[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 174 (Monday, September 9, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73188-73190]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20260]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

[Docket ID Number: DOT-OST-2010-0140]


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 (PRA), 
as amended, this notice announces the Department of Transportation's 
(Department or DOT) intention to reinstate Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) Control Number 2105-0561 for the collection and posting of 
certain aviation consumer protection-related information from U.S. 
carriers and foreign carriers. The subject information collections 
relate to requirements in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for the 
development and auditing of carrier customer service plans, reporting 
of tarmac delays, display of on-time performance, and the posting of 
various consumer protection documents on carrier websites. The Control 
Number expired on August 31, 2024.

DATES: Comments on this notice must be received by October 9, 2024. 
Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding this 
proposal.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection review (ICR) should be sent within 30 days of 
publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find 
this particular ICR by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--Open 
for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alexa Strong or Hannah Cohen, 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] or [email protected] (Email). 
Arrangements to receive this document in an alternative format may be 
made by contacting the above-named individuals.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Submission of Miscellaneous 
Information Collection Systems as Required by the Department's Rules to 
Enhance Airline Passenger Protections.
    OMB Control Number: 2105-0561.
    On December 30, 2009 and April 25, 2011, the Department issued two 
rules to enhance airline passenger protections that, among other 
things, required U.S. and foreign carriers to adopt and audit a 
customer service plan, retain information regarding tarmac delays, 
submit data regarding tarmac delays, and post tarmac delay plans, 
customer service plans, and contracts of carriage on their websites. 
The 2009 rule also required U.S. carriers that file on-time performance 
reports under 14 CFR part 234 (``reporting carriers'') to display the 
on-time performance of domestic flights on their websites. A 2016 rule 
then expanded the definition of U.S. carriers considered reporting 
carriers.
    On May 3, 2021, the Department issued a rule amending its tarmac 
delay requirements. Among other things, the rule narrowed the tarmac 
delay data reporting requirements in 14 CFR part 244 to those delays 
considered

[[Page 73189]]

``excessive tarmac delays'' (i.e., those tarmac delays exceeding 3 
hours on domestic flights and 4 hours on international flights). The 
amended rule also required carriers to file a narrative report 
regarding such tarmac delays and eliminated the requirement to retain 
the delay information for two years.
    Currently, the Department's Office of Aviation Consumer Protection 
(OACP) is implementing development of the Aviation Complaint, 
Enforcement, and Reporting System (ACERS), a database that it intends 
to require carriers to use when submitting tarmac delay information as 
required under 14 CFR part 259.\1\ After implementation, ACERS will 
help streamline the process by which OACP receives, reviews, and 
analyzes the narrative reports submitted by carriers.
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    \1\ OMB control number 2105-0568, which expires August 31, 2027, 
addresses the information collection relating to carriers uploading 
documents to ACERs.
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    The 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. On May 21, 2024, 
the Department published a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
soliciting comment on the information collections for which it is 
seeking OMB approval. See 89 FR 44758 (May 21, 2024). The Department 
received no comments after issuing this notice. Accordingly, the 
Department announces that these information collection activities have 
been re-evaluated and certified under 5 CFR 1320.5(a) and forwarded to 
OMB for review and approval pursuant to 5 CFR 1320.12(c).
    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 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 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. Before OMB decides 
whether to approve these proposed collections of information, it must 
provide 30 days for public comment. 44 U.S.C. 3507(b); 5 CFR 
1320.12(d). Federal law requires OMB to approve or disapprove paperwork 
packages between 30 and 60 days after the 30-day notice is published. 
44 U.S.C. 3507(b)-(c); 5 CFR 1320.12(d); see also 60 FR 44978, 44983 
(Aug. 29, 1995). The 30-day notice informs the regulated community to 
file relevant comments to OMB and affords the agency adequate time to 
digest public comments before it renders a decision. 60 FR 44983 (Aug. 
29, 1995). Therefore, respondents should submit their respective 
comments to OMB within 30 days of publication to best ensure their full 
consideration. 5 CFR 1320.12(c); see also 60 FR 44983 (Aug. 29, 1995).
    This notice addresses five information collection requirements set 
forth in the Department's airline passenger protection rules: (1) 
posting of tarmac delay plans, customer service plans, and contracts of 
carriage on carrier websites, (2) submission of a narrative report 
regarding tarmac delays that last over three hours for domestic flights 
and four hours for international flights, (3) adoption and audit of 
customer service plans and retention of results, (4) display of on-time 
performance data on carrier websites, and (5) submission of a data 
report for tarmac delays that last over three hours for domestic 
flights and four hours for international flights. It seeks 
reinstatement of the OMB control number with respect to all information 
collections set forth in this notice. For each of these information 
collections, the title, a description of the respondents, and an 
estimate of the annual recordkeeping and periodic reporting burdens are 
set forth below:
    1. Requirement to post tarmac delay plans, customer service plans, 
and contracts of carriage on a carrier's website. (14 CFR 259.2 and 
259.6)
    Title: Posting of Tarmac Delay Plan, Customer Service Plan, and 
Contract of Carriage on website.
    Respondents: U.S. carriers that operate scheduled passenger or 
public charter service and foreign air carriers operating scheduled 
passenger or public charter service to or from the United States, using 
any aircraft with a designed seating capacity of 30 or more seats. 
Applicable to U.S. carriers that have a website and foreign carriers 
that have a website marketed toward U.S. consumers.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 44 U.S. air carriers and 112 
foreign air carriers.
    Estimated Total Burden on Respondents: 143 hours (8,580 minutes, 
average of 55 minutes per carrier to post plans and contracts of 
carriage on website). The burden calculation accounts for additional 
time carriers may spend updating the contents of their customer service 
plans to comply with recent amendments to 14 CFR 259.5, which the 
Department anticipates will be a one-time update for carriers.\2\ See 
89 FR 32760 (April 26, 2024) (required carrier customer service plans 
(1) to disclose that consumers are entitled to a refund if this is the 
case when offering travel credits, vouchers, or other compensation in 
lieu of refunds, and to disclose any material restrictions, conditions, 
or limitations on travel credits, vouchers, or other compensation 
offered, regardless of whether consumers are entitled to a refund and 
(2) to include a statement regarding compliance with the requirements 
of part 262 regarding vouchers for consumers in circumstances relating 
to serious communicable diseases).
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    \2\ The burden hours for this information collection were 
previously 15 minutes per carrier. The burden hours have been 
increased to 55 minutes per carrier to account for additional time 
carriers may need to update their customer service plans prior to 
posting them on their websites.
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    Frequency: One time per respondent.
    2. Requirement to file a narrative report with OACP of each flight 
that experiences a tarmac delay of more than three hours (domestic 
flights) and more than four hours (international flights) (14 CFR 
259.4(g)).
    Title: Reporting of Tarmac Delays in a Narrative Format That 
Complies with 49 U.S.C. 42301(h).
    Respondents: U.S. Carriers that operate scheduled passenger service 
or public charter service using any aircraft with 30 or more seats, and 
foreign air carriers that operate scheduled passenger or public charter 
service to and from the United States using any aircraft with 30 or 
more seats.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 44 U.S. air carriers and 112 
foreign air carriers.
    Estimated Annual Burden on Respondents: 2 hours per report for U.S. 
carriers and 4 hours per report for foreign carriers. The expected 
burden per U.S. carrier is between 0 and 147 reports per year, and the 
expected burden per foreign carrier is between 0 and 2 reports per year 
(based on the highest annual number of tarmac delays experienced by a 
single U.S. and foreign carrier from 2022 and 2023), or 0.0 to 294.0 
hours of burden per U.S. carrier and 0.0 to 8.0 hours of burden per 
foreign carrier.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: Based on the average number of 
tarmac delay reports filed with OACP by each type of carrier from 2022 
through 2023, 358 reports for U.S. carriers and 10 reports for foreign 
carriers, or a total of 756 hours (358 reports multiplied by 2 hours 
per report for U.S. carriers, and 10

[[Page 73190]]

reports multiplied by 4 hours for foreign carriers).
    Frequency: One report per respondent for each tarmac delay.
    3. Requirement that certain U.S. and foreign air carriers adopt a 
Customer Service Plan and retain for two years the results of its 
annual self-audit of its compliance with its Customer Service Plan. (14 
CFR 259.2 and 259.5)
    Title: Adopting a Customer Service Plan and Retaining Self-audit of 
Customer Service Plan.
    Respondents: U.S. carriers that operate scheduled passenger service 
using any aircraft with a designed seating capacity of 30 or more 
seats, and foreign air carriers that operate scheduled passenger 
service to and from the United States using any aircraft with a 
designed seating capacity of 30 or more seats.
    Number of Respondents: 44 U.S. air carriers and 112 foreign air 
carriers.
    Estimated Annual Burden on Respondents: 15 minutes per year for 
each respondent. The estimate was calculated by multiplying the 
estimated time for carriers to maintain an updated Customer Service 
Plan and to retain a copy of the carrier's self-audit of its compliance 
with its Customer Service Plan by the number of audits per carrier in a 
given year (1). The initial costs of adopting a Customer Service Plan 
are not included in this estimate as most covered carriers initially 
adopted such plans when the requirement was promulgated in 2009 (for 
U.S. carriers) and 2011 (for foreign carriers).
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: A maximum of 39 hours (2,340 
minutes) for all respondents. The estimate was calculated by 
multiplying the time in a given year for each carrier to maintain an 
updated Customer Service Plan and to retain a copy of its self-audit of 
its compliance with its Customer Service Plan (15 minutes) by the total 
number of covered carriers (156 carriers).
    Frequency: One information set to maintain and retain per year for 
each respondent.
    4. Requirement that each large U.S. carrier display on its website, 
at a point before the consumer selects a flight for purchase, the 
following information for each listed flight regarding its on-time 
performance during the last reported month: The percentage of arrivals 
that were on time (within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival time), the 
percentage of arrivals that were more than 30 minutes late (with 
special highlighting if the flight was more than 30 minutes late more 
than 50 percent of the time), and the percentage of flight 
cancellations if the flight is cancelled more than 5% of the time. In 
addition, the requirement that a marketing/reporting carrier display 
delay data for its non-reporting codeshare carrier(s). (14 CFR 234.11)
    Title: Displaying On-time performance Information on Carrier 
website.
    Respondents: U.S. carriers that operate scheduled passenger service 
that account for at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger 
revenue and that market flights directly to consumers via a website.
    Number of Respondents: 15 carriers.
    Estimated Annual Burden on Respondents: 2 hours per month (24 hours 
annually) to cover both updates of a carrier's own delay data and 
updates of code-share delay data.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: No more than 360 hours (21,600 
minutes) a year for all respondents. The estimate was calculated by 
multiplying the total number of hours per carrier per year for 
management of data links (24) by the number of covered carriers (15).
    Frequency: Updating information for each flight listed on website 
12 times per year (1 time per month) for each respondent (for both a 
carrier's own delay data and code-share delay data).
    5. Requirement that carriers report certain tarmac delay data to 
BTS for each tarmac delay exceeding 3 Hours (for domestic flights) and 
exceeding 4 Hours (for international flights) (14 CFR 244.3)
    Title: Reporting Tarmac Delay Data to BTS for Tarmac Delays 
Exceeding 3 Hours (for Domestic Flights) and 4 Hours (for International 
Flights).
    Respondents: U.S. carriers that operate scheduled passenger service 
or public charter service using any aircraft with 30 or more seats, and 
foreign air carriers that operate scheduled passenger or public charter 
service to and from the United States using any aircraft with 30 or 
more seats.
    Number of Respondents: 44 U.S. air carriers and 112 foreign air 
carriers.
    Estimated Annual Burden on Respondents: 30 minutes per report 
filed. The expected burden per U.S. carrier is between 0 and 147 
reports per year, and the expected burden per foreign carrier is 
between 0 and 2 reports per year (based on the highest and lowest 
number of reports submitted by each individual U.S. and foreign carrier 
from 2022 and 2023), or 0.0 to 73.5 hours of burden per U.S. carrier 
and 0.0 to 1.0 hours of burden per foreign carrier.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: Based on an average number of tarmac 
delays reported to BTS for 2022 and 2023, the estimated annual burden 
is 368 reports for U.S. carriers and foreign carriers, or a total of 
184 hours (368 reports multiplied by 30 minutes per report).
    Frequency: One report per respondent for each tarmac delay.
    We invite comments on (a) whether the collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of DOT, including 
whether the information will have practical utility; (b) the accuracy 
of 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.

    Issued in Washington, DC.
Livaughn Chapman Jr,
Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Office of Aviation Consumer 
Protection.
[FR Doc. 2024-20260 Filed 9-6-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P