§42308. DOT airline customer service dashboards

(a) Requirement To Establish and Maintain Publicly Available Dashboards.-The Secretary of Transportation shall establish, maintain, and make publicly available the following online dashboards for purposes of keeping aviation consumers informed with respect to certain policies of, and services provided by, large air carriers (as such term is defined by the Secretary) to the extent that such policies or services exceed what is required by Federal law:

(1) Delay and cancellation dashboard.-A dashboard that displays information regarding the services and compensation provided by each large air carrier to mitigate any passenger inconvenience caused by a delay or cancellation due to circumstances in the control of such carrier.

(2) Explanation of circumstances.-The website on which such dashboard is displayed shall explain the circumstances under which a delay or cancellation is not due to circumstances in the control of the large air carrier (such as a delay or cancellation due to a weather event or an instruction from the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control System Command Center) consistent with section 234.4 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.

(3) Family seating dashboard.-A dashboard that displays information regarding which large air carriers guarantee that each child shall be seated adjacent to an adult accompanying the child without charging any additional fees.

(4) Seat size dashboard.-A dashboard that displays information regarding aircraft seat size for each large air carrier, including the pitch, width, and length of a seat in economy class for the aircraft models and configurations most commonly flown by such carrier.

(5) Family seating sunset.-The requirement in subsection (a)(3) shall cease to be effective on the date on which the rule in section 516 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 is effective.

(b) Accessibility Requirement.-In developing the dashboards required in subsection (a), the Secretary shall, in order to ensure the dashboards are accessible and contain pertinent information for passengers with disabilities, consult with the Air Carrier Access Act Advisory Committee, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, any other relevant department or agency to determine appropriate accessibility standards, and disability organizations, including advocacy and nonprofit organizations that represent or provide services to individuals with disabilities.

(c) Limitation on Dashboards.-After the rule required in section 516 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 is effective, the Secretary may not establish or maintain more than 4 different customer service dashboards at any given time.

(d) Provision of Information.-Each large air carrier shall provide to the Secretary such information as the Secretary requires to carry out this section.

(e) Sunset.-This section shall cease to be effective on October 1, 2028.

(Added Pub. L. 118–63, title V, §506(a)(1), May 16, 2024, 138 Stat. 1192 .)

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Section 516 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, referred to in subsecs. (a)(5) and (c), is section 516 of Pub. L. 118–63, which is set out as a note preceding section 42301 of this title.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Establishment of Online Dashboards

Pub. L. 118–63, title V, §506(a)(2), May 16, 2024, 138 Stat. 1193 , provided that: "The Secretary [of Transportation] shall establish each of the online dashboards required by section 42308(a) of title 49, United States Code, not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act [May 16, 2024]."