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)

382.65 What are the requirements concerning on-board wheelchairs? These requirements are also patterned on the existing rule. In aircraft with more than 60 passenger seats, carriers must provide an onboard wheelchair if the aircraft has an accessible lavatory. In an aircraft that has 60 or more seats that does not have an accessible lavatory, the carrier must provide an on-board wheelchair on the request, with advance notice, of a person who can use the inaccessible lavatory but cannot reach it from his or her seat without use of an on-board wheelchair. U.S. carriers are already subject to these requirements. Foreign carriers must meet these requirements by a date one year after the rule’s effective date.

Under the current rule, the Department had granted exemptions to the requirement for providing a requested on-board wheelchair to two aircraft models, the ATP and the ATR-72. These exemptions will remain in force under the new rule.