The Air Transport Association late last week told the U.S. Department of Transportation that its members would need on average five-and-a-half months to comply with a new mandate to disclose on-time, delay and cancellation data on their Web sites at the time of booking, as carriers build the case for a 90-day extension of DOT's April 29 compliance deadline.
Those DOT requirements are part of rules announced in December to bolster air passenger protections, which also include a provision that requires airlines allow passengers to deplane if tarmac delays exceed three hours
(BTNonline, Dec. 21, 2009).
Among new DOT mandates, airlines will have to report on their Web sites historical on-time, delay and cancellation data for individual flights when passengers are booking. "The Department also requires ticketing carriers to provide this flight information for domestic codeshare flights or a 'one-click' link directly to flight information on the operating carrier's Web site," ATA said, noting that requirement further complicates compliance.
"As indicated by estimates provided by our members, there simply is not enough time to complete the changes necessary to ensure compliance with the additional flight time disclosure requirements in the new rule," read the request ATA vice president and general counsel David Berg submitted late last week. ATA filed its initial request for an extension on Jan. 22, but today detailed compliance timeframes that its airline members deemed attainable.
Citing the results of a survey of its airline members, ATA said implementing new reporting data requirements would take the carriers well beyond the April 29 compliance deadline, as carriers on average would need about 1,550 hours to comply. According to ATA, that "translates into an approximately 5.5 month project" for carriers to "design, program, test and deploy changes."
ATA said some carriers already have commenced the work, but noted that its members "have spent the past month determining the new regulatory requirements and identifying the system changes that are needed in order to begin the first phase of system design and functionality work," ATA said.
In an interview last month with
BTN, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said DOT "could make some adjustments" on the compliance date, but until then he stressed, "enforcement starts at the end of the 120-day period
(BTNonline, Jan. 25)."