Proposed Rule2024-09976
Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers With Disabilities Using Wheelchairs
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
May 8, 2024
Issuing agencies
Transportation Department
Abstract
The Department is extending through June 12, 2024, the period for interested persons to submit comments to its proposed rule on Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers with Disabilities Using Wheelchairs.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 90 (Wednesday, May 8, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 90 (Wednesday, May 8, 2024)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 38852-38853]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-09976]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary
14 CFR Part 382
[Docket No. DOT-OST-2022-0144]
RIN 2105-AF14
Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers With Disabilities
Using Wheelchairs
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), Department of Transportation
(DOT or the Department).
ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of comment period.
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SUMMARY: The Department is extending through June 12, 2024, the period
for interested persons to submit comments to its proposed rule on
Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers with Disabilities Using
Wheelchairs.
DATES: The comment period for the proposed rule published March 12,
2024, at 89 FR 17766, is extended. Comments should be filed by June 12,
2024. Late-filed comments will be considered to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: You may file comments identified by the docket number DOT-
OST-2022-0144 by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
<bullet> Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, West Building Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
<bullet> Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
<bullet> Fax: (202) 493-2251.
Instructions: You must include the agency name and docket number
DOT-OST-2022-0144 or the Regulatory Identification Number (RIN 2105-
AF14) for the rulemaking at the beginning of your comment. All comments
received will be posted without change to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>,
including any personal information provided.
Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments
received in any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting
the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an
association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's
complete Privacy Act statement in the Federal Register published on
April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78), or you may visit <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/privacy">https://www.transportation.gov/privacy</a>.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents and
comments received, go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> or to the street
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the
docket.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Miller, Staff Attorney,
Office of Aviation Consumer Protection, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20590, 202-366-
9342 (phone), 202-366-7152 (fax), <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#395a514b504a4d5649515c4b17545055555c4b08795d564d175e564f"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9af9f2e8f3e9eef5eaf2ffe8b4f7f3f6f6ffe8abdafef5eeb4fdf5ec">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On February 29, 2024, the Department
publicly announced and posted to its website a notice of proposed
rulemaking (NPRM) to ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can
travel safely and with dignity. In the NPRM, which was published in the
Federal Register on March 12, 2024, the Department proposed to change
the way airlines provide accommodations for individuals who use
wheelchairs. The NPRM proposed to set new standards for prompt, safe,
and dignified assistance, to mandate enhanced training for airline
employees and contractors who physically assist passengers with
disabilities and handle passengers' wheelchairs, and to specify actions
that airlines must take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is
damaged during transport. The proposed rulemaking also clarified that
any mishandling of a passenger's checked wheelchair or other assistive
device is a violation of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and proposed
to make the mishandling of a wheelchair or other assistive device a per
se violation. In addition, the Department solicited comment on various
issues including the size standards for
[[Page 38853]]
lavatories on twin-aisle aircraft and reimbursements of the fare
difference when the fare on a flight a wheelchair user took and the
fare on a flight that a wheelchair would have taken if the wheelchair
had been able to fit in the aircraft differ. The NPRM provided for a
comment period of 60 days after publication of the NPRM in the Federal
Register, i.e., May 13, 2024.
On March 20, 2024, Airlines for America, the International Air
Transport Association, the National Air Carriers Association, the
Regional Airline Association, and the Airline Service Providers
Association (collectively ``Associations'') filed a joint request to
extend the public comment period for an additional 90 days. The
Associations state that this additional time is needed because of the
number of questions and requests for comment posed in the NPRM and the
significance of the proposed changes to the accessibility obligations
of airlines and airlines' service providers. The Associations also ask
questions regarding the proposal and assert that answers to these
questions are necessary to understand the NPRM's benefits and impact.
The Department's responses to the questions raised in the joint request
are posted in the rulemaking docket at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket/DOT-OST-2022-0144">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/DOT-OST-2022-0144</a>.
On April 26, 2024, 16 disability rights organizations filed a joint
comment urging the Department to deny the Associations' requests for an
extension to the comment period for the NPRM. These organizations are:
Access Living, American Association of People with Disabilities, The
Arc of the United States, Blinded Veterans Association, Christopher &
Dana Reeve Foundation, Cure SMA, Disability Rights Education & Defense
Fund, Epilepsy Foundation, I AM ALS, Muscular Dystrophy Association,
National Council on Independent Living, National Disability Rights
Network, National MS Society, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Parent
Project Muscular Dystrophy, and United Spinal Association. The
disability rights organizations assert the Department has provided a
sufficient time for relevant stakeholders to review and comment on the
NPRM considering the multiple years' effort to improve the air travel
experience of passengers who are wheelchair users, and the significant
concerns for their safety and dignity in air travel.
The Department has carefully considered the request for extension
of the comment period and the request to deny the extension and has
determined to extend the comment period for the proposed rule for 30
days from May 13, 2024, to June 12, 2024. The Department believes that
granting a one-month extension of the original comment period is
sufficient to allow stakeholders to review potential impacts, to assess
the Department's responses to the clarification requests, and to
prepare comments.
Given the request from the disability rights organizations to deny
the request to extend the comment period, the Department encourages all
persons to submit comments when ready rather than waiting until the end
of the extended period.
Signed in Washington, DC, on or around this 1st day of May 2024,
under authority delegated at 49 CFR 1.27(n).
Blane A. Workie,
Assistant General Counsel DOT's Office of Aviation Consumer Protection.
[FR Doc. 2024-09976 Filed 5-7-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P
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