Summary
- Airlines for America (A4A) requested that the DOT would delay the effective date of a rulemaking affecting certain ticket fees.
- The association argued that a Court of Appeals would rule in their favor against the rulemaking.
- The DOT mandated that airlines and ticket agents would have to disclose fees related to baggage transportation, cancelation, or changes to a flight starting July 1.
Airlines for America (A4A), a trade industry body, is looking to delay the United States Department of Transportation’s (DOT) rule regarding certain itinerary fees as the association has been appealing the Department’s rulemaking before the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Petitioning to delay the effective date of the rulemaking
In a filing that was published by the DOT on June 3, A4A addressed Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transport, asking on behalf of itself and other petitioners that challenged the DOT’s rulemaking to delay the effective date of the mandate to begin once the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issues its judgment.
“As explained below, the Rule exceeds the Department’s statutory authority and is unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Additionally, without a stay, the Rule will work immense irreparable harm on the Airlines.”
Photo: Denver International Airport
The association confidently asserted that the Court of Appeals was likely to rule that the DOT exceeded its statutory authority, violating the APA. A4A argued that the DOT could only prohibit unfair practices, yet its rulemaking concerning fee transparency was mandating certain practices.
A4A stated that the rule was “prescriptive,” making it unlawful because it tells airlines and ticket agents what, when, where, and how they must act when disclosing fee information to travelers, adding that specific Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) sections prohibit the DOT from issuing such mandates.
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Fair and not deceptive
Furthermore, the association argued that the practices that the DOT wanted to regulate were not deceptive, with the Department concluding that they were because passengers could not know the amount of fees that would apply due to the complexity of the fees. However, the DOT did not provide any evidence to back up its claim, according to A4A.
The trade body argued that in addition to consumers having alternate sources of information about change or cancellation fees since airlines disclose them on their websites, “reasonable consumers” are aware that these fees vary between different carriers. As a result, reasonable consumers know that the standard fare was not the final price for their flight, the A4A argued.
Photo: Wenjie Zheng | Shutterstock
In addition, the A4A said that while Congress granted the DOT the authority to enact certain regulations regarding deceptive practices, it did not authorize the Department to decide how airlines and/or ticket agents must run their businesses to avoid potentially deceptive and/or unfair practices.
Lastly, the US airline industry representative argued that the DOT failed to substantiate the benefits, did not enable the public to comment on the data published in its Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), and emphasized that the rulemaking would cause “irreparable harm.”
“Digital platforms for providing information to consumers would need to be completely reengineered, as would systems for sharing data with ticket agents. Those changes would be expensive, potentially costing airlines at least $5 to $10 million each, excluding labor and other related costs.”
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Access to fee information
The DOT published the subject rulemaking on April 24, with an effective date of July 1, 2024. In summary, the Department stated that the change in regulations would strengthen consumer protection, ensuring they have the fee information if they would need to transport baggage, cancel a flight, or change an itinerary.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
The rule affected US-based airlines, foreign carriers, and ticket agents, which would have to disclose the passenger-specific or ticket-specific fees for these services whenever fare and schedule information is provided for flights to, from, and within the US. A4A unites such carriers as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska AIrlines, JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines, and others.
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