DOT Begins Review Of CRS Rules

The U.S. Department of Transportation today opened a rulemaking to update the existing computer reservation system rules, noting that marketplace developments "may have eliminated" the need for some of the comprehensive regulations. Further, DOT noted that "Rules regulating the sale of airline services over the Internet appear unnecessary at this time."

In an explanation of two of the changes it is proposing, DOT said one would eliminate the mandate that each airline with an ownership interest in a CRS "participate in competing systems at the same level at which it participates in its own, if the terms are commercially reasonable." Another change would drop the rule that prohibits discriminatory booking fees. DOT tentatively has determined "that these two rules may unduly limit the ability of airlines to bargain for better terms with the systems, and ending them could allow market forces to provide better terms for carriers than they now have." The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would maintain the existing requirement that information in the systems be displayed "in an objective and unbiased manner."

Department officials called for public comments on the Notice within 60 days, with replies to those comments to be filed a month later. The proposed rule may be accessed at www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm. Comments and other documents will be posted at http://dms.dot.gov, docket number OST-97-2881. DOT last updated the CRS regulations in 1992.