The trade group Airlines for America (effectively, a union representing the interests of air carriers), along with five of the largest U.S. Airlines — American, Delta, Southwest, United and JetBlue — filed a lawsuit in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (New Orleans) that challenges the U.S. Department of Transportation’s December 2024 rule entitled Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers with Disabilities Using Wheelchairs.
Pete Buttigieg, who led the DOT as Secretary at the time the rule was announced, had commented that "we’re establishing a new standard for air travel—with clear and thorough guidelines for airlines to ensure that passengers using wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity." The rule focused on five major areas:
- Requiring airlines to provide safe and dignified assistance to disabled passengers that respects their independence, autonomy, and privacy.
- Requiring annual hands-on training for airline employees and contractors who physically assist passengers with reduced mobility and those who handle passengers’ wheelchairs.
- Requiring airlines to provide prompt enplaning, deplaning, and connecting assistance to disabled passengers.
- Establishing a "rebuttable presumption" that airlines have mishandled a passenger’s wheelchair if it is not returned in the same condition.
- Requiring airlines to notify passengers of their rights, and the status of their wheelchair or scooter as it is loaded/unloaded from the aircraft.
- Requiring airlines to prominently publish aircraft cargo door dimensions to allow passengers to determine if their wheelchairs will fit.
- Requiring airlines to reimburse disabled passengers for reasonable costs incurred as a result of their wheelchair being lost, damaged or delayed.
- Requiring airlines to promptly return or repair a lost or damaged wheelchair, and to give passengers the ability to select their preferred repair vendor.
In the suit, the airlines have asked the court to "hold unlawful and set aside the rule, in whole or in part, because provisions of the rule exceed the DOT’s statutory authority, and the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act." In their initial filing, the airlines have not made specific claims to support this allegation, however those will surely become known as the case progresses.
In enacting the rule, the DOT had estimated total costs to airlines for enhanced training over 20 years to be $292.7 million. That expense is surely the focus of this litigation, and A4A would like to see that mandate invalidated. While it is unclear what the courts will decide, there is plenty of evidence to support the DOT's determination that expanded training is necessary:
- In 2023, United Airlines settled a lawsuit for $30 million in which it was accused of negligently handling a quadriplegic and ventilator-dependent passenger which resulted in a catastrophic brain injury that placed him in a persistent vegetative state.
- American Airlines has a long history of mishandling mobility devices, as I have documented here, here, here, here, here and here. Use the search bar at the top of this page to read more American Airlines horror stories.
- JetBlue Airways agreed to provide specialized training to staff assisting passengers into its largely inaccessible Mint Suite, but they nearly choked me to death and did not follow the airline's training procedure.
- Southwest Airlines may be the favorite airline among disabled passengers, but it's not as wheelchair-friendly as you might think — Southwest has an above average rate of mishandling wheelchairs and scooters.
Without the expanded training programs outlined in the DOT's rule and mechanisms to hold employees accountable to the training they receive, disabled airline passengers will continue to be put in harm's way — and their mobility devices will continue to be returned damaged.
Airlines and their trade groups are gaslighting disabled passengers
You have likely seen at least one episode of the Emmy-winning reality TV series "Judge Judy," in which former prosecutor and family court judge Judith Sheindlin decided cases in her television "courtroom." Sheindlin was famous for saying, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining."
That's my message to U.S. airlines — Don't gaslight me — Don't tell me you're committed to removing barriers to safe and accessible air travel (as Airlines for America pledged in 2022) while simultaneously fighting to block common-sense regulations that are a response to repeated Air Carrier Access Act violations by A4A member airlines. The commitment to improve accessibility rings hollow, particularly given that nearly every accessibility improvement in aviation was brought about not by any proactive airline, but by disability advocates, government mandates and negotiated rule makings.
For disabled passengers, the skies remain unfriendly and carriers have fallen far short of compliance with the ACAA Progress will be realized only through unrelenting advocacy from disabled travelers and their allies. At this very moment, advocates must step forward to maintain the status quo — Airlines for America is not an ally of the disability community, and its members have the ACAA in their crosshairs. We cannot allow this critical civil rights law to be dismantled.
If you have traveled recently with American, Delta, Southwest, United or JetBlue and believe your rights were violated, please be sure to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation. If you'd like to share your story, please leave a comment below — your stories, both good and bad, help me to be a better informed advocate.
