The DOT has asked the public to weigh in on regulations that should be modified or repealed.
The Request for Information was filed in the Federal Register on April 3 pursuant to a February executive order from President Trump calling for unlawful regulations and those "that undermine the national interest" to be rescinded. Trump also signed an executive order on Jan. 31 requiring that 10 regulations be repealed for every new one that is proposed.
Comments are due on May 5.
During the Biden administration, the DOT passed a slew of airline consumer protection regulations, including ones that bolstered requirements for airline refunds on canceled and significantly delayed flights, provided new protections for flyers with disabilities and required more ancillary fee transparency early in the booking path.
The Biden DOT also began a rulemaking process to prohibit airlines from charging a seat fee for children ages 13 and younger to sit with a supervising adult. And it put forward a proposal in December to require airlines to pay cash compensation for canceled or significantly delayed flights.
Airlines, travel advisors and other parties will be able to opine on those and other regulations and regulatory proceedings under the new Request for Information.
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Airlines have gone to court to fight the ancillary fee transparency rule as well as the regulations finalized on Dec. 17 that stiffen penalties when airlines damage wheelchairs and beef up training requirement for staffers who handle wheelchairs or load passengers in wheelchairs onto planes.
ASTA, while mostly supportive of the new refund regulations, has also pushed back against an aspect of the rule that puts travel advisors on the hook for paying the refunds when they are the merchant of record in a transaction.
Travel agencies are usually not the merchant of record in air sales, but there are times when they are -- for instance, when they resell bulk airline seats to a group.