Agency Information Collection - BTS Form 251 - Report of Passengers Denied Confirmed Space

OST-2007-26835

January 12, 2007

BTS Form 251 Notice

BTS Form 251 is a one-page report on the number of passengers denied boarding (voluntarily and involuntarily), whether the bumped passengers were provided alternate transportation and/or compensation, and the amount of the payment. U.S. and foreign air carriers that operate scheduled passenger service with large aircraft (over 60-seats) must submit Form 251. In addition, carriers report data from inbound international flights because the protections of 14 CFR part 250 Oversales do not apply to these flights.

The report allows the Department to monitor the effectiveness of its oversales rule and take enforcement action when necessary. While the involuntarily denied-boarding rate has decrease from 4.38 per 10,000 passengers in 1980 to 1.04 for the nine months ended September 2006, the rate is up from the 0.89 attained for the nine months ended September 2005. The publishing of the carriers' individual denied boarding rates has negated the need for more intrusive regulation. The rate of denied boarding can be examined as a continuing fitness factor. This rate provides an insight into a carrier's customer service policy and its compliance disposition. A rapid sustained increase in the rate of denied boarding often in an indicator of operational difficulty. Because the rate of denied boarding is released quarterly, travelers and travel agents can select carriers with low bumping incidents when booking a trip.

By: Donald Bright

Published in Federal Register April 2, 2007

Notice

This notice announces that the Information Collection Request, abstracted below, is being forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget for extension of currently approved Report of Passengers Denied Confirmed Space. Earlier, a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period was published on January 19, 2007 (72 FR 2591). The agency did not receive any comments to its previous notice.

Written comments should be submitted by May 2, 2007.

By: Donald Bright