[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 908 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 908

   To improve consumers' access to airline industry information, to 
 promote competition in the aviation industry, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 2, 1999

 Mr. DeFazio (for himself, Mr. Lipinski, and Ms. Slaughter) introduced 
      the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                   Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To improve consumers' access to airline industry information, to 
 promote competition in the aviation industry, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Aviation Consumer Right To Know Act 
of 1999''.

SEC. 2. AIRLINE PASSENGER PROTECTION.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter I of chapter 417 of title 49, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 41716. Air carrier passenger protection
    ``(a) Code Sharing.--No air carrier, foreign air carrier, or ticket 
agent may sell air transportation in the United States for a flight 
that bears a designator code of a carrier other than the carrier that 
will provide the air transportation unless the air carrier, foreign air 
carrier, or ticket agent selling the air transportation first informs 
the person purchasing the air transportation that the carrier providing 
the air transportation will be a carrier other than the carrier whose 
designator code is used to identify the flight and informs the person 
of the corporate name of the other carrier.
    ``(b) Frequent Flyer Awards.--Upon request of any person (including 
a governmental entity), an air carrier shall disclose the number or 
percentage of seats that the carrier intends to make available on a 
specific date for use by a person redeeming an award under a frequent 
flyer program of the carrier on any route in air transportation 
provided by the carrier.
    ``(c) Access to Airfare Information.--Upon request of any person 
(including a governmental entity), an air carrier shall--
            ``(1) provide the person full access to all fares for air 
        transportation provided by the air carrier, regardless of the 
        technology the person uses to access the fares; and
            ``(2) permit the person to purchase air transportation 
        provided by the air carrier at any published fare.
    ``(d) Air Carrier Pricing Policies.--An air carrier may not--
            ``(1) prohibit a person (including a governmental entity) 
        that purchases air transportation from only using a portion of 
        the air transportation purchased (including using the air 
        transportation purchased only for 1-way travel instead of 
        round-trip travel); and
            ``(2) assess an additional fee on or charge to--
                    ``(A) such a person; or
                    ``(B) any ticket agent that sold the air 
                transportation to such person.
    ``(e) Delay, Cancellation, or Diversion.--
            ``(1) Explanation required.--An announcement by an air 
        carrier of (A) a delay or cancellation of a flight, (B) a 
        diversion of a flight to an airport other than the airport at 
        which the flight is scheduled to land, or (C) a delay in 
        deplaning following the touchdown of an aircraft at an airport 
        shall include an explanation of the reason or reasons for the 
        delay, cancellation, or diversion and, in the case of a delay, 
        the expected length of the delay.
            ``(2) Prohibition on false or misleading explanations.--No 
        air carrier shall provide an explanation under paragraph (1) 
        that the air carrier knows or has reason to know is false or 
        misleading.
    ``(f) Use of Insecticides.--No air carrier, foreign air carrier, or 
ticket agent may sell air transportation in the United States for a 
flight on which an insecticide is planned to be used in the aircraft 
while passengers are on board the aircraft unless the air carrier, 
foreign air carrier, or ticket agent selling the air transportation 
first informs the person purchasing the air transportation of the 
planned use of the insecticide, including the name of the 
insecticide.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for such title is 
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 41715 the 
following:

``41716. Air carrier passenger protection.''.
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