Order 2014- 1-5

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Issued by the Department of Transportation

On the Ninth day of January, 2014

 Petition to Delay the Effective Date of Served January 9, 2014

 14 CFR 382.67(c) 

 DOT-OST-2011-0098

RESPONSE TO PETITION

By this order, we are denying the petitions of Airlines for America (A4A) and the 

International Air Transport Association (IATA) to delay the effectiveness of 14 CFR 

382.67(c) for the reasons discussed below but are also announcing that the Office of 

Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings (Aviation Enforcement Office) has decided not to 

enforce section 382.67(c) until April 12, 2014, 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 in 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 an 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 effective 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 them 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 delivered 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. See 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 petition 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 Aviation 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/engineering 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 Airlines for 

America’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 

additional 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 significantly 

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 system 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 multinational clientele. 

Decision

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

section 382.67(c) by nine months to October 13, 2014. However, as a matter of 

enforcement policy, the Department’s Aviation 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.

2

 

The Aviation Enforcement Office finds persuasive the carrier associations’ assertion that 

airlines, particularly foreign airlines, need more than 60 days to comply 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 placard prominently on the closet. We are not convinced, 

however, that an additional nine 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 what the Department considers acceptable 

as language for the placards on the closet is: “priority for wheelchairs and other assistive 

devices.”

Also, airlines should have already begun the process of obtaining placards and the 

necessary approvals from their respective civil aviation authorities. We 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 we do not expect that this process would be much 

lengthier. With regard to IATA’s assertion that language considerations for the placard 

might contribute 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 communicates 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 account 

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 will 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.gov