Five U.S. airlines have filed a lawsuit asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (New Orleans) to review the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Ensuring Safe Accommodations for Air Travelers for Disabilities Using Wheelchairs rule.
On Feb. 18, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways Corp., Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines 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.”
The Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit added, requires a court “to hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions found to be … arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law; in excess of statutory … authority; or without observance of procedure required by law.”
“The rule does not satisfy these requirements and is thus unlawful,” the lawsuit said.
Flying ‘safely and with dignity’
When the DOT released the rule in December 2024, Pete Buttigieg, then the secretary of the DOT, said the rule would hold airlines to “more rigorous standards” that applied “especially for passengers who use wheelchairs.”
The new rule spelled out airlines’ obligations for providing support for passengers with disabilities. Under the new rule, airlines were required to provide hands-on training for its employees and contractors who physically assisted passengers. The rule also specified policies for protecting passengers whose wheelchairs were damaged during transport or whose wheelchairs were not promptly returned.
In underlining the need for the new rule, the DOT estimated that 5.5 million Americans use wheelchairs, and that “for every 100 wheelchairs or scooters transported on domestic flights, at least one is damaged, delayed or lost. When an individual’s wheelchair is delayed or damaged by an airline, their mobility, health and freedom can be severely impacted until the wheelchair can be returned or replaced.”
“Every passenger deserves safe, dignified travel when they fly — and we’ve taken unprecedented actions to hold airlines accountable when they do not provide fair treatment to passengers with disabilities,” Buttigieg said when the rule was released. “With the new protections we’re announcing today, 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.”
