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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 8 / Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Revisions Implementing the TICKETS
Act The rule revises 14 CFR part 250 to implement certain provisions of the TICKETS Act, but does not impose additional costs on carriers. The revision clarifies the meaning of maximum DBC and DBC limits, but does not affect the amounts carriers must compensate passengers. Instead, the clarification is intended to prevent any potential misunderstanding from the public. The revision also prohibits removing passengers after their boarding passes are accepted by carriers or after they board aircraft, codifying a selfeffectuating statutory provision.
Removing passengers after their boarding passes are accepted is not a common practice among carriers, and the revision will not require carriers to alter their behavior meaningfully. Thus, the benefits and costs associated with implementing the TICKETS Act provisions are de minimis.
Denied Boarding Compensation Liability Limits The rule provides for an inflation adjustment to the DBC liability limit amounts that air carriers and foreign air carriers must pay passengers who are involuntarily denied boarding. The inflation adjustment is required by regulation and does not involve any exercise of discretion or interpretation.
Because the Department does not have the flexibility to alter the inflation adjustment, it did not consider regulatory alternatives. The rule increases transfers from carriers to passengers to the extent that it increases compensation; any increase, however, would be minimal. In 2019, 20,868
passengers24 passengers per 1,000,000 enplaned passengerswere involuntarily denied boarding on scheduled domestic and outbound international flights.6 Many of those passengers qualified for compensation amounts below the DBC liability limit, and their compensation would not have been affected by the increase in the limits.
Domestic Baggage Liability The rule provides for an inflation adjustment to the amount of the minimum limit on baggage liability that air carriers may assert in cases of mishandled baggage. The adjustment is required by current regulation, with no opportunity for interpretation. The rule 6 Source: Air Travel Consumer Report, February 2020 edition, page 38. https
www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviationconsumer-protection/february-2020-air-travelconsumer-report.

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increases transfers from carriers to passengers to the extent that it increases mishandled baggage compensation. This increase would be limited, however, because the majority of mishandled baggage cases do not result in claims that meet the liability limit. Based on information provided by carriers during an inflation adjustment review to the domestic baggage limit in 2013, slightly more than half of one percent of mishandled bags qualify for the current limit.7
C. Regulatory Flexibility Act The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980
5 U.S.C. 601612 requires an assessment of the impact of proposed and final rules on small entities unless the agency certifies that the proposed regulation will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. An air carrier or a foreign air carrier is a small business if it provides air transportation only with small aircraft i.e., aircraft with up to 60 seats/18,000-pound payload capacity. See 14 CFR 399.73.
The revisions of the baggage liability amounts affect flight segments operated with large aircraft, i.e., more than 60
seats. The revisions of the DBC amounts affect flight segments operated with aircraft designed to have passenger capacity of 30 or more. As a result, many operations of small entities, such as air taxis and many commuter air carriers, are not covered by the rule.
Moreover, any additional costs for small entities associated with the rule will be minimal and, in the case of baggage liability, may be covered by insurance.
Accordingly, I hereby certify that this action will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
D. Paperwork Reduction Act This final rule imposes no new reporting or record keeping requirements necessitating clearance by OMB.
7 The information provided to the Department by carriers in 2013 was based on the number of mishandled baggage reports MBRs filed with carriers by passengers, which was consistent with the reporting requirement in effect then pursuant to 14 CFR part 234. The number of MBRs in general is equal to the number of passengers who experienced mishandled bags. In 2016, the Department revised part 234 by requiring reporting carriers to report the number of mishandled bags instead of MBRs. See, Final Rule, Reporting of Data for Mishandled Baggage and Wheelchairs and Scooters Transported in Aircraft Cargo Compartments, 81 FR 76300, Nov. 2, 2016. The new reporting requirement became effective in 2019. As one MBR may contain multiple mishandled bags, the number of mishandled bags is in general slightly larger than the number of MBRs.

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E. National Environmental Policy Act The Department has analyzed the environmental impacts of this proposed action pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 42
U.S.C. 4321, et seq., and has determined that it is categorically excluded pursuant to DOT Order 5610.1C, Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts 44 FR 56420, Oct. 1, 1979 available at https
www.transportation.gov/office-policy/
transportation-policy/proceduresconsideringenvironmental-impacts-dotorder-56101c. Categorical exclusions are actions identified in an agencys NEPA
implementing procedures that do not normally have a significant impact on the environment, and therefore do not require either an environmental assessment EA or environmental impact statement EIS. See 40 CFR
1508.1d. In analyzing the applicability of a categorical exclusion, the agency must also consider whether extraordinary circumstances are present that would warrant the preparation of an EA or EIS. Id. Paragraph 4.c.6.i of DOT Order 5610.1C provides that actions relating to consumer protection, including regulations are categorically excluded. The purpose of this rulemaking is to adjust the amounts for denied boarding compensation and the minimum domestic baggage liability limit. The Department does not anticipate any environmental impacts, and there are no extraordinary circumstances present in connection with this rulemaking.
List of Subjects 14 CFR Part 250
Air carriers, Consumer protection, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
14 CFR Part 254
Air carriers, Administrative practice and procedure, Consumer protection, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Accordingly, the Department of Transportation amends 14 CFR parts 250 and 254 as follows:
PART 250OVERSALES
1. The authority citation for 14 CFR
part 250 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 329 and chapters 41102, 41301, 41708, 41709, and 41712

2. Revise 250.2 to read as follows:

250.2

Applicability.

Except for 250.7, this part applies to every carrier, as defined in 250.1, with respect to scheduled flight segments
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