AirFAIR Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The AirFAIR Act amends title 49 to treat excessive increases in air transportation ticket prices during declared disasters or emergencies as unfair or deceptive practices. The rule applies to ticket agents, air carriers, foreign air carriers, and other persons offering to sell tickets for air transportation.
The Secretary of Transportation must issue regulations establishing standards for determining when a ticket price increase is excessive. At a minimum, the standards must treat an increase of 30 percent or more as excessive. The bill defines disaster or emergency as one declared by a state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory or possession. It also requires the FAA Administrator to study whether ticket sellers have engaged in unfair practices in disaster or emergency circumstances and submit a report to Congress within one year.
Who Benefits and How
Airline passengers trying to leave or travel during disasters and emergencies benefit from a federal price-gouging rule for aviation tickets. State emergency managers and consumer protection advocates benefit from DOT standards that make large fare increases easier to challenge. Congress benefits from an FAA report on unfair ticket-sale practices during disasters and emergencies.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Air carriers, foreign air carriers, ticket agents, and online travel sellers bear compliance limits on disaster-related fare increases and may lose revenue from price spikes of 30 percent or more. DOT aviation consumer protection staff must write and enforce the regulations. FAA study staff must collect information and report to Congress within one year.
Key Provisions
- Prohibits excessive air ticket price increases during declared disasters or emergencies as unfair or deceptive practices.
- Requires DOT regulations establishing standards for excessive ticket price increases.
- Requires the standards to treat ticket price increases of 30 percent or more as excessive.
- Provides disaster and emergency definitions tied to declarations by states, the District of Columbia, territories, or possessions.
- Requires the FAA Administrator to study unfair aviation ticket-sale practices during disasters or emergencies.
- Requires a report to Congress within one year on the FAA study results.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Makes excessive aviation ticket price increases during declared disasters or emergencies an unfair or deceptive practice, requires DOT regulations treating increases of 30 percent or more as excessive, and requires an FAA study and report on unfair ticket-sale practices during disasters or emergencies.
Key Policy Areas
Aviation, Consumer Protection, Disaster Response, Transportation
Primary Purpose
Makes excessive aviation ticket price increases during declared disasters or emergencies an unfair or deceptive practice, requires DOT regulations treating increases of 30 percent or more as excessive, and requires an FAA study and report on unfair ticket-sale practices during disasters or emergencies.
Policy Domains
Section 2 excessive aviation ticket price increases during disasters
Identified Gains
- Airline passengers in declared disaster areas
- State emergency management agencies
- Congressional aviation oversight committees
Identified Costs
- Air carriers selling disaster-area tickets
- Ticket agents selling disaster-area tickets
- DOT aviation consumer protection staff
- FAA aviation study staff
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Aviation.
Ms. Velázquez introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Air carriers selling disaster-area tickets, Airline passengers in declared disaster areas
Positive-direction: Airline passengers in declared disaster areas
Negative-direction: Air carriers selling disaster-area tickets
DOT aviation consumer protection staff, FAA aviation study staff
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Transportation
- "air_carrier"
- → Air carrier or foreign air carrier selling air transportation tickets
- "ticket_agent"
- → Ticket agent selling air transportation tickets
- "administrator"
- → Federal Aviation Administration Administrator
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A disaster- or emergency-related ticket price increase that DOT regulations determine is excessive, with increases of 30 percent or more required to qualify as excessive at a minimum.
A disaster or emergency declared by a state, the District of Columbia, or a territory or possession of the United States.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology