Order 201 4

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY WASHINGTON, D.C.

Issued by the Department of Transportation

O n the Ninth day of January , 201 4

Petitio n to Delay the Ef fective Date of Served January 9 , 201 4 14 CFR 382.67(c)

DOT

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RESPONSE TO PETITION

By this order, we are denying the petition s of Airlines for America (A4A) and the International Air Transport Association (I ATA) to delay the effectiveness of 14 CFR

3 82 .67(c) for the reasons discussed below but are also an nouncing that the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings (Aviation Enforcement Office) has decided not to enforce section 382.67(c) until April 12, 2 014, and thereafter to apply its enforcement

discretion to the situations of individual carriers in monitoring compliance with this provision

.

Background

On November 12, 2013, the Department of Transportation (Department or DOT) published a final rule i n the Federal Register titled “ Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel; Accessibility of Aircraft and Stowage of Wheelchairs .” See 78 Fed. Reg. 67918 (November 12, 2013). The rule provides airlines flexibility to select the

method for carrying passengers’ manual folding wheelchairs in the passenger cabin of

new aircraft as defined in the Department’s disability regulation

. 1 If a n airline chooses to use a closet as the priority space to stow a passenger’s manual wheelchair in the cabin

, it must install a sign or placard prominently on the closet indicating that wheelchairs and

other assistive devices have priority over other items brought onto the aircraft by other

passengers or crew

. See 14 CFR 382.67(c). The final rule becomes effectiv e on January 12, 2013, 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register

.

Since the final rule was published in the Federal Register on November 12, 2013, the Department has been working collaboratively with the regulated entities to assist th em in complying with the various requirements in this rule. The Department hosted webinars

1 For a foreign carrier, an aircraft is considered new if it was ordered after May 13, 2009, or d elivered after May 13, 2010. For a U.S. carrier, an aircraft is considered new if it was ordered after April 5, 1990, or delivered after April 5, 1992. Se e 14 CFR 382.67 (g).2

on November 14, 2013, and December 3, 2013, and an all

- day forum on December 13, 2013, to explain the requirements of the final rule and to answer questions. Staff members in the Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office have also participated in meetings and teleconferences to provide further guidance to assist industry stakeholders in their compliance efforts.

The Petitions

On December 6, 2013, A4A filed a petiti on requesting that the Department extend the effective date of the closet placarding provision in the final rule by nine months, to October 13, 2014. A4A states that the design process can be expected to take up to three

months and that the Federal Aviati on Administration ( FAA ) approval process and procurement is a multi

- month process. According to A4A, an extension of time is warranted due to the time it will take carriers to execute the following steps in complying with the requirement: 1) design/enginee ring of the needed placards; 2) approval of the placards by the FAA ; 3) incorporation in drawings and maintenance documents; 4)

procurement; and 5) installation on aircraft.

On December 17

, 2013, IATA filed a document titled, “Support for Airline s for

A merica’s Request to Extend Closet Placarding Effective Date.” In its submission, IATA endorses A4A’s position in support of extending the effective date of the signage requirement to October 13, 2014. In addition to endorsing A4A’s position , IATA cited

ad ditional challenges faced by foreign air carriers in meeting the rule’s compliance date. IATA states that foreign carriers may be required to receive approval from both the FAA and their local Civil Aviation Authority and that this process could take sign ificantly longer than the two

- month compliance deadline. In addition, IATA states that foreign carriers may rotate aircraft to other markets that are not subject to the jurisdiction of Part 382 and therefore face an additional complexity in devising a sys tem to add or remove signage on the non

- covered routes . Finally, IATA states that there is additional time needed by foreign carriers in developing the appearance and wording of the placard due to the language issues associated with transporting a multina tional clientele.

Decision

The Department is denying A4A ’s and IATA’s petitions to delay the effectiveness of

section 3 82 .67(c) by nine months to October 13, 2014 . However, as a matter of enforcement policy, the Department’s Aviati on Enforcement Office has decided not to strictly enforce section 382.67 (c) until April 12, 2014, an additional three months following the original compliance deadline of January 12, 2014 , and five months after the rule’s promulgation

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The Aviation Enforcement Office finds persuasive the carrier associations’ assertion that airlines, particularly foreign airlines, need more than 60 days to c omply with the

2 The authority to pursue or not to pursue enforcement action against airlines with respect to air travel consumer protection and civil rights requirements lies with the Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office.3

requirement to install a sign or pl acard prominently on the closet

. We are not convinced, however, that an additional n ine months is warranted. We see no reason that designing/engineering the placards, incorporating the placards in drawings and

maintenance documents , or installing the placard necessitates a lengthy extension as suggested by A4A and IATA. One example of w hat the Department considers acceptable as language for the placards on the closet is: “priority for wheelchairs and other assistive

devices.”

A lso, a irlines should have already begun the process of obtaining placards and the necessary approvals from thei r respective civil aviation authorities. W e have been

advised that the process to obtain approval from the FAA to post the required placard on

the closet should take no more than one month to complete. It is possible that it may take certain foreign air carriers longer than a month to obtain the necessary approval from

their civil aviation authorities

, though w e do not expect that this process would be much lengthier. With regard to IATA ’s assertion that language considerations for the placard might co ntribute to a delay, we are only requiring that the sign be in English although we encourage carriers to consider also using the predominant language or languages in which

the airline communicate s with its passengers. Accordingly

, the Aviation Enforcement

Office will not enforce section 382.67(c) until April 12, 2014. Beginning April 12, 2014,

the Assistant General Counsel for Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings in determining whether enforcement action is appropriate in individual cases will take into a ccount documented efforts by individual carriers to comply with the rule in a timely manner and

to obtain timely approval by their civil aviation authority to install the required placard. No further industry

- wide extension requests from this requirement w ill be considered by the Department.

A copy of this order will be served on the petitioners.

By: Kathryn B. Thomson Acting General Counsel

An electronic version of this document is available at www.regulations.g ov