Source: https://www.animallaw.info/administrative/us-service-animals-subpart-h-services-aircraft-%C2%A7-382117-must-carriers-permit
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 16:28:32+00:00

Document:
Full Title Name: Code of Federal Regulations. Title 14. Aeronautics and Space. Chapter II. Office of the Secretary, Department of Transportation (Aviation Proceedings). Subchapter D. Special Regulations. Part 382. Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel. Subpart H. Services on Aircraft. § 382.117 Must carriers permit passengers with a disability to travel with service animals?
Summary: This federal regulation states that carriers must permit service animals to accompany passengers with disabilities. A carrier must permit the service animal to accompany the passenger with a disability at any seat in which the passenger sits, unless the animal obstructs an aisle or other area. The Department of Transportation allows identification of a service animal by the presence of harnesses, tags, or "the credible verbal assurances of a qualified individual with a disability using the animal." A carrier is never required to accommodate certain unusual service animals (e.g., snakes, other reptiles, ferrets, rodents, and spiders). With respect to all other animals, including unusual or exotic animals (e.g., miniature horses, pigs, monkeys), a carrier must determine whether any factors preclude their traveling in the cabin as service animals (e.g., is the animal too large or heavy to be accommodated in the cabin, would it pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others, would it cause a significant disruption of cabin service, would it be prohibited from entering a foreign country that is the flight's destination, etc.). Foreign carriers, however, are not required to carry service animals other than dogs. If a passenger seeks to travel with an emotional support animal, he or she must provide current documentation on the letterhead of a licensed mental health professional. This documentation must indicate the presence of a DSM IV mental or emotional disability and the need for the animal, among other things.
§382.27 May a carrier require a passenger with a disability to provide advance notice in order to obtain certain specific services in connection with a flight?
§ 382.51 What requirements must carriers meet concerning the accessibility of airport facilities?
§ 382.117 Must carriers permit passengers with a disability to travel with service animals?
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section and §382.133(e)(4) and (5) and (f)(5) and (6), as a carrier you must not require a passenger with a disability to provide advance notice in order to obtain services or accommodations required by this part.
(b) You may require a passenger with a disability to provide up to 72 hours' advance notice and check in one hour before the check-in time for the general public to receive carrier-supplied in-flight medical oxygen on international flights, 48 hours' advance notice and check-in one hour before the check-in time for the general public to receive carrier-supplied in-flight medical oxygen on domestic flights, and 48 hours' advance notice and check-in one hour before the check-in time for the general public to use his/her ventilator, respirator, CPAP machine or POC.
(c) You may require a passenger with a disability to provide up to 48 hours' advance notice and check in one hour before the check-in time for the general public to receive the following services and accommodations. The services listed in paragraphs (c)(1) through (c)(3) of this section are optional; you are not required to provide them, but you may choose to do so.
(7) Provision of an on-board wheelchair on an aircraft with more than 60 seats that does not have an accessible lavatory.
(10) Accommodation of a passenger who has both severe vision and hearing impairments (see §382.29(b)(4)).
(d) If the passenger with a disability provides the advance notice you require, consistent with this section, for a service that you must provide (see paragraphs (c)(4) through (c)(10) of this section) or choose to provide (see paragraphs (c)(1) through (c)(3) of this section), you must provide the requested service or accommodation.
(e) Your reservation and other administrative systems must ensure that when passengers provide the advance notice that you require, consistent with this section, for services and accommodations, the notice is communicated, clearly and on time, to the people responsible for providing the requested service or accommodation.
(f) If a passenger with a disability provides the advance notice you require, consistent with this section, and the passenger is forced to change to another flight (e.g., because of a flight cancellation), you must, to the maximum extent feasible, provide the accommodation on the new flight. If the new flight is another carrier's flight, you must provide the maximum feasible assistance to the other carrier in providing the accommodation the passenger requested from you.
(g) If a passenger does not meet advance notice or check-in requirements you establish consistent with this section, you must still provide the service or accommodation if you can do so by making reasonable efforts, without delaying the flight.
(1) You must ensure that terminal facilities providing access to air transportation are readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs. You are deemed to comply with this obligation if the facilities meet requirements applying to places of public accommodation under Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations implementing Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
(2) With respect to any situation in which boarding and deplaning by level-entry loading bridges or accessible passenger lounges to and from an aircraft is not available, you must ensure that there is an accessible route between the gate and the area from which aircraft are boarded (e.g., the tarmac in a situation in which level-entry boarding is not available). An accessible route is one meeting the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG), sections 4.3.3 through 4.3.10.
(3) You must ensure that systems of intra- and inter-terminal transportation, including, but not limited to, moving sidewalks, shuttle vehicles and people movers, comply with applicable requirements of the Department of Transportation's ADA rules (49 CFR parts 37 and 38).
(4) Your contracts or leases with airport operators concerning the use of airport facilities must set forth your airport accessibility responsibility under this part and that of the airport operator under applicable section 504 and ADA rules of the Department of Transportation and Department of Justice.
(5) In cooperation with the airport operator and in consultation with local service animal training organization(s), you must provide animal relief areas for service animals that accompany passengers departing, connecting, or arriving at an airport on your flights.
(6) You must enable captioning at all times on all televisions and other audio-visual displays that are capable of displaying captions and that are located in any portion of the terminal to which any passengers have access on May 13, 2009. The captioning must be high-contrast insofar as is feasible.
(7) You must replace any televisions and other audio-visual displays providing passengers with safety briefings, information, or entertainment that do not have high-contrast captioning capability with equipment that does have such capability whenever such equipment is replaced in the normal course of operations and/or whenever areas of the terminal in which such equipment is located are undergoing substantial renovation or expansion.
(8) If you newly acquire televisions and other audio-visual displays for passenger safety briefings, information, or entertainment on or after May 13, 2009, such equipment must have high-contrast captioning capability.
(b) As a carrier, you must ensure that passengers with a disability can readily use all terminal facilities you own, lease, or control at a foreign airport. In the case of foreign carriers, this requirement applies only to terminal facilities that serve flights covered by §382.7 of this part.
(1) This means that passengers with a disability must be able to move readily through such terminal facilities to get to or from the gate and any other area from which passengers board the aircraft you use for such flights (e.g., the tarmac in the case of flights that do not use level-entry boarding). This obligation is in addition to your obligation to provide enplaning, deplaning, and connecting assistance to passengers.
(2) You may meet this obligation through any combination of facility accessibility, auxiliary aids, equipment, the assistance of personnel, or other appropriate means consistent with the safety and dignity of passengers with a disability.
(c) As a foreign carrier, you must meet the requirements of this section by May 13, 2010, except as otherwise indicated in paragraph (a). As a U.S. carrier, you must meet the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section by May 13, 2010.
(4) The date and type of the mental health professional's license and the state or other jurisdiction in which it was issued.
(f) You are never required to accommodate certain unusual service animals (e.g., snakes, other reptiles, ferrets, rodents, and spiders) as service animals in the cabin. With respect to all other animals, including unusual or exotic animals that are presented as service animals (e.g., miniature horses, pigs, monkeys), as a carrier you must determine whether any factors preclude their traveling in the cabin as service animals (e.g., whether the animal is too large or heavy to be accommodated in the cabin, whether the animal would pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others, whether it would cause a significant disruption of cabin service, whether it would be prohibited from entering a foreign country that is the flight's destination). If no such factors preclude the animal from traveling in the cabin, you must permit it to do so. However, as a foreign carrier, you are not required to carry service animals other than dogs.
(h) You must promptly take all steps necessary to comply with foreign regulations (e.g., animal health regulations) needed to permit the legal transportation of a passenger's service animal from the U.S. into a foreign airport.
(i) Guidance concerning the carriage of service animals generally is found in the preamble of this rule. Guidance on the steps necessary to legally transport service animals on flights from the U.S. into the United Kingdom is found in 72 FR 8268-8277, (February 26, 2007).

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