I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2024
To amend title 49, United States Code, to require air carriers to conduct
safety audits of foreign air carriers as a condition of approval of certain
cooperative arrangements between the carriers.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 7, 1999
Mr. OBERSTAR (for himself, Mr. LIPINSKI, and Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHN-
SON of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend title 49, United States Code, to require air car-
riers to conduct safety audits of foreign air carriers
as a condition of approval of certain cooperative arrange-
ments between the carriers.
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 ‘‘Aviation Code-Share
Safety Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. APPROVAL OF AIR CARRIER CODE-SHARING AR-
RANGEMENTS WITH FOREIGN AIR CARRIERS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 41309 of title 49, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing:
‘‘(d) APPROVAL
OF
CODE-SHARING
ARRANGE-
MENTS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Transpor-
tation may approve a code-sharing arrangement
under subsection (a) between an air carrier pro-
viding air transportation of passengers and a foreign
air carrier only if—
‘‘(A) the director of safety, director of op-
erations, and director of maintenance for the
air carrier (or individuals employed in equiva-
lent positions) each certify to the Administrator
of the Federal Aviation Administration that—
‘‘(i) an initial safety audit, including
an on-site inspection, of the foreign air
carrier has been conducted under a safety
audit program approved by the Adminis-
trator under this subsection; and
‘‘(ii) the foreign air carrier met the
standards of the safety audit program; and
‘‘(B) the air carrier agrees to conduct peri-
odic safety audits, including on-site inspections,
of the foreign air carrier in accordance with the
safety audit program.
‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS FOR SAFETY AUDIT PRO-
GRAMS.—
‘‘(A) ELEMENTS TO BE AUDITED.—A safe-
ty audit program of an air carrier under this
section shall include periodic safety audits, in-
cluding on-site inspections, conducted by the air
carrier of each of the following elements of a
foreign air carrier’s operations:
‘‘(i) Flight operations.
‘‘(ii) Maintenance operations.
‘‘(iii) Airworthiness.
‘‘(iv) Incident and accident rates.
‘‘(v) Crew training.
‘‘(vi) En-route procedures.
‘‘(vii) Emergency response plans.
‘‘(viii) Other elements considered nec-
essary by the Administrator.
‘‘(B) 
QUALITY
ASSURANCE.—A 
safety
audit program of an air carrier under this sec-
tion shall include procedures to ensure the qual-
ity of audits conducted under the program, in-
cluding procedures for training personnel of the
air carrier who will conduct the audits.
‘‘(C) CHANGES IN OWNERSHIP.—A safety
audit program of an air carrier under this sec-
tion shall include procedures to ensure that if
there is a change in ownership of a code-shar-
ing partner of the air carrier a new audit of the
code-sharing partner will be conducted under
the program.
‘‘(3) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 180 days
after the date of enactment of this subsection, the
Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of
Defense, the International Civil Aviation Organiza-
tion, and representatives and employees of air car-
riers and foreign air carriers, shall issue guidance to
air carriers on the establishment of safety audit pro-
grams that will satisfy the requirements of this sub-
section.
‘‘(4) APPROVAL.—An air carrier described in
paragraph (1) that has entered into or plans to
enter into a code-share arrangement with a foreign
air carrier shall submit a safety audit program to
the Administrator for approval.
‘‘(5) WRITTEN RECORDS.—Each director of an
air carrier making a certification under paragraph
(1) shall maintain for inspection by the Adminis-
trator sufficient written records to support the cer-
tification.
‘‘(6) REVIEWS.—To ensure the consistency,
quality, and effectiveness of safety audit programs
conducted under this subsection, the Administrator
shall conduct a comprehensive review of the safety
audit program of an air carrier at least once each
year. To facilitate such a review, the air carrier shall
permit the Administrator to accompany the air car-
rier on site inspections of foreign air carriers that
are code-share partners of the air carrier.
‘‘(7) ASSESSMENTS OF FOREIGN REGULATORY
AUTHORITIES.—The Administrator shall work with
the International Civil Aviation Organization to en-
sure that oversight of code-sharing arrangements be-
tween air carriers and foreign air carriers is included
as part of any assessment of a country’s air safety
regulatory authorities.
‘‘(8) 
CODE-SHARING
ARRANGEMENT
DE-
FINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘code-sharing
arrangement’ means an arrangement whereby an air
carrier’s designator code is used to identify a flight
operated by another carrier.
‘‘(9) APPLICABILITY.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall
apply to approvals of code-sharing arrange-
ments under subsection (a) on and after the
day that is 1 year after the date of enactment
of this subsection.
‘‘(B) EXISTING AGREEMENTS.—If an air
carrier has received approval of a code-sharing
arrangement under subsection (a) before the
day that is 1 year after the date of enactment
of this subsection (including approvals received
before such date of enactment), the air carrier
shall make the certifications and assurances re-
quired by paragraph (1) with respect to the ar-
rangement on or before such day.’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 41309(b)
of such title is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of paragraph
(1);
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (2) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(3) or, after periodic review, end approval of
a code-sharing arrangement that raises safety con-
cerns.’’.
Æ