Five major U.S. airlines on Tuesday joined an industry group’s bid to overturn a federal rule that creates more stringent standards for how companies accommodate passengers with disabilities, including wheelchair users.
American Airlines (AAL+0.56%), Delta Air Lines (DAL-1.76%), JetBlue Airways (JBLU+14.23%), Southwest Airlines (LUV-0.51%), and United Airlines (UAL-1.11%) joined the Airlines for America trade association in filing a petition with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate the rule, which was enacted by Former President Joe Biden’s administration. The group argues that the Department of Transportation (DOT) lacks the authority to issue and enforce the rule, according to court filings.
The move comes as President Donald Trump’s administration takes aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the federal government. He also alarmed disability advocates with the launch of a new commission that plans to investigate the causes of diseases, as well as autism, and suggested that federal workers with disabilities may have played a role in a deadly plane crash.
As for the rule on disabilities, the IATA argued they “ignored operational and economic realities,” pointing to a requirement that airlines would need to return a delayed wheelchair to a passenger’s destination within 24 hours of arrival.
More than 11,500 wheelchairs and scooters were mishandled in 2023, according to DOT data. In October, the agency fined American Airlines $50 million after an investigation revealed “cases of unsafe physical assistance that at times resulted in injuries and undignified treatment of wheelchair users, in addition to repeated failures to provide prompt wheelchair assistance.”
Biden’s rule, which was adopted in December, was among several in the administration’s eleventh-hour push to enact regulations ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Then-DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it would ensure people with disabilities can “fly safely with dignity.”
The International Air Transport Association last month criticized that rule and several other actions the DOT took under Biden, accusing Buttigieg of “browbeating the U.S. airlines” to deliver his vision” of how they should treat customers, according to documents posted by the DOT earlier this month.
Biden’s DOT enacted a series of rules that irritated the airline industry, including regulations requiring companies to notify consumers upfront about certain fees and prohibiting additional fees for families that want to sit with their young children. Several carriers sued the federal government over some of those rules.
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