Major US airlines, including United, Delta, American, Southwest, and JetBlue, along with the industry trade group Airlines for America, are challenging a Biden administration rule designed to strengthen protections for disabled passengers who use wheelchairs.
The rule, issued in December, mandates stricter standards for accommodating wheelchair users and requires airlines to reimburse passengers for damage to their wheelchairs.
The legal challenge has been filed with the 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals. At the time of its implementation, then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hailed the rule as the most significant expansion of rights for wheelchair users since 2008. He emphasized that it would empower the Department of Transportation to hold airlines accountable for damage to wheelchairs and delays in their return.
Airlines for America contends that carriers have already made substantial progress in improving services for passengers with disabilities since signing a commitment to do so in 2022.
The airline group said it was not challenging all aspects of the regulation but said “certain provisions of the final rule go beyond the USDOT’s statutory authority, violate the Administrative Procedure Act and represent regulatory overreach by the Biden Administration.”
The USDOT rule says airlines must return checked wheelchairs in the same condition or face the presumption they are responsible, but carriers can challenge it.
Under the final rule, airlines must notify passengers whose wheelchairs have been mishandled of their rights, provide loaners and quickly repair or replace broken wheelchairs as well as reimburse passengers for transportation costs incurred as a result of a passenger’s wheelchair being delayed by the airline.
In October, USDOT fined American Airlines a record $50 million for its treatment of disabled passengers, including failing to provide some with adequate assistance and mishandling wheelchairs.
USDOT says an estimated 5.5 million Americans use a wheelchair and data shows that for every 100 wheelchairs or scooters transported on domestic flights at least one is damaged, delayed, or lost.
Source: independent.co.uk