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Reporting Requirement for Disability-Related Complaints

This document proposes to require most certificated U.S. air carriers and foreign air carriers operating to and from the U.S. that conduct passenger-carrying service to record and categorize complaints that they receive alleging inadequate accessibility or discrimination on the basis of disability according to the type of disability and nature of complaint, prepare a summary report of those complaints, submit the report annually to the Department of Transportation's (Department or DOT) Aviation Consumer Protection Division, and retain copies of correspondence and record of action taken on disability-related complaints for three years. Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, before seeking OMB approval to collect information from the public, Federal agencies must solicit public comment on proposed collections of information. Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding this proposal and comments must be received on or before April 15, 2002.

By:  Blane Workie

Reporting Requirement for Disability-Related Complaints

The Office of the Secretary is proposing to collect an annual report on the disability-related incidents communicated by passengers to U.S. certificated and foreign air carriers involving flights to, from or between U.S. points. Also, foreign air carriers would be required to retain for three years copies of the complaints and the records of the action taken on the complaints. The proposed reporting regulations would not apply to air taxis, commuter air carriers, small certificated air carriers and foreign air carriers that operate strictly small aircraft (60 seats or less). The proposed reporting requirements apply to the entire operations of carriers utilizing a mixed fleet (both large and small aircraft) in passenger service.

By:  Blane Workie

Reporting Requirement for Disability-Related Complaints

By:  Air Transport Association of America, David Berg

Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints

The Department of Transportation hereby extends the comment period on the proposed rule requiring certain foreign and domestic air carriers to report complaints that they receive alleging inadequate accessibility or discrimination on the basis of disability.  The comment period is extended from April 15, 2002, to June 1, 2002.

By:  Robert Ashby

Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints

By:  Disability and Communication Access Board, Dean Georgiev, 808.685.8121

Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints

We believe that the definition of a disability-related complaint for purposes of this NPRM is overly broad. Each air carrier presently has a limited system in which it receives customer complaints. This system, usually a customer relations department, is designed to receive written complaints via some or all of the following conduits: U.S. mail, electronic mail, fax, and/or through in-house comment cards or other customer feedback mechanisms, as well as by telephone. These customer relations departments investigate and respond to these complaints within established time frames with the personnel and man-power at hand. Those responsible for handling passenger complaints are specifically trained in all aspects of customer relations handling, including disability issues.

Counsel:  Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Donald Day

Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking contemplates what IATA believes to be a very comprehensive duty to report disability-related complaints. We respectfully submit that the Department has not properly assessed the practical and financial impact that the new reporting requirements will have on many airlines, and that the information thus collected will not form an accurate picture of the true situation, thus failing to meet a public interest test. Furthermore, it raises extraterritoriality concerns.

By:  David O'Connor

Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints

The definition of "complaint" is confusing and overly broad. Proposed Section 382.70(a) defines a complaint as "a specific expression of dissatisfaction received from, or submitted on behalf, of an individual with a disability concerning a difficulty associated with the person's disability, which the person experienced when using or attempting to use an air carrier's or foreign air carrier's services." This definition is unworkable in the real world of airline operations. As written, it would require virtually any utterance of dissatisfaction to any employee to be captured, recorded and coded for subsequent reporting to DOT. Airlines do not have systems to do this, they do not have policies to do this, and employees are not trained to do this. Even though the assumptions made by DOT in its benefit-cost analysis regarding carrier complaint tracking and response systems suggest DOT intended a more limited requirement, the text of this provision is written in the broadest of possible terms. For these reasons, it is confusing, overly broad, and subject to inconsistent interpretations. Also, as discussed below, the definition in proposed § 387.70 is inconsistent with the definition in § 382.65.

By:  ATA, David Berg, 202.626.4000

Subjecting foreign carriers to the proposed reporting requirement would also create administrative difficulties not applicable to U.S. carriers. For example, British Airways offices in the United Kingdom receive more than 250,000 communications from passengers each year. Many of these are compliments and not complaints and most do not relate to flights to or from the United States. British Airways current data systems do not enable it to separate communications concerning U.S. flights from those concerning flights between two non-U.S. points. British Airways offices in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world also receive communications from passengers. As would be expected, the vast majority of communications received by British Airways U.S. offices concern flights to or from the United States. The opposite is true with respect to communications received in British Airways offices in the United Kingdom. Accordingly, should the Department, notwithstanding the lack of statutory support, choose to apply the proposed reporting requirement to foreign as well as U.S. carriers, it should limit that requirement to complaints received at foreign carrier offices located in the United States. Since it is reasonable to assume (1) that most U.S. nationals would submit complaints to the most convenient location - i.e., foreign carrier offices in the United States, and (2) that the Department's primary objective is to protect the rights of U.S. nationals, this proposed modification would alleviate the burden imposed on foreign carriers without detracting from the objectives of the proposed rule.

By:  British Airways, James Forster

The rule should be expanded to cover all carriers who operate aircraft with 30 or more passenger seats. The Air Carrier Access Act has specific provisions for aircraft with 30 or more passengers, such as the requirements for level entry boarding. Complaints generated as a result of violations on aircrafts with 30 or more passenger seats must be recorded and reported. For certain areas of the United States, aircraft with seating for 30 to 60 passengers is the only air travel available, thus if DOT excludes these carriers, portions of the country will not be adequately represented. This proposed rule must apply to all air carriers and aircraft covered by the ACAA and its implementing regulations.

By:  Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, Kleo King, 718.803.3782

Imposing new regulatory burdens on carriers and requiring them to construct complex new bureaucratic procedures is not the proper role for the Department, and making carriers focus on disability complaints merely as a subjective and mechanistic "bean counting" exercise is far from the best way of preventing discrimination, bettering access to air transportation and ensuring effective and sensitive service for disabled airline passengers.

By:  Swiss, Erin Sweeney, 631.844.4504, esweeney@mail.swiss.com

Due to the proactive nature of its dealings with passengers, Virgin receives a high volume of comments and feedback from its passengers, both positive and negative. Furthermore, to continually improve its service, Virgin records all such contact with passengers -- whether solicited by Virgin or not, and whether negative or not. The Notice does not stipulate whether those comments recorded due to solicitation by a carrier would be exempt from the new requirements. Virgin urges that they be exempted, lest a disincentive be created for soliciting them. Furthermore, the Notice states that disability-related complaints should be recorded and reported without regard to the carrier's perception of the validity of the complaint. Virgin would object to this most strongly: it is not unusual for carriers, especially ones that are known to deal generously with passengers' concerns, to receive frivolous and vexatious complaints. It would be highly irregular if these complaints were reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) without regard to their veracity. These complaints would be reflected in statistics that would show the carrier in an unfavourable light when there may be no truth in the initial complaint. The judicial system of the both the United Kingdom and the United States is based on the premise innocent until proven guilty, a premise which should also apply in this context.

Counsel:  Garfinkle Wang, Morris Garfinkle, 703.522.0900, mgarfinkle@gandwplc.com

Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints

Far too often we hear from people with epilepsy who have been denied passage on commercial airlines because they have epilepsy. Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder characterized by recurring seizures. Some individuals have been told they must be seizure-free for twenty-four hours before they can fly. Others have been told they must present a medical certificate before they can board the aircraft. We strongly believe that these individual's rights under the Air Carrier Access Act are being violated. Our medical advisors, nationally recognized neurologists who specialize in the treatment of epilepsy, have advised us that from a medical standpoint there is no sound basis for such policies and that, in general, a person with epilepsy can fly safely even if he has had a seizure within the previous twenty-four hours. Moreover, in the event of a seizure on board, first aid can be easily and quickly administered.

By:  Epilepsy Foundation, Alexandra Finucane, 301.459.3700

Perhaps recognizing the intrusive effect of its extension of paragraph (a) to cover foreign airlines, Congress appears to have drawn a line between covering foreign airlines under paragraph (a) of the Access Act, on the one hand, and imposing the additional burden of requiring them to submit all disability-related complaints to DOT, on the other hand. In effect, Congress seems to have decided not to further impinge on the sovereignty of other nations by requiring foreign airlines to report all disability complaints to DOT as if it were a universal agency for such matters. The Proposed Rule completely ignores the line drawn in the legislation and, therefore, contravenes Congressional intent. Accordingly, Iberia respectfully submits that the Proposed Rule should be revised so that it is not applicable to foreign airlines.

Counsel:  Steptoe Johnson, William Karas, 202.429.6223, wkaras@steptoe.com

Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints

By:  Robert Herman, Paralyzed Veterans of America

Reporting Requirement for Disability-Related Complaints

RAA agrees that it is appropriate to exclude "all commuter carriers and certificated carriers operating only small aircraft' (with 60 or fewer seats) from the rule. As noted in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, these entities carry a small percentage of passenger traffic and the compliance cost for these small companies would be far greater than the benefits of the information collected. Numerous regional air carriers have indicated that they do not have the systems or the software in place to record, categorize and submit disability-related complaint data. Additional personnel would also be required to develop and maintain these systems. The costs of implementing these systems would be prohibitive for most RAA members. For example, one regional airline, with only nine airplanes, estimated a minimum of $45,000 to comply with the basic requirements of the proposed rule.

By:  Regional Airline Association, Deborah McElroy

Report Requirement for Disability-Related Complaints

June 24, 2003

OST-02-11473

Final Rule

This document requires most certificated U.S. air carriers and foreign air carriers operating to and from the U.S. that conduct passenger-carrying service to record and categorize complaints that they receive alleging inadequate accessibility or discrimination on the basis of disability according to the type of disability and nature of complaint, prepare a summary report of those complaints, submit the report annually to the Department of Transportation's (Department or DOT) Aviation Consumer Protection Division, and retain copies of correspondence and record of action taken on disability-related complaints for three years

Appendix A: Disability Complaint Reporting Form

By: Norman Mineta

OST-02-11473

Julu 8, 2003

Final Rule - Federal Register Publication

This document requires most certificated U.S. air carriers and foreign air carriers operating to and from the U.S. that conduct passenger-carrying service to record and categorize complaints that they receive alleging inadequate accessibility or discrimination on the basis of disability according to the type of disability and nature of complaint, prepare a summary report of those complaints, submit the report annually to the Department of Transportation's (Department or DOT) Aviation Consumer Protection Division, and retain copies of correspondence and record of action taken on disability-related complaints for three years. DATES: This rule is effective on August 7, 2003.

Final Rule - Draft Version
Appendix A - Disablity Complaint Reporting Form

By: Blane Workie

March 3, 2003

Final Rule - Regulatory Evaluation

Regulatory Evaluation of the Final Rule requiring large certificated and foreign air carriers that operate a least one large aircraft to submit an annual report on the written complaints by passengers concerning diability-related incidents involving flights to, from or between U.S. points

By: Norman Mineta

Reporting Requirements of Disability-Related Complaints

OST-03-11473

December 22, 2004

Guidance on Final Rule and Notice of Information Collection Approval

DOT has established a website at http://382reporting.ost.dot.gov to enable covered carriers to submit from any Internet‑connected computer anywhere in the world the required annual report summarizing the disability‑related complaints that they received during the prior calendar year using the form specified in Appendix A of Part 382. Carriers will need to register on the website before they can gain access and complete the disability‑related complaint form online. To register, carriers simply fill in and submit the required registration information: carrier name; carrier class (foreign or U.S.); carrier address; and carrier representative name, title, and contact information.

Each carrier representative will be assigned a unique user name and password after DOT has verified the authenticity of the registered carrier and representative, which may take a day or two. This step is necessary to ensure that only authorized users can submit information and view sensitive data. We encourage each covered carrier to register with the website as soon as possible so that the carrier representative can receive a user name and password well in advance of January 25, 2005, the date by which carriers must submit to the Department of Transportation the report covering disability‑related complaints received during calendar year 2004.

Counsel: Jeffrey Rosen

OST-02-11473

December 22, 2004

Guidance on Final Rule and Notice of Information Collection Approval

A July 8, 2003, final rule (68 FR 40488) requires, among other things, that certain certificated U.S. air carriers and foreign air carriers record disability-related complaints and submit a summary report of those complaints annually to the Department.

This document announces the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of this information collection request (ICR) OMB No. 2105–0551, ‘‘Reporting Requirements for Disability-Related Complaints,’’ provides information on how covered carriers can submit a report summarizing the disability-related complaints that they receive during the prior calendar year to the Department through the World Wide Web, and addresses frequently asked questions about the applicability of the rule.

Counsel: Jeffrey Rosen

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