14 CFR Parts 382 and 399; 49 CFR Part 27 - Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel: Accessibility of Web Sites and Automated Kiosks at U.S. Airports - Preamble

D. Regulatory Flexibility Act

The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) requires an agency to review regulations to assess their impact on small entities unless the agency determines that a rule is not expected to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. We note that while the Regulatory Flexibility Act does not apply to foreign entities, we have examined the effects of this rule not only on U.S. airports and air carriers that are small entities under applicable regulatory provisions, but on small foreign carriers as well. The Web site accessibility requirements do not impact small U.S. and foreign carriers. Only carriers that operate at least one aircraft having a seating capacity of more than 60 passengers are required to make their Web sites accessible to passengers with disabilities and ensure that they provide Web-based discounts and waive any telephone or walk-in reservation fees for individuals unable to use their Web site due to a disability.

This final rule also requires small U.S. and foreign carriers that own, lease, or operate proprietary or shared-use automated kiosks at U.S. airports with 10,000 or more annual enplanements to install accessible models at each U.S. airport kiosk location starting three years after the rule's effective date until at least 25 percent of automated kiosks provided at each location are accessible and provide all the same functions as the inaccessible kiosks at each location. The same requirement applies to operators of U.S. airports with 10,000 or more annual enplanements that own, lease, or operate shared-use automated kiosks. Research for our initial regulatory flexibility analysis identified no small carriers or small airport authorities covered by the proposed accessibility requirements that owned or operated kiosks. Moreover, we received no comments on the proposed requirements during the SNPRM public comment period from small carriers (those exclusively operating aircraft with 60 or fewer seats), small airport authorities (those publicly owned by jurisdictions with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants or privately owned by small entities with annual revenues of $30 million or less under the Small Business Administration (SBA) size standard), or other stakeholders that are small entities. For this final rule, therefore, we conducted no further analysis on the impact of the kiosk accessibility requirements on small entities.

On the basis of the examination discussed above, the Department certifies that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. A copy of the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis has been placed in docket.