On October 16, 2016, the US Department of Transportation
("DOT") announced enhanced protections for air travelers
as well as actions designed to promote airline competition. This
includes Final Rule: Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections III
("Consumer Rule III"), which addresses, inter
alia, the following:
- Expanding the number of
carriers required to report data: Consumer Rule III
reduces the passenger revenue threshold from one percent to .5
percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue for US carriers
required to report information to the DOT about their on-time
performance, oversales, and mishandled baggage rates. Additionally,
US airlines must report data for flights operated by their domestic
code-share partners (i.e., flights by generally smaller, regional
airlines that are sold under the brand of the larger airline) in
order to make their airline performance reports more complete. This
change will apply to flights that occur on or after January
