# Office of Aviation Enforcement



# and Proceedings

Sixth Meeting of the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection October 29, 2014

# Enforcement Office Update

Overview
Enforcement Activities 

## Active Rulemakings

## Enforcement Office Subject Matter Areas

Consumer Protection

• Advertising

• Baggage Liability

- Minimum Limits

- U.S./ International Air Travel

• Codeshare Disclosure to Consumers (Internet, Telephone Sales, etc.)

• Denied Boarding Compensation for Oversales

• Lengthy Tarmac Delays

• Timely Refunds

## Subject Matter Areas (Continued)

Civil Rights

• Discrimination based on a Disability

• Discrimination on Other Basis Licensing and Fitness Matters

• Cabotage

• Public Charters

• Unlicensed common carriage operations

## Enforcement Actions
Enforcement Process

• Formal (Public Proceeding)

• Informal (More Common; Generally Only Outcome becomes Public ) Outcomes

• No violation

• Warning letter

• Consent cease and desist order

• Revocation or modification of economic authority

• Permanent or temporary ban on specific individuals from involvement in aviation industry

• Criminal (knowing and willful violations)

## On

- site Compliance Inspections

• Since 2008, about 30 inspections

• Inspections of U.S . and foreign air carriers; public charter operators

• 18 consent orders (≈ $3.3M) to date

• Average five inspections per year; Number of inspections depends on funding considerations

• Usually a four person team

• Comprehensive in scope

## Ongoing Compliance Initiatives

CONSUMER I and II RULES

• Posting of Customer Service and Tarmac Delay Plans

• Timely Responses to Complaints

• Disclosure of Optional Service Fees

• Full Fare Advertising

## Ongoing Compliance Initiatives (Continued)

LONG ON

- BOARD TARMAC DELAYS

• Self

- Reported

• Consumer Complaints

CODE

- SHARE DISCLOSURE

• Continues to be an area of focus

## Compliance with Tarmac Delay Rule

• Sixteen Orders against U.S. and Foreign Air Carriers Issued

• Over $3.5 Million in Fines; Amount includes Offsets for vouchers, refunds, miles provided by the carrier to passengers

### Compliance with Tarmac Delay Rule

(Continued) Categories of Orders:

• Excessive time on tarmac/failure to deplane (5)

• Excessive time on tarmac/failure to deplane plus failure to provide food and water (4)

• Failure to provide notification of opportunity to deplane (5)

• Failure to provide food (1)

• Excessive time on tarmac and failure to provide notification of opportunity to deplane (1)

## Codeshare Disclosure Compliance

• Direct Air Carriers

• Ticket Agents

• Online and Brick and Mortar

• Internet Itinerary Displays and Telephone Reservation Lines

• 10 Consent Orders

• ~ $750,000 in penalties

## Consent Orders By Year/Category

Total Orders

2010 2011 2012 2013 Thru Oct. 2014 By Category
Advertising 18 21 17 10 7 73

Unauthorized Operations 11 6 8 2 3 30

Civil Rights 7 5 5 3 0 20 Other Consumer 9 24 24 25 11 93 Reporting 6 1 0 2 1 10 Multiple Categories 1 2 8 4 0 15

Total Orders By Year : 52 59 62 46 22 241

Total Civil Penalties Assessed in Orders through October 2014: $2,615,000

## Rulemaking

• Recent Final Rules

• Consumer Protection Rules (Voice Call ANPRM; Consumer Rule 3 NPRM; E

- Cigarette Pending Final Rule)

• Disability Related Rules

# Rulemaking

– Recent Final

Rules

## Accessible Websites and Automated Kiosks

in U.S. Airports

• Issued November 2013

• Carriers must make websites they operate and on which their agents sell air transportation accessible to people with disabilities

• Carriers and U.S. airports must ensure automated kiosks operated by carriers at U.S. airports are accessible

## Accessibility Effective Dates for Websites

• December 12, 2015

- Certain core air travel services and information on carriers’ primary website must be accessible

• December 12, 2016

– Remaining pages on primary website must be accessible

## Automated Airport Kiosk Accessibility

Effective Dates

For Airlines:

• December 12, 2016

- all proprietary and shared

- use kiosks installed at an airport must be accessible until 25 percent of those kiosks are accessible

• December 12, 2023

- at least 25 percent of the proprietary and shared

- use kiosks provided at each location at an airport must be accessible

## Seat Strapping in Aircraft Cabins Rule

• Issued November 2013

• Allows carriers to use the seat

- strapping method to transport a passenger's wheelchair in the cabin of newer aircraft

• Became effective January 2014

## Reporting Loss, Death, or



## Injury of Animals Rule

• Issued July 2014

• The requirement to report on loss, death or injury of animals during air transport was expanded to cover a greater number of U.S

. carriers

• Expanded the definition of “animal” to include all cats and dogs transported by the carrier, regardless of whether the cat or dog is transported as a pet by its owner or as part of a commercial shipment

## Reporting Loss, Death, or Injury of Animals Rule (Continued)

• Requires all covered carriers to report annually on the total number of animals that were lost, injured, or died during air transport

• Effective for transportation beginning in January 2015

# ON

- GOING RULEMAKINGS

## Final Rule on Accessibility of Airports

Major Provisions in NPRM

• Whether to require a minimum of one service animal relief area for each terminal in a U.S. airport;

• Whether to require airport operators to enable high

contrast captioning on certain televisions and audio

visual displays in U.S. airports; and

• Whether to require airports to operate and maintain lifts used to transfer disabled passengers where level entry loading bridges are not available.

## Final Rule on Accessibility of Airports

Schedule

Dates for Final Rule

Milestone Projected Date
To OST 12/09/2014
To OMB 01/12/2015
OMB Clearance 04/13/2015
Publication Date 04/27/2015

## NPRM on Carrier

- Supplied Medical Oxygen, 

## Service Animals, and Accessible Lavatories

Major Provisions to Be Addressed in NPRM

• Whether carriers should be required to supply in

- flight medical oxygen to passengers who require it to access air transportation;

• Whether foreign air carriers should continue being required to only transport service dogs ;

## NPRM on Carrier

- Supplied Medical Oxygen, Service Animals, and Accessible Lavatories



## (Continued)

• Whether medical documentation and advance notice should continue to be required from users of emotional support and psychiatric service animals;

• Whether there should be a requirement to report the number of requests for wheelchair assistance carriers receive; and

• Feasibility of requiring accessible lavatories on certain single

- aisle aircraft.

### Schedule: NPRM on Carrier

- Supplied Medical Oxygen, 

### Service Animals, and Accessible Lavatories

Dates for NPRM

Milestone Projected Date

To OST 10/06/2014
To OMB 11/17/2014 OMB Clearance 02/16/2015
Publication Date 02/27/2015 End of Comment Period 04/29/2015

## Accessible In

- Flight Entertainment NPRM

Issue :

• Whether carriers should be required to ensure that the same in

- flight entertainment available to all passengers is accessible to passengers with disabilities

## Schedule for Accessible In

- Flight

Entertainment NPRM

Dates for NPRM

Milestone Projected Date
To OST 11/05/2014
To OMB 12/17/2014 OMB Clearance 03/16/2015
Publication Date 03/25/2015 End of Comment Period 05/24/2015

## Transparency of Airline Ancillary Fees and other Consumer Protection Issues

• NPRM addresses nine consumer protection areas

• Comment period on the NPRM closed on September 29, 2014

• Received about 740 Comments

• No schedule for final rulemaking yet

• In the process of reviewing comments now

## Transparency of Airline Ancillary Fees and other Consumer Protection Issues

• Requiring carriers to provide real

- time information on fees for optional services to travel agents

• Requiring minimum customer service standards for ticket agents that sell air transportation

• Expanding the pool of reporting carriers to include smaller carriers

## Transparency of Airline Ancillary Fees and other Consumer Protection Issues

• Requiring reporting carriers to report on

- time statistics for their code

- share partners

• Codifying in regulations the Enforcement Office’s interpretation of the statutory term “ticket agent”

• Disclosure of the airlines marketed by a ticket agent and prohibiting display bias

### Final Rule on Smoking of Electronic Cigarettes

On Commercial Aircraft

Issues identified in NPRM:

• Whether to explicitly ban the smoking of electronic cigarettes on air carrier and foreign air carrier flights in scheduled intrastate, interstate, and foreign air transportation

• Solicited comment on whether the Department should extend the ban on smoking to charter flights with aircraft that have seating capacity of 19 or more passenger seatsSchedule for Final Rule on Smoking of Electronic

Cigarettes On Commercial Aircraft

Milestone Projected

Date
To OMB 11/03/2014 OMB Clearance 02/02/2015
Publication Date 02/12/2015

Dates for Final Rule

# Questions?