14 CFR Part 382 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel (Air Carrier Access Act): Preamble and Section-by-Section Analysis (with amendments issued through July 2010)

382.61 What are the requirements for movable aisle armrests? This section is very similar to the movable aisle armrest provisions of the present rule. Armrests on at least half the aisle seats in rows containing seats in which passengers with mobility impairments are permitted to sit under FAA rules must be movable. If there are no seats in which a person with a mobility impairment can sit under FAA rules (e.g., an exit row), then that row does not constitute part of the base from which the calculation of half the rows is made, and of course such a row is not one in which a movable armrest is needed.

The provision clarifies that movable aisle armrests must be provided proportionately in all classes of service. As discussed elsewhere in the preamble, if the seats in a given class of service, such as first class, can be accessed by a wheelchair user without a movable aisle armrest being provided, the carrier may request an equivalent alternative determination. Consistent with section 382.41, carriers must find ways of ensuring that passengers with disabilities can locate specific seats they can access with movable armrests.

A carrier wishing to submit an equivalent alternative request concerning movable armrests must show the Department that, in fact, persons with mobility impairments using aisle and boarding wheelchairs can transfer horizontally into a given seat without being lifted over an armrest or other obstacle. The Department would not make such a determination based solely on the representation of the carrier that such transfers were possible. “Show your work” is the appropriate maxim. Diagrams could be one useful part of such a showing. What the Department recommends, however, is a video of a demonstration showing carrier personnel actually transferring passengers with disabilities – preferably, passengers of various sizes -- into the seat or row in question from an aisle or boarding chair.

Carriers are not required to retrofit cabins of existing aircraft to install movable armrests. However, if a carrier replaces any of an aircraft’s aisle seats with newly manufactured seats, at least half the replacement seats must have movable armrests. For example, if a carrier replaces four aisle seats with newly manufactured seats, then two of these seats have to have movable armrests. If the carrier is replacing an odd number of seats, a majority of the newly manufactured aisle seats installed must have movable armrests. For example, if the carrier is replacing five old aisle seats with newly manufactured seats, at least three of the newly manufactured aisle seats must have movable armrests. The Department does not intend this provision to require carriers to have more than 50% movable armrests in the cabin, however. For example, suppose an aircraft has 40 aisle seats, 20 of which have movable armrests. The carrier decides to replace five aisle seats that do not have movable armrests with newly manufactured seats. These new seats would not have to include movable armrests.

The timing of the application of these requirements is as follows: Foreign carriers must comply with “new aircraft” requirements with respect to planes ordered after the effective date of this Part or delivered more than one year after the effective date of this Part. Foreign carriers must comply with the requirement for replacement seats (paragraph (e)) beginning on the effective date of the rule. U.S. carriers are already subject to the requirements of this section, except the proportionality requirement (paragraph (c)) with respect to aircraft ordered after April 5, 1990 or delivered after April 5, 1992. When we say “new aircraft” in this context, we mean aircraft that were new at the time they were ordered by or delivered to the U.S. carrier. U.S. carriers will have to comply with paragraph (c) for new aircraft ordered after the effective date of this Part or which are delivered more than one year after the effective date of this Part. With respect to the purchase of used aircraft, in this section and similar places, the date the aircraft was originally ordered from the manufacturer or initially delivered by the manufacturer determines whether the aircraft is subject to the aircraft accessibility requirements of this Part.