[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 29 (Monday, February 12, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9906-9908]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-02472]


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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.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, as 
amended, this notice announces the Department of Transportation's (DOT) 
Office of Aviation Consumer Protection's (OACP) intention to request 
the reinstatement 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. On February 23, 2017, OMB issued a DOT 
control number 2105-0566 authorizing these collections of information 
related to the submission by U.S. carriers and U.S. airports of tarmac 
delay contingency plans for review and approval by the DOT, as well as 
the public posting of those plans. The control number expired on 
February 29, 2020.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by April 12, 2024. 
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.
     Instructions: You must include the agency name and docket 
number DOT-OST-2010-0211 at the beginning of your comment. All comments 
received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, 
including any personal information provided.
     Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of all 
comments received in any of our dockets by the

[[Page 9907]]

name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, 
if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). 
You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act statement in the Federal 
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78), or you may visit 
www.dot.gov/privacy.
     Docket: For access to the docket to read background 
documents or comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov and 
follow the online instructions for accessing the docket.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Daeleen Chesley, Office of the 
Secretary, Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (C-70), U.S. 
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 
20590, at [email protected] (Email) or (202) 366-6792. 
Arrangements to receive this document in an alternative format may be 
made by contacting the above-named individual.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The FAA Modernization and Reform Act (Act), 
which was signed into law on February 14, 2012, requires 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. In 
addition to requiring the initial submission of emergency contingency 
plans, the Act requires U.S. air carriers to submit an updated plan 
every 3 years and U.S. airport operators to submit an updated plan 
every 5 years. The Act further requires each covered carrier and 
airport to ensure public access to its plan after DOT approval by 
posting the plan on its website.
    DOT has an online system allowing covered U.S. air carriers and 
U.S. airports to submit plans online.\1\ On June 2, 2015, DOT published 
a 60-day FR Notice to renew/reinstate the OMB control number (80 FR 
31455) and on June 17, 2016, a 30-day FR notice was published (81 FR 
39750). On February 23, 2017, OMB reinstated the OMB control number, 
which expired on February 29, 2020. DOT is issuing this 60-day notice 
to reinstate the OMB control number.\2\
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    \1\ OACP is modernizing its consumer complaints database to 
provide a more efficient means for air carriers and airports to 
submit their plans. Should the submission process change prior to 
the date plans are due, OACP will give covered entities advance 
notice of the revised procedure for plan submission.
    \2\ We note that the information collection requirements are 
specifically required by statute and are not imposed as an exercise 
of the DOT's discretion.
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    The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) and its implementing 
regulations, 5 CFR part 1320, require Federal agencies to issue two 
notices, a 60-day notice followed by a 30-day notice, seeking public 
comment on information collection activities before OMB may approve 
paperwork packages. 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 contingency plan to DOT for 
review and approval.
    Title: Filing of Tarmac Delay Contingency 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: 391 U.S. airports \3\ and 76 U.S. 
airlines.\4\
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    \3\ Based on FAA CY22 information, there are 31 large, 33 
medium, 73 small, and 254 non-hub covered airports. See, https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/2023-09/cy22-commercial-service-enplanements.pdf.
    \4\ The number of covered airlines was calculated using current 
data provided to OACP by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics 
(BTS).
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    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--195.5 hours (391 existing airports x .5 hours = 
195.5 hours). This estimate is based on the following facts/
assumptions: Tarmac delay plans for submission are general in nature 
and do not consist of extensive airport-specific customization. Airport 
associations prepared templates for use by U.S. airports which require 
very little additional information to be customized for individual 
airports and have been the templates for most of the airport plans 
submitted. For U.S. airports that have already prepared and submitted a 
plan and will continue to be subject to this requirement, they will 
need to review and update the plan through the DOT's electronic 
submission system. We estimate .5 hour for these 391 airports to 
review, update, and submit the plan through the DOT's electronic 
submission system.\5\
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    \5\ The total number of airports required to submit plans has 
decreased from 401 to 391 (-10 airports). The burden is calculated 
with the assumption that no new airports need to submit a plan. 
However, if there are any new airports that are required to submit a 
plan, the burden estimate for such an airport would be two hours.
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    For U.S. airlines--54.5 hours [(65 existing carriers x .5 hours = 
32.5 hours) + (11 new carrier x 2 hours = 22 hours) = 54.5 hours]. 
Although airlines often choose to prepare more detailed plans for 
internal use, airline plans for submission generally are not very 
detailed and provide only the level of information required to meet the 
statutory requirement. In addition, currently operating U.S. carriers 
are already required to have such plans in place as this is a 
continuing requirement and the statute has been in place since 2012. 
Therefore, we estimate that the 65 covered U.S. carriers will spend .5 
hour to review, update, and submit the plan through the DOT's 
electronic submission system. For the 11 carriers that had not prepared 
and submitted a plan to meet the requirement in 2017, we estimate 2 
hours to review and prepare the templates, and to submit the plan 
through the DOT's electronic submission system.\6\
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    \6\ Based on CY 2022 information provided by the Bureau of 
Transportation Statistics (BTS), the number of covered carriers that 
must submit plans increased from 65 to 76 (+11 carriers). As such, 
the estimated burden for U.S. carriers has slightly increased.
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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 Contingency Plan on websites.
    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 operating to or from the United States, using any 
aircraft with a design capacity of 30 or more seats.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 391 U.S. airports and 76 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: 116.75 hours [(391 airports x .25 hours = 
97.75 hours) + (76 airlines x .25 hours = 19 hours) =

[[Page 9908]]

116.75 hours]. We estimate that the time to upload a plan to a website 
is 15 minutes as covered U.S. carriers and airports are already 
required to have such plans in place and plans are generally short and 
do not take long to upload.
    We invite comments on (a) whether the collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the DOT, 
including whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the 
accuracy of the DOT'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.
    Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. Chapter 
35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.26, 1.27, 1.48 and 1.49; DOT Order 
1351.29.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on this 1st day of February 2024, 
under authority delegated at 49 U.S.C. 1.27(n).
Livaughn Chapman Jr.,
Deputy Assistant General Counsel for the Office of Aviation Consumer 
Protection.
[FR Doc. 2024-02472 Filed 2-9-24; 8:45 am]
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