14 CFR Part 382 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel (Air Carrier Access Act) (with amendments issued through May 2016)

§382.61 What are the requirements for movable aisle armrests?

(a) As a carrier, you must ensure that aircraft with 30 or more passenger seats on which passenger aisle seats have armrests are equipped with movable aisle armrests on at least one-half of the aisle seats in rows in which passengers with mobility impairments are permitted to sit under FAA or applicable foreign government safety rules.

(b) You are not required to provide movable armrests on aisle seats of rows which a passenger with a mobility impairment is precluded from using by an FAA safety rule.

(c) You must ensure that these movable aisle armrests are provided proportionately in all classes of service in the cabin. For example, if 80 percent of the aisle seats in which passengers with mobility impairments may sit are in coach, and 20 percent are in first class, then 80 percent of the movable aisle armrests must be in coach, with 20 percent in first class.

(d) For aircraft equipped with movable aisle armrests, you must configure cabins, or establish administrative systems, to ensure that passengers with mobility impairments or other passengers with a disability can readily identify and obtain seating in rows with movable aisle armrests. You must provide this information by specific seat and row number.

(e) You are not required to retrofit cabin interiors of existing aircraft to comply with the requirements of this section. However, if you replace any of an aircraft's aisle seats with newly manufactured seats, the new seats must include movable aisle armrests as required by this section. However, an aircraft is never required to have movable aisle armrests on more than one half of the aisle seats.

(f) As a foreign carrier, you must comply with the requirements of paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section with respect to new aircraft you operate that were initially ordered after May 13, 2009 or which are delivered after May 13, 2010. As a U.S. carrier, the requirements of paragraphs (a), (b), (d), and (e) of this section applies to you with respect to new aircraft you operate that were initially ordered after April 5, 1990, or which are delivered after April 5, 1992. As a U.S. carrier, paragraph (c) of this section applies to you with respect to new aircraft you operate that were initially ordered after May 13, 2009 or which were delivered after May 13, 2010.

(g) As a foreign carrier, you must comply with the requirements of paragraph (e) of this section with respect to seats ordered after May 13, 2009.