[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 2, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31455-31456]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-13333]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

[OST Docket No. 2012-0028]


Notice of Submission of Proposed Information Collection to OMB

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35, as amended) this notice announces the Department of 
Transportation's (Department) intention to request the renewal of an 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number for the collection 
of emergency contingency plans for tarmac delays from U.S. carriers and 
U.S. airports as required by the FAA Modernization and Reform Act 
(Act). On April 16, 2012, the Department of Transportation submitted to 
OMB for review and clearance utilizing emergency review procedures 
information collection requests related to the submission by U.S. 
carriers and U.S. airports of tarmac delay contingency plans for review 
and approval by the Department, as well as the public posting of those 
plans, as set forth in the Act. OMB issued the Department a control 
number authorizing these new collections of information until November 
30, 2012 (OMB Control Number 2105-0566).

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by August 3, 2015. 
Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding this 
proposal.

ADDRESSES: To ensure that you do not duplicate your docket submissions, 
please submit them by only one of the following means:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., West Building Ground Floor 
Room W-12/140, Washington, DC 20590-0001;
     Hand delivery: West Building Ground Floor, Room W-12/140, 
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone number is 202-366-9329.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kimberly Graber, Office of the 
Secretary, Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Aviation 
Enforcement and Proceedings (C-70), Department of Transportation, 1200 
New Jersey Ave. SE., Washington, DC 20590, 202-366-9342 (voice) 202-
366-7152 (fax) or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FAA Modernization and Reform Act, which 
was signed into law on February 14, 2012, required U.S. carriers that 
operate scheduled passenger service or public charter service using any 
aircraft with a design capacity of 30 or more seats, and operators of 
large hub, medium hub, small hub, or non-hub U.S. airports, to submit 
emergency contingency plans for lengthy tarmac delays to the Secretary 
of Transportation for review and approval no later than May 14, 2012. 
The Act also required each covered carrier and airport to ensure public 
access to its plan after DOT approval by posting the plan on its Web 
site. In addition to requiring the initial submission of emergency 
contingency plans, the Act requires U.S. carriers to submit an updated 
plan every 3 years. Further, the Act requires airport operators to 
submit an updated plan every 5 years. The information collection 
requirements are specifically required by statute and are not being 
imposed as an exercise of the Department's discretion.
    On April 16, 2012, the Department submitted to OMB for review and 
clearance information collection requests regarding submission of the 
plans and OMB approved this information collection. The Department then 
issued a notice in the Federal Register stating how covered U.S. 
carriers and airports should submit the required plans to the 
Department through an online system (77 FR 27267, May 9, 2012). The 
Department intends to ask for a renewal of the OMB control number for 
U.S. carriers and airport operators to submit plan updates.
    A Federal agency generally cannot conduct or sponsor a collection 
of information, and the public is generally not required to respond to 
an information collection, unless it is approved by the OMB under the 
PRA and displays a currently valid OMB Control Number. In addition, 
notwithstanding any other provisions of law, no person shall generally 
be subject to monetary penalty for failing to comply with a collection 
of information if the collection of information does not display a 
valid OMB Control Number. See 5 CFR 1320.5(a) and 1320.6.
    For each of these information collections, the title, a description 
of the respondents, and an estimate of the annual recordkeeping and 
periodic reporting burden are set forth below:
    1. Requirement to submit tarmac delay plan to DOT for review and 
approval.
    Title: Filing of Tarmac Delay Plan to DOT.
    Respondents: Each large, medium, small and non-hub airport in the 
U.S.; U.S. carriers that operate scheduled passenger service or public 
charter service using any aircraft with a design capacity of 30 or more 
seats.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 420 U.S. airports and 65 U.S. 
airlines.
    Frequency: Every 5 years for covered U.S. airports; every 3 years 
for covered U.S. airlines.
    Estimated Total Burden on Respondents: For U.S. airports--247.5 
hours (25 airports not covered in 2012 x 2 hours) + (395 existing 
airports x .5 hours) = 247.5 hours. This estimate is based on the 
following facts: Tarmac delay plans for submission are general in 
nature and do not consist of extensive airport-specific customization. 
Airport associations have prepared templates for use by U.S. airports 
which require very little additional information to be customized for 
individual airports. Airport associations' templates have been the 
template for most of the airport plans submitted. For an airport that 
had not prepared and submitted a plan to meet the requirement in 2012 
(25 airports), we estimate 2 hours to review the templates, to prepare 
by entering the airport-specific information, and to submit the plan 
through the Department's electronic submission system. We estimate 
there are or will be approximately 25 airports that will be newly 
covered by the Act by the next submission deadline and that did not 
previously submit plans to meet the requirement in 2012.\1\ For U.S. 
airports

[[Page 31456]]

that have already prepared and submitted a plan and will continue to be 
subject to this requirement (395 airports), they will need to review 
and update the plan through the Department's electronic submission 
system. We estimate .5 hour for these 395 airports to review, update, 
and submit the plan through the Department's electronic submission 
system.
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    \1\ These estimates are based on currently available data. Our 
estimates assume that the number of covered airports will increase 
between 2012 and 2017 so that there will be a larger number of 
covered airports by the date of the next submission requirement for 
covered airports in 2017. There were approximately 395 airports that 
were coverend in 2012. Based on current FAA data, it appears that 
approximately 416 airports now meet the threshold of the Act that 
requires them to submit plans. http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy13-commercial-service-enplanements.pdf. Based on fluctuations in 
airport traffic combined with the recent trend of increasing air 
traffic, we anticipate that approximately 25 airports that were not 
covered by the Act in 2012 now meet or will meet the threshold and 
be covered airports by 2017, the next required submission date. This 
number includes an assumption that a small number of airports that 
were previously covered will no longer be covered by 2017.
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    For U.S. airlines--40 hours (60 existing carriers x .5 hours) + (5 
new carriers x 2 hours) = 40 hours.\2\ Airline plans for submission 
generally are not very detailed and provide only the level of 
information required to meet the statutory requirement. Although 
airlines often choose to prepare more detailed plans for internal use, 
the submitted plans are brief. In addition, currently operating U.S. 
carriers are already required to have such plans in place since this is 
a continuing requirement and the statute has already been in place 
since 2012. Therefore we estimate that most covered U.S. carriers (an 
estimated 60) will spend .5 hour to review, update, and submit the plan 
through the Department's electronic submission system. We estimate that 
up to 5 U.S. carriers may meet the threshold for the filing requirement 
in 2015 but may not have submitted a plan previously. We estimate those 
carriers will spend 2 hours to prepare and submit the plan through the 
Department's electronic submission system.
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    \2\ These estimates are based on the number of airlines that 
were required to file in the past and the potential for an increased 
number of airlines that may be covered by the date of the next 
submission requirement for airlines.
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    2. Requirement to ensure public access to tarmac delay plan after 
DOT approval (as required by the Act).
    Title: Posting of Tarmac Delay Plan on Web sites.
    Respondents: Each large, medium, small and non-hub airport in the 
U.S.; U.S. carriers that operate scheduled passenger service or public 
charter service and foreign air carriers operating to or from the 
United States, using any aircraft with a design capacity of 30 or more 
seats.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 420 U.S. airports and 65 U.S. 
airlines.
    Estimated Total Frequency: Every 5 years for covered U.S. airports; 
every 3 years for covered U.S. airlines (if not already posted or if 
there are updates).
    Burden on Respondents: 121.25 (Average of 15 minutes per respondent 
(420 U.S. airports and 65 U.S. airlines) to post current plan on Web 
site).
    We invite comments on (a) whether the collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the 
Department, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the Department's estimate of the burden of 
the proposed information collection; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology. All responses to this notice will be summarized 
and included in the request for OMB approval. All comments will also 
become a matter of public record on the docket.

    Issued this 27 day of May, 2015, at Washington, DC.
Blane A. Workie,
Assistant General Counsel for Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings.
[FR Doc. 2015-13333 Filed 6-1-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P