Fly Together Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5292 To require the Secretary of Transportation to establish a policy with respect to family seating on air transportation, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 3, 2019 Mrs. WAGNER (for herself and Mr. BROWN of Maryland) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To require the Secretary of Transportation to establish a policy with respect to family seating on air transpor- tation, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fly Together Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. POLICY ON FAMILIES FLYING WITH YOUNG CHIL- 5 DREN. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 7 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transpor- 8 tation shall establish a policy directing all air carriers pro- 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:43 Dec 07, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5292.IH H5292 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5292 IH viding scheduled passenger interstate or intrastate air 1 transportation to establish policies that enable a child, who 2 is age 13 or under on the date an applicable flight is 3 scheduled to occur, to be seated in a seat adjacent to the 4 seat of an accompanying family member over the age of 5 13, to the maximum extent practicable and at no addi- 6 tional cost, except when assignment to an adjacent seat 7 would— 8 (1) require an upgrade to— 9 (A) another cabin class; 10 (B) a seat with extra legroom; or 11 (C) seat pitch for which additional pay- 12 ment is normally required; or 13 (2) violate safety guidelines. 14 (b) STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION.—Notwithstanding 15 the requirement in subsection (a), nothing in this section 16 may be construed to allow the Secretary to impose a sig- 17 nificant change in the overall seating or boarding policy 18 of an air carrier providing scheduled passenger interstate 19 or intrastate air transportation that has an open or flexi- 20 ble seating policy in place that generally allows adjacent 21 family seating as described in subsection (a). 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:43 Dec 07, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5292.IH H5292 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5292 IH (c) DEFINITION OF AIR CARRIER.—In this section, 1 the term ‘‘air carrier’’ has the meaning given the term 2 in section 40102(a) of title 49, United States Code. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:43 Dec 07, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5292.IH H5292 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS