US DOT Defers Airline Fee-disclosure Proposal to 2012

(Dive Travel Business News - May 17, 2011) -- The U.S. Department of Transportation's new proposal on the disclosure of airlines' ancillary fees through global distribution systems will likely not be announced until next year. However, a draft of the rule is expected to be sent to the Office of Management and Budget in August and will be evaluated until the end of the year.

The U.S. Department of Transportation does not expect to publicly reveal before January 2012 a new proposal on airlines' disclosure of optional service fees through global distribution systems. According to a DOT update issued last week, a public comment period following that Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would extend until June 2012.

DOT last month issued final rules on a cluster of consumer protections but punted on a requirement that would have forced airlines to make available through indirect channels optional services fee data. At the time, DOT claimed it needed time "to obtain additional information about costs, benefits and consequences of requiring U.S. and foreign carriers to provide ancillary fee information to GDSs."

Though it wouldn't be made public right away, a proposal on fee disclosure should take shape this summer. DOT expects the Transportation Secretary's office by the end of August to prepare the rule and submit it to the Office of Management and Budget. OMB's evaluation likely would last through the end of the year, according to DOT.

DOT last month acknowledged that a hastily written rulemaking could have "unintended consequences, particularly given the sensitive nature of the market and the negotiations currently taking place between carriers and the GDSs."

DOT already has sought and received a wealth of public comments on the matter, which it has been considering since June 2010. Airlines generally have opposed new regulations on fee data displays, while GDSs in the name of pricing transparency have encouraged DOT to move the rulemaking forward.

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