US Senate Passes FAA Bill for Safety, Passenger Protections

The United States Senate has passed a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill ahead of a crucial deadline, setting the stage for a series of reforms and investments in the aviation sector. The bill, which now awaits House approval, is designed to renew the FAA’s authority for the next five years, enhancing aviation safety, bolstering protections for passengers and airline workers, and investing in airport and air travel infrastructure nationwide. This reauthorization comes with a funding package of over US$105 billion for the FAA and an additional US$738 million for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for fiscal years 2024 through 2028.

A key provision in the bill addresses the acute shortage of air traffic controllers, directing efforts toward expanding hiring and training. This shortage has been linked to an increase in near collisions and other safety incidents, making this measure particularly critical. The bill also includes strengthened consumer protections, such as automatic refunds for significant flight delays and fee-free family seating arrangements.

The legislation also mandates FAA to update its airplane evacuation standards, which have been criticized for being outdated. Current standards, created in 1960’s, require evacuation within 90 seconds but have been deemed unrealistic by experts and lawmakers, including Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). Duckworth has championed the Emergency Vacating of Aircraft Cabin (EVAC) Act, now incorporated into the broader FAA reauthorization. The EVAC Act calls for comprehensive studies on evacuation procedures, considering modern aircraft configurations and the diverse demographics of passengers. "They did not mimic the seat density of a modern aircraft. They had no carry-on baggage. They had nobody over the age of 60 and nobody under the age of 18,” said Duckworth about the evacuation standards from past decades.

In January, an incident involving a Japan Airlines jet at Haneda Airport in Tokyo highlighted the potential gaps in current evacuation standards. Despite the successful evacuation of all 379 passengers, the delay in opening emergency exits and the prolonged time it took for the captain to leave the plane have raised questions about the effectiveness of the 90-second rule.

The FAA’s recent report to Congress, which largely dismissed concerns over current seat sizes and evacuation capabilities, did not alleviate these concerns. The EVAC Act aims to address these gaps by assembling a group of experts to evaluate and recommend changes to FAA’s standards.

Another notable provision within the aviation bill is the expansion of facial recognition technology at airports. Despite efforts to halt this initiative, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to continue expanding the use of biometrics at hundreds of airports across the United States.

The bill also significantly increases penalties for airline violations, tripling the Transportation Department’s civil penalty for consumer violations to US$75,000 per violation. In terms of accessibility, it requires airline personnel to be trained in handling motorized wheelchairs, allows travelers to request seating accommodations for disabilities, and establishes a new FAA program dedicated to accessibility upgrades at commercial airports.