures to ensure data integrity. Specifica lly, the Department mandates that for each domestic flight for

which schedule information is available on its We b site, including domestic code-share flights, a reporting carrier must display (1) th e percentage of arrivals that we re 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 highli ghting if the flight was more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time, (4) the pe rcentage of flight cance llations if 5 percent or more of the flight’s operations were canceled in the month covered. 3

Most carriers already comply with the first ite m but all of the remaining items represent new parameters and items (2) and (3) are not curren tly reported to the Bur eau of Transportation

Statistics. Each carrier will have to develop a method to capture th e percentage of arrivals more than 30 minutes late and to identify any flights th at 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 Airway s; 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 Air lines; JetBlue Airways Corp.; Southwest Airlines Co.; United Airlines, Inc.; UPS Airlines; and US Airways, In c. 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; Colg an 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; J azz Air; Lynx Aviation, Inc.; Mesaba Av iation; 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 cha nges and test the new procedures to ensure data integrity. Carriers will also have to modify th eir websites to display this new information. Finally, in addition to all of the internal carrier changes, each carri er 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 displa y historic flight information for domestic codeshare partner(s) is unprecedented and will take a si gnificant amount of time.

As the Department is aware, it is extremel y important that carriers have enough time to thoroughly test and audit any public ly 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 theref ore 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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