Air Carrier Access Act Technical Assistance Manual (2005)

Boarding and Deplaning Assistance Where Level-Entry Boarding is Unavailable

For aircraft with 19 or more seats operating at airports with 10,000 or more annual enplanements where level-entry boarding is not available [Secs. 382.40(a) and 382.40a(a)], carriers must provide boarding assistance to passengers with a disability using mechanical lifts, ramps, or other suitable devices that do not require you to physically lift or carry passengers up stairs. [Secs. 382.40(b) and 382.40a(b)] In addition, carriers may require that a passenger seeking boarding assistance by use of a lift check in for the flight one hour before the scheduled departure time. [Secs. 382.40(c)(3) and 382.40a(c)(3)] You must make a reasonable effort to accommodate the passenger and provide the boarding assistance by lift even if the passenger does not check in one hour before the scheduled departure time, as long as it would not delay the flight.

Boarding assistance by mechanical lift is not required in the following situations:

• on aircraft with fewer than 19 seats;

• on float planes;

• on the following 19-seat capacity aircraft models that are unsuitable for boarding assistance by lift: the Fairchild Metro, the Jetstream 31, and the Beech 1900 (C and D Models);

• on any other 19-seat aircraft model determined by DOT to be unsuitable for boarding assistance by lift; [Sec. 382.40(c)(4)]; or

• on any widebody aircraft determined by DOT to be unsuitable for boarding assistance by lift, ramp, or other device.

If boarding assistance by lift is not required (as set forth above) or it cannot be provided for reasons beyond the control of the carrier, e.g., the mechanical lift is not functioning, then boarding assistance must be provided by any available means, except physically hand-carrying the passenger. Hand-carrying is defined as directly picking up the passenger’s body in the arms of one or more carrier personnel to effect a change of level that the passenger needs to enter or leave the aircraft. [Sec. 382.39(a)(2)]