I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1792
To amend title 49, United States Code, to ensure that air carriers meet
their obligations under the Airline Customer Service Agreement, and
provide improved passenger service in order to meet public convenience
and necessity.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 9, 2001
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend title 49, United States Code, to ensure that air
carriers meet their obligations under the Airline Cus-
tomer Service Agreement, and provide improved pas-
senger service in order to meet public convenience and
necessity.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Airline Customer Serv-
ice Improvement Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Airline traffic in the United States is in-
creasing. The number of passengers carried by
United States air carriers has nearly tripled since
1978, to over 660 million annually. The number is
expected to grow to more than 1 billion by 2010.
The number of domestic flights has been steadily in-
creasing as well.
(2) The Inspector General of the Department of
Transportation has found that this growth in traffic
has been accompanied by increases in delays, can-
cellations, and customer dissatisfaction with air car-
rier service.
(A) The Federal Aviation Administration
has reported that, between 1995 and 2000,
delays increased 90 percent and cancellations
increased 104 percent. In 2000, over 1 in 4
flights were delayed, canceled, or diverted, af-
fecting approximately 163 million passengers.
(B) At the 30 largest United States air-
ports, the number of flights with taxi-out times
of 1 hour or more increased 165 percent be-
tween 1995 and 2000. The number of flights
with taxi-out times of 4 hours or more in-
creased 341 percent during the same period.
(C) Certain flights, particularly those
scheduled during peak periods at the nation’s
busiest airports, are subject to chronic delays.
In December, 2000, 626 regularly scheduled
flights arrived late 70 percent of the time or
more, as reported by the Department of Trans-
portation.
(D) The number of consumer complaints
filed with the Department of Transportation
about airline travel has nearly quadrupled since
1995. According to the Department of Trans-
portation’s Inspector General, air carriers re-
ceive between 100 and 400 complaints for every
complaint filed with the Department of Trans-
portation.
(3) During the same time period in which the
number of complaints about airline travel has in-
creased, the resources devoted to the Department of
Transportation’s handling of such complaints have
declined sharply. The Department of Transpor-
tation’s Inspector General has reported that the
staffing of the Department of Transportation office
responsible for handling airline customer service
complaints declined from 40 in 1985 to just 17 in
2000.
(4) In June, 1999, the Air Transport Associa-
tion and its member airlines agreed to an Airline
Customer Service Commitment designed to address
mounting consumer dissatisfaction and improve cus-
tomer service in the industry.
(5) The Inspector General of the Department of
Transportation has found that the airlines’ vol-
untary commitment to better service, set forth in the
Airline Customer Service Commitment, has resulted
in positive changes in how air travelers are treated.
(6) While the Inspector General’s final report
noted that the voluntary effort has produced benefits
faster than would a legislative or regulatory man-
date, which could have taken years to implement,
the Inspector General has recommended additional
changes that require legislation and regulations.
(7) The Airline Customer Service Commitment
has prompted the airlines to address consumer con-
cerns in many areas, ranging from providing infor-
mation more accurately on delays to explaining that
lower fares may be available through the Internet.
(8) Air carriers need to do more, in the areas
under their control, to reduce over-scheduling, the
number of chronically late or chronically canceled
flights, and the amount of checked baggage that
does not show up with the passenger upon arrival.
(9) The airlines were cooperative with, and re-
sponsive to, many of the suggestions the Inspector
General made in the interim report last year.
(10) The Inspector General has determined
that, while there has been significant progress in im-
proving airline customer service, certain areas cov-
ered by the Airline Customer Service Commitment
are in need of significant clarification and improve-
ment and, where appropriate, enforcement action.
SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO DEVOTE
GREATER 
RESOURCES 
TO 
AIRLINE 
PAS-
SENGER CONSUMER PROTECTION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Transportation
shall increase the resources of the Department of Trans-
portation allocated to providing—
(1) airline passenger consumer protection and
related services; and
(2) oversight and enforcement of laws and regu-
lations within the jurisdiction of the Department
that provide protection for air travelers.
(b) REPORT.—Within 60 days after the date of enact-
ment of this Act, the Secretary shall report to the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
and the House Committee on Transportation and Infra-
structure measures taken by the Secretary to carry out
subsection (a), together with a request for additional
funds or measures, if necessary, to carry out that sub-
section fully.
SEC. 4. AIRLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE COMMITMENT.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 417 of title 49, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing:
‘‘SUBCHAPTER IV—AIRLINE CUSTOMER
SERVICE
‘‘§ 41781. Airline customer service requirements
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Within 60 days after the date
of enactment of the Airline Customer Service Improve-
ment Act, each large air carrier shall incorporate in its
contract of carriage—
‘‘(1) the provisions of the Airline Customer
Service Commitment executed by the Air Transport
Association and 14 of its member airlines on June
17, 1999; and
‘‘(2) its customer service plan developed in ac-
cordance with that Commitment to the extent that
the plan is more specific or broader than the Com-
mitment.
‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL OBLIGATIONS.—Within 60 days
after the date of enactment of the Airline Customer Serv-
ice Improvement Act, each large air carrier shall institute
the following practices:
‘‘(1) Provide to customers at an airport and on
board an aircraft, in a timely, reasonable, and truth-
ful manner, the best information available to the air
carrier regarding a delay, cancellation, or diversion
affecting the customers’ flight, including—
‘‘(A) the cause of any such delay, cancella-
tion, or diversion; and
‘‘(B) for a delayed flight, the air carrier’s
best estimate of the departure time.
‘‘(2) Offer the lowest fare available for which a
customer is eligible at the air carrier’s ticket offices
and airport ticket service counters for the date,
flight, and class of service requested.
‘‘(3) Notify customers that lower fares may be
available through other distribution systems, includ-
ing Internet websites.
‘‘(4) Provide, no later than the 5th day of each
month, the air carrier’s on-time performance rate for
each scheduled flight for the most recently ended
month for which data is available through its Inter-
net website.
‘‘(5) Disclose, without being requested, the on-
time performance and cancellation rate for a chron-
ically delayed or chronically canceled flight whenever
a customer makes a reservation or purchases a tick-
et on such a flight.
‘‘(6) Establish a plan with respect to pas-
sengers who must unexpectedly remain overnight
during a trip due to flight delays, cancellations, or
diversions.
‘‘(7) Tell all passengers on a flight what the air
carrier is required to pay passengers involuntarily
denied boarding before making offers to passengers
to induce them to relinquish seats voluntarily.
‘‘(c) COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE.—
‘‘(1) AIR CARRIER FUNCTIONS.—Each large air
carrier also shall—
‘‘(A) establish a customer service quality
assurance and performance measurement sys-
tem within 90 days after the date of enactment
of the Airline Customer Service Improvement
Act;
‘‘(B) establish an internal audit process to
measure compliance with the commitments and
obligations under subsections (a) and (b) within
90 days after the date of enactment of the Air-
line Customer Service Improvement Act; and
‘‘(C) cooperate fully with any Department
of Transportation audit of its customer service
quality assurance system or review of its inter-
nal audit.
‘‘(2) DOT 
FUNCTIONS.—The Secretary of
Transportation shall—
‘‘(A) monitor compliance by large air car-
riers with the requirements of this section and
take such action under subpart IV of this title
as may be necessary to enforce compliance with
this section under subpart IV of this title;
‘‘(B) monitor, in particular, and enforce
air carrier performance under paragraphs (1),
(2), (3), (5), and (7) of subsection (b), focusing
on practices and patterns of conduct rather
than specific incidents of failure to follow the
air carrier’s established practices;
‘‘(C) monitor air carrier customer service
quality assurance and performance measure-
ment systems to ensure that air carriers are
meeting fully their airline passenger service
commitments; and
‘‘(D) review the internal audits conducted
by air carriers of their air carrier customer
service quality assurance and performance
measurement systems.
‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
‘‘(1) LARGE AIR CARRIER.—The term ‘large air
carrier’ means an air carrier holding a certificate
issued under section 41102 that conducts scheduled
passenger air transportation and—
‘‘(A) operates aircraft designed to have a
maximum passenger capacity of more than 60
seats or a maximum payload capacity of more
than 18,000 pounds; or
‘‘(B) conducts operations where one or
both terminals of a flight stage are outside the
50 States of the United States, the District of
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
‘‘(2) CHRONICALLY
DELAYED
FLIGHT.—The
term ‘chronically delayed flight’ means a regularly
scheduled flight that has failed to arrive on time (as
defined in section 234.2 of title 14, Code of Federal
Regulations) at least 40 percent of the time during
the most recent 3-month period for which data are
available.
‘‘(3) CHRONICALLY
CANCELED
FLIGHT.—The
term ‘chronically canceled flight’ means a regularly
scheduled flight at least 30 percent of the departures
of which have been canceled during the most recent
3-month period for which data are available.’’.
(b) ENFORCEMENT.—Section 46301(a)(7) of title 49,
United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘40127 or
41712’’ and inserting ‘‘40127, 41712, or 41781’’.
(c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The chapter anal-
ysis for chapter 417 of title 49, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘SUBCHAPTER IV—AIRLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE
‘‘41781. Airline customer service requirements.’’.
SEC. 5. OTHER SERVICE-ENHANCING IMPROVEMENTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Within 90 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, each large air carrier (as defined
in section 41781(d)(1) of title 49, United States Code)
shall—
(1) establish realistic targets for reducing
chronically delayed and chronically canceled flights;
(2) establish a system passengers may use be-
fore departing for the airport to determine whether
there is a lengthy flight delay or whether a flight has
been canceled;
(3) establish realistic performance goals for re-
ducing the number of mishandled bags;
(4) develop and implement a system for track-
ing and documenting the amount of time between
the receipt of a passenger’s claim for missing bag-
gage and the delivery of the baggage to the pas-
senger, including the time taken by a courier or
other delivery service to deliver found baggage to the
passenger;
(5) monitor and report its efforts to improve
services provided to passengers with disabilities and
special needs, including services provided at airports
such as check-in, passenger security screening (par-
ticularly for passengers who use wheelchairs), board-
ing, and disembarkation;
(6) clarify terminology used to advise pas-
sengers of unscheduled delays or interruptions in
service, such as ‘‘extended period of time’’ and
‘‘emergency’’, in order to inform passengers better
about what they can expect during on-board delays;
(7) ensure that comprehensive passenger service
contingency plans are properly maintained and that
the plans, and any changes to those plans, are co-
ordinated with local airport authorities and the Fed-
eral Aviation Administration;
(8) ensure that master airport flight informa-
tion display monitors contain accurate, up-to-date
flight information and that the information is con-
sistent with that shown on the carrier’s flight infor-
mation display monitors;
(9) establish a toll-free telephone number that
a passenger may use to check on the status of
checked baggage that was not delivered on arrival at
the passenger’s destination;
(10) if it maintains a domestic code-share ar-
rangement with another air carrier, conclude an
agreement under which it will conduct an annual
audit of the code-share air carrier’s compliance with
the Airline Customer Service Commitment; and
(11) if it has a frequent flyer program, make
available to the public a comprehensive report of fre-
quent flyer redemption information in its customer
literature and annual reports, including information
on the percentage of successful redemption of fre-
quent flyer awards and the number of seats available
for such awards in the air carrier’s top 100 origin
and destination markets.
(b) INITIAL RESPONSE REPORTS.—
(1) AIR CARRIERS.—Within 90 days after the
date of enactment of this Act, each large air carrier
shall report to the Secretary of Transportation on
its implementation of the obligations imposed on it
by this Act.
(2) SECRETARY.—Within 270 days after the
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
Transportation shall report to the Congress on the
implementation by large air carriers of the obliga-
tions imposed on them by this Act, together with
such additional findings and recommendations for
additional legislative or regulatory action as the Sec-
retary deems appropriate.
SEC. 6. IMPROVED DOT STATISTICS.
(a) MISSING BAGGAGE.—In calculating and reporting
the rate of mishandled baggage for air carriers, the De-
partment of Transportation shall not take into account
passengers who do not check any baggage.
(b) 
CHRONICALLY
DELAYED
OR
CANCELED
FLIGHTS.—The Office of Aviation Enforcement and Pro-
ceedings of the Department of Transportation, in coordi-
nation with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the
Department of Transportation, shall include a table in the
Air Travel Consumer Report that shows flights that are
chronically delayed or chronically canceled (as defined in
section 41781(d) (2) and (3), respectively, of title 49,
United States Code).
SEC. 7. DOT REGULATIONS ON BUMPING.
(a) UNIFORM CHECK-IN DEADLINE.—The Secretary
of Transportation shall initiate a rulemaking within 30
days after the date of enactment of this Act to amend
the Department of Transportation’s Regulations to con-
sider establishing a uniform check-in deadline and to re-
quire air carriers to disclose, both in their contracts of
carriage and on ticket jackets, their policies on how those
deadlines apply to passengers making connections.
(b) BUMPED PASSENGER COMPENSATION.—The Sec-
retary of Transportation shall initiate a rulemaking within
30 days after the date of enactment of this Act to amend
section 250.5 of the Department of Transportation’s Reg-
ulations (14 C.F.R. 250.5) governing the amount of de-
nied boarding compensation for passengers denied board-
ing involuntarily to increase the maximum amount there-
of.
(c) CLARIFY CERTAIN TERMS.—The Secretary of
Transportation shall clarify the terms ‘‘any undue or un-
reasonable preference or advantage’’ and ‘‘unjust or un-
reasonable prejudice or disadvantage’’, as used in section
250.3 of the Department of Transportation’s Regulations
(14 C.F.R. 250.3), for purposes of air carrier priority
rules or criteria for passengers denied boarding involun-
tarily.
SEC. 8. STUDY OF DAMAGE TO PASSENGERS WITH DISABIL-
ITIES’ EQUIPMENT.
The Secretary of Transportation shall conduct a
study of incidents of damage to equipment of passengers
with disabilities attributable to air carriers’ treatment of
that equipment.
SEC. 9. REVIEW OF REGULATIONS.
Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act,
the Secretary shall complete a thorough review of the De-
partment of Transportation’s regulations that relate to air
carriers’ treatment of customers, and make such modifica-
tions as may be necessary or appropriate to promote the
purposes of this Act or otherwise protect consumers.
SEC. 10. EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 417 of
title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the
end the following:
‘‘§ 41722. Airline passenger emergency in-flight med-
ical care
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Transportation
shall prescribe regulations to establish minimum stand-
ards for resuscitation, emergency medical, and first-aid
equipment and supplies to be carried on-board an aircraft
operated by an air carrier in air transportation that is ca-
pable of carrying at least 30 passengers.
‘‘(b) FACTORS CONSIDERED.—In prescribing regula-
tions under subsection (a), the Secretary shall consider—
‘‘(1) the weight and size of the equipment de-
scribed in subsection (a);
‘‘(2) the need for special training of air carrier
personnel to operate the equipment safely and effec-
tively;
‘‘(3) the space limitations of each type of air-
craft to which the standards apply;
‘‘(4) the effect of the regulations on aircraft op-
erations;
‘‘(5) the practical experience of airlines in car-
rying and operating similar equipment, and whether
any air carriers are already training appropriate per-
sonnel to an acceptable level of proficiency in the op-
eration of such equipment and the provision of first-
aid; and
‘‘(6) such other factors as the Secretary finds
relevant.
‘‘(c) CONSULTATION WITH SURGEON GENERAL.—
Before prescribing regulations under subsection (a), the
Secretary shall consult with the Surgeon General of the
United States.’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The chapter anal-
ysis for chapter 417 of title 49, United States Code, is
amended by inserting after the item relating to section
41721 the following:
‘‘41722. Airline passenger emergency in-flight medical care.’’.
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