Aviation Congestion

Consumer Protection

The Department has taken several actions designed to enhance aviation consumer protections through rulemakings and examination of methods to alleviate consumer inconvenience and suffering during extended on-board ground delays.

On April 18, 2008, the Department issued a final rule that increases the limits on the compensation paid to "bumped" passengers and extends the requirement to pay compensation for flights on U.S. and foreign carriers that use aircraft seating 30 to 60 passengers (73 Fed. Reg. 21026).   The rule is effective May 19, 2008.

On May 16, 2008, the DOT announced the issuance of a final rule that expands the airline service quality performance data carriers currently report to the Department on information related to cancelled or diverted flights, as well as tarmac delays.   The final rule will be published in the Federal Register soon.

The third rulemaking, an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), asked for comments on various proposals designed to provide consumers information or enhance consumer protections, including proposed requirements that airlines create legally binding contingency plans for extended tarmac delays, respond to all consumer complaints within 30 days, publish complaint data online, and provide on-time performance information for international flights as they currently do for domestic flights (72 Fed. Reg. 65233). The comment period for the ANPRM closed on January 22, 2008. The Department is currently considering the comments received. The next step would be issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comments on any proposals the Department decides to advance.

In addition to these rulemakings, the Secretary formed the National Task Force to Develop Model Contingency Plans to Deal with Lengthy Airline On-Board Ground Delays on December 20, 2007 (72 Fed. Reg. 72435). On February 11, 2008, the Department published the list of task force members (73 Fed. Reg. 7785). The purpose of the task force is to study past delays, review existing and proposed practices, and develop model contingency plans that airlines and airports can tailor to their unique operating environments to mitigate the impact of ground delays on consumers. The task force met on February 26 and April 29, 2008. The Department expects that the task force will meet at least two more times in 2008 and will complete its work by the end of the year.