Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On Airline Passenger Experience 20240713

Order. Ask unanimous consent be authorized to recess during todays hearing. Without objection so ordered. Ask u manp mon news consent that members not to ask questions. Without objection, so ordered. So good morning. I want to thank the witnesses for joining the subcommittee today for a discussion on the air travel experience. According to the u. S. Bureau of transportation statistics in 2018 u. S. Airlines carried 925. 25 million passengers to destinations in the u. S. And abroad. The highest total since 2003. The federal aviation, faas counter aero space forecast predicts an increase of roughly 2 per year over the next 20 years. In the punlet sound, the number of passengers is expected to grow from 24 million in 2018 up to 55. 6 million by 2050. While increased demand creates new Economic Opportunities and enhances the aviation network, longstanding challenges can hinder growth. U. S. Airlines have invested in products including i. T. Such as smartphone apps to destresp travel experience. Todays hearing is an opportunity for the subcommittee to examine the u. S. Airline Passenger Experience, hear from stakeholders on ways to improve this experience, and consider how congress and the Airline Industry can foster instrooe to benefit the public. We represent a broad range on the Passenger Experience from the Government Accountability office, gao, to airlines and industry, to consumer advocates. While the subcommittee will discuss numerous aspects, there are a few at the top of my mind today. First is accessibility issues. According to the last u. S. Census estimates, 57 million americans have a disability and more than half of those have mobility issues. Last november the subCommittee Held a rount table to better understand this communitys air travel experience including with boarding aircraft and accessible lavtries and appropriate boarding techniques and damaged wheelchairs. As mandated by faa reauthorization acts, the u. S. Department of transportation issuiated several rule make maings to help lavtories and regulate emotional support and service animals. Mr. Lee page joins us today. Thank you for coming. I look forward to hearing more about these rules and how congress can work to help fill in the gaps on airplanes and airport accessibility. Discrimination, throughout this countrys history, its been a pervasive issue. Far too often viral videos, reports or personal anecdotes uncover unlawful practices across the transportation sector on t. Complaints submitted went up from an afternoon of 80 per year to more in 2019. Most related to racial discrimination. The statistic does not reflect other cases d. O. T. s reporting system has not captured. One of the priorities ask to break down barriers for all people to fully participate in our economy and society. In the 2018 faa reauthorization act directed the g. A. O. To assess nondiscrimination training programs. Mr. Vaughn joins the panel from the g. A. O. And will provide an update on this study. Mr. Kline with the Spirit Airlines, i look forward to hearing more about the industrys efforts. I want to just touch on the future of the airline Passenger Experience as well. At the beginning of the 116 congress, i look forward to prioritize be agenda. To do so congress, the d. O. T. And industry must work to help transparency, promote reliable air service for all americans. The last faa reauthorization act included numerous provisions to enhance experiences, including minimum seat pitch, establishing a d. O. T. Aviation consumer advocate to help with complaints, and requiring carriers to improve transparency of their acocommodations, passengers caught up in wide spread flight disruptions. I look forward to hearing testimony on how recent law will help improve the Passenger Experience and as well from dr. Leader from the airline Passenger Experience association on industrys voluntary efforts to invest in things to better serve consumers. I am pleased to convene this first hearing today on Consumer Protections in nearly three years to explore the important issues facing travelers today. Over the past several years, the federal government and carriers have made progress in improving. We should recognize that. We should recognize there is much more work ahead. So my thanks again to todays witnesses. I look forward to identifying ways congress can ensure all passengers have a safe, comfortable and dignified travel experience. With that i understand the sitting in Ranking Member does not have a statement. Ill turn to the chair of the full fully committee, of oregon. Thank you for this hearing. Before we get to the subject matter at hand, i want to address briefly the covid19 and air travel. You know, we five years ago, the g. A. R. Recommended that in response to the 2014 ebola outbreak, that d. O. T. Work with relevant agencies and stakeholders to develop a National Aviation Preparedness Plan for Communicable Disease outbreaks. That hasnt happened. Through two administrations, it hasnt happened. Now its a little late. We have cdc trying to deal directly with the airlines to try and get passenger information. Theres ongoing conflict over that. So last week, the chair and i wrote to secretary chow and asked that she implement the recommendations of the g. A. O. And put together a task force and become more involved in these issues. Cdc shouldnt have to deal with individual airlines, you know, policies should be developed from knowledgeable people at faa or d. O. T. So we can begin to better track passengers. Now, thats obviously not the subject of the hearing today. The state of air travel, you know, my first term in congress, i introduced a bill called the Airline Passenger equity act. And some of those things that were in that bill have been enacted and some are still out there. There are still issues that, you know, need to be dealt with for a better Passenger Experience. One thing is complaints. Well, there arent that many. Well g. A. O. Says theres 50 complaints to the airlines for every one that gets to d. O. T. Who knows to get in touch with d. O. T. . How do you do that . For awhile i had gotten a mandate in one or another of the bills that they had to post something with an 800 number with the Airline Ticket numbers and d. O. T. Had to maintain that. Today how does anybody know to contact d. O. T. . We need more transparency there so we get a better handle on how many complaints there are. The airlines have record profitability, and, you know, a big part of that profitability is ancillary fees. Its interesting, you know, that we have laws of i studied economics, graduate school, under grad wait, laws of supply and demand. The airlines somehow when it comes to ancillary fees or bag fees, the sky is the limit. Its totally elastic. Its like, there is no point at which passenger bookings fall off. In fact when we were doing the faa bill, all raised their bills. Are their enplanements going to drop off drastically . No. But they say if an airport, in order to enhance the airport experience, the crowded terminals, the lack of gates, which make planes sit idle and on the runway for hours sometimes at a time, that if passengers, you know, the passenger facility charge has been fixed for 20 years. If that went up by one or two or wow, even think of 5 like the bag fee, no one would fly again. Inelastic, 1, wont fly. The truth is they want control. And even though we can make the case to the airlines that somebody has got to pay for this, and weve had the airports do an excellent job this last year, starting with the hearing last year, documenting the fact, okay, we have to do these projects. Heres an agreedupon project. If we just bond it for 30 years and dont do anything else, because we wont have any more bonding authority, heres how much interest wed have to pay. If we could increase the passenger user fee by this amount, and they give a table and show, you know, with a couple of bucks you cut the interest costs in half, what i say to the airlines is who is going to pay that interest . Youre going to pay it one way or another, a landing fee, gate fee, lease fee, whatever. Someone has got to pay it. Why waste money . Why not raise money and make the improvements we need to the system . But that weve been stuck on that for quite some time. Passengers with disabilities, we had a hearing last fall on this. You know, one mishandled mobility aid or one dropped passenger is a tragedy, a very difficult for a person with a disability. Its essentially part of their body. And its unacceptable. I mean, my local paper in fact did some investigative reporting about airlines resistance to repairing, replacing, critical, essential mobility aids own a timely basis. I think many of you have seen the photograph of the guy whos taped to an aisle chair. This is unacceptable. And, you know, last we asked d. O. T. Or d. O. T. Has asked the airlines to specify their training procedures, how theyre replacing or handling of the aids that are damaged or lost, i have yet to see the results of that. Maybe well hear a little bit about that today. So and then emotional support animals, you know, im pleased to see that the d. O. T. Is taking some action there. Obviously we get to peacocks and turkeys and other animals, this is a little bit out of control. And we need you know, there are legitimate needs for emotional support and people who legitimately need emotional support and have legitimate objects, you know, with them, you know, animals, should not be penalized because other people are abusing the system. And then finally a serious thing is cabin evacuations. D. O. T. Is conducting some i think inadequate testing with, you know, a partial mockup she will willl of an airplane having to do with evacuation time and seat spacing and issues like that. Before i get to congress wed had the manchester crash and people were piled up like cord wood trying to get out of that plane. They died in a survivable crash. You know, it took another six years here in the United States to get that one seat removed over the by the wing because i the airlines didnt want to lose the revenue. They came back two years later with a fake study that said it takes longer if you take out that seat, but we beat them back on that. Im concerned about that. Weve got to start dealing with the behavior of people in the chicago crash where it took well over almost two and a half minutes to evacuate a plane. People were dragging off their big bags. We got to figure out how to deal with those problems. And d. O. T. Has too reaevaluate whether we can meet the standard. Theres much before us. I look forward to being informed by the panel today. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate the opening comment. And i will now turn to our witnesses. I would note that the Ranking Member of the subcommittee does come during witness testimony. Will finish witness testimony and then go to the Ranking Member for a statement, just a heads up on that for folks. I do want to welcome the panel witnesses, mr. Andrew vaughna, the director at g. A. O. Dr. William mcgee, aviation consultant. Mr. Lee page, senior associate advocacy director for paralyzed vedrance of america. Joe leader, chief officer of Airline Passenger association. Matt kline executive Vice President and chief commercial officer of Spirit Airlines, who is also accompanied by mr. Thomas can field, senior Vice President , i understand mr. Kline will be giving the opening statement. And mr. Campbell is present for possible questions as well. So with that, i want to thank you all for being here today. Look forward to your testimony. And without objection all your statements full statements will be entered included into the record. And since that is the case, that your written testimony has been made part of the record, the subcommittee requests that you limit your oral testimony to five minutes. With that, well proceed with mr. Van awe with the g. A. O. , recognized for five minutes. Chairman larsen, Ranking Member graves, chairman defasio, thank you for our opportunity to discuss this. My rye marks are based on reports over the past three years on a variety of issues. Specifically, my statement covers trends and data on airline service, air lines acsgss to improve service, and what is known about passengers complaints and practices on discrimination issues. Our work found that the quality of airlines Operational Performance has generally improved over the past decade. Rates of denied boardings have dropped and ontime preerns has remained steady. Airlines have reduced involuntary denied boarding, increasing compensation to volunteers to give up seats, reducing or eliminating over bookings approximately they have upgraded tracking technology and mitigated delays such as tracking flights at risk of being declared, improving communication, and voluntarily compensating passengers during extended flight delays. When delays and other disruptions owkur that can be inconvenient for passengers. Airlines are required to compensate passengers denied boarding and provide refunds for canceled flights. Beyond that d. O. T. Officials told us airlines are not obligated to provide accommodations for flight disruptions unless specified in contracts. In our work looking at the airline outages, the types of accommodations provided. This can lead to confusion and frustration for some passengers who may have the gentleman move the microphone closer. Certainly. May feel that they have not been fully compensate. Operational improvements va been positive but data tell a different story. Complaints received have increased over the last decade relative to number of passenger boardings by 10 . Flight baggage are complaints. Complaints related to accessibility and discrimination, data shows that disability related complaints have increased this decade from about 19,000 in 2010 to about 30,000 in 2017. Increase of over 50 . And there has been an uptick of discrimination complaints related to d. O. T. The number may not reflect the full experience. For example in our recent work examining the accessibility of aircraft lavtries, we noted some passengers with limited mobility may take extreme steps to avoid using the lavtry all together such as limiting their food and fluid intake and others may choose not to fly at all. More generally we have found complaint data are limited because of substantial portion of individuals never complain and are not represented in the data. Our recent work on accessibility and discrimination is focused on airlines efforts to provide training on these topics to employees. We found all the airlines this developed initial and recurring training, though they have been reticent to provide details to us. With respect to nondiscrimination training in particular, we found air line trainings varied and not all covered topics like bias, which our work found to be a key principle. Looking forward the 2018 reauthorization bill provided a number of provisions with regard to protections including provisions to develop leading nondiscrimination practices and to establish an air line passengers with disabilities bill of rights. D. O. T. Has also recently taken steps to establish rules related to singleaisle aircraft lavtries which has been something theyve worked on since 1992 and regulating service animals. We have open recommendations to d. O. T. To improve ability to target Consumer Protection activities including getting feedback from consumers. Chairman larsen, Ranking Member graves, this concludes my statement. Im happy to address questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Mcgee, youre recognized for five minutes. Chairman larsen, Ranking Member graves, and subcommittee members, the independent nonprofit consumer organization, thank you for the opportunity to address air travellers. Three years ago i appeared after the infamous dr. Do you incident in which a paying passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight. Conditions have not improved much. A wave of mega mergers has left three Major Network airlines, american, della and united, plus southwest. Many of us warned that it would leave americans at the mercy, resulting in fewer flights. Thats what has come to pass in many markets. Aircraft cabins are more fully packed than at any time with passjor load factors at 84 . Seats are tighter as airlines shoehorn more passengers in. Ancillary revenue reached high last year. Statistics indicate involuntary denied boardings increased last year with almost 21,000 passengers bumped. Thats why we still advocate banning any forced bumping. But a central question was never addressed, why dr. Dow. Who will be permitted to board and bumped or dragged off . This is an industry in need of transparency. Consider searching through mult tide of flights and fairs can be mind nuchling. This is hard because most travelers fly less than once a year. The airlines dont make it easy to comparison shop. Fees can be opaque. Sometimes you cant obtain fees for basics like picking seats, carrying on a bag. Its common for airlines to block out seats at booking leaving fewer available at selection thus scaring customers into paying more. Basic economy is designed to attract shoppers and pressure by up selg. When a flight is delayed who will be rebooked . Who will sleep on the airport floor . If youre not in a premium class, watch out. Even safety is opaque. Theres no transparency on the critical maintenance and repairs outsourced to el salvador, brazil and china. Lengthy contracts of carriage provide few rights. Thats why we advocatefor a comprehensive passenger bill of rights with guaranteed accommodations during flight delays and cancellations, transparencies of fees, and safe seating. Because the 1978 deregulation act over rules most laws, d. O. T. Plays an essential role. But unfortunately has largely abdid icated that role. Consider in 2017 it cited limited Public Benefit and withdrew two rule makings. For two years the Consumer Protection Committee Held no meetings. Then they appointed someone from the American Enterprise institute with no history as consumer advocacy. Enforcement authority is falling short as d. O. T. Issues record low fines. Last years d. O. T. Find americans 77,000 and delta roughly 68 thousands. For corporations generated much more, thats no deterrents. In 2016 congress directed d. O. T. To review and if appropriate establish a policy to ensure families with kids 13 and under sit together without paying extra fees. For years d. O. T. Was virtually silent so we filed a freedom of information request. They forwarded complaints to us stating it was unnecessary to act based on the low number. We analyzed those complaints and were horrified to find chases of children as young add 1, 2, 3 years old seated away from their families. Children are at risk for inflight sexual assaults. Shocked by inaction, we created an online portal and forwarded over 600 complaints, more than four times the original total. D. O. T. Should fulfill this mandate and were oranging airlines to fix this themselves joined by many who signed our petition. We support the fly together act. Critical issues that havent been addressed include the troubling maintenance out sourtsing, echoing its failed oversight of boeing 747 max. Thats why we support the standards act. Testing has failed to account for seismic changes. Record passenger loads, tighter seats, more disabled, more carryon baggage, disfracting lec tronchz, of course children staeted apart from families. Faas refusal to close a loophole and require children under two to be properly restrained. You need to wrap up. Sure. All too often d. O. T. Serves the interest of airlines, not the public. Congress should enact meaningful actions. Provide oversight. We applaud the subcommittee for efforts. Ill be happy to answer questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. I now want to recognize mr. Lee page, the paralyzed veterans of america. Youre recognized for five minutes. Chairman larsen, Ranking Member graves, members of the subcommittee lee, someone just want to be sure that we can hear you. Just pull the microphone or if someone can help out, pull the whole box forward. Okay. Can you hear me now . Yep. Okay. Chairman larsen, Ranking Member graves, members of the subcommittee paralyzed veterans of America Thanks you for the opportunity to testify regarding air travel of passengers with disabilities. It has been more than 30 years since Congress Passed the access act. This protects the rights of passengers. It improved our experience, the process is far from seamless and at times is even unsafe. Pva members routinely report being harmed in boarding and deplaning. And their wheelchairs, particularly power, are often damaged while being stored. They also often encounter air carrier personnel who are not trained in assisting pass skrerz. We believe most problems result from lacking training, inaccessible aircraft, and inadequate enforcement of the law. Commercial air travel is the only travel in which they must re properly store these devic devic devices help them board. This is where the problems in safely accessing air travel truly begins. Air carriers use several different types of aisle chairs to help passengers with disabilities board and deplane. Chairs is a small nary chair that cannot be pushed by its passenger. Theyre often poorly designed and in disrepair. In some cases it can harm the passenger because it does not have proper padding which can lead to skin abrasions, bruises or sores. Furthermore airline assistants are typically not properly trained in how to physicallilist or transfer a person from a wheelchair to an aisle chair. They are also too often unfamiliar with the secure straps. On my most recent flight i had a problem with the aisle chair and the people who came to assist me. The aisle chair that was used did not meet my needs. The footrest was too small and my feet kept falling off the aisle chair, as i was being brought into and out of the plane. Also the seat straps were not sufficient to keep me in a secure sated position. As a result my hip and lower backside hit every armrest all the way back to my assigned seat. At my seat the personnel tried to lift me up over the fixed armrest into my seat, but they were not strong enough, and ended up dropping me on the armrest as i slit into the seat. Passengers with limited mobility must also worry about the storage of their assisted devices. Damage to wheelchairs can be a trip altering event adds well as pose Significant Health concerns. Customized wheelchairs are not easily replaced if damaged. Toulgt out my wheelchairs typically return to me without significant damage, this is not always the case for some of our pva members, particularly those who use power wheelchairs. Damage is typically a result of improper loading and securement within the cargo area. Damage ranges from minor tears to fabric to a complete electrical power breakdown. Repair often takes time, leaving the passenger stranded until it can be fixed. Disability access is almost nonexistent on most commercial aircraft. The aisle width of the plane is typically smaller than that of the individual being transferred. This means the passengers are bumped and scraped from row to row to get to their seat, wherever that might be on the aircraft. Lack of accessibility also extends to the lavtories. In january 2020 g. A. O. Reported on the accessibility, people who have limited moe bilts found that although accessible lavtories are available, carriers do not often choose to acquire them. When passengers with disabilities encouraged this, they are left with few remedies, administrative remedies availability through the department of transportation is quite limited. In response to a complaint i filed following my most recent trip i received 10,000 bonus miles. Systematic change is whats needed, not more bonus miles. In the study on lavtory access in the act represents an important step forward in efforts to improve air travel experience of passengers with disabilities. However these provisions alone will not address the fundamental accession problems to safe air travel for people with disabilities. Thus we strongly support the bipartisan air carier access amendments act which was introduced in march 2019 by representative jim lanchman. This would improve aircraft accessibility. As population ages in needs of greater accessibility in the aircraft will only continue to grow. Better training of Airline Personnel and their contractors increase aircraft accessibility and improved enforcement options will lead to safer travel experience for pva members and all passengers with disabilities. Pva thanks you for the opportunity to express our views. Ill be happy to answer any questions at this time. Thank you. We want to turn to mr. Joe leader, chief executive officer of the Airline Passenger seerns association. Chairman larsen. Thank larson, Ranking Member graves and chairman defazio and members of the subcommittee, my name is dr. Joe leader and served as the chief executive officer of the airline Passenger Experience association. It is one of the Largest International Airline Associations in the world. During my tenure as ceo we came together with the International Flight Services Association giving us a combined 96 years of proudly advancing every Major Airline and valued supplier worldwide. Im before you today because i believe deeply in the advancement of airline Passenger Experience. Like each of you, i began my journey as an Airline Passenger. 20 years ago while working as a high tech executive i was featured in a magazine as an airlines most frequent flier. As a part of that honor, i met with the airline ceo and shared with him a pagelong list of ideas on how the airline could Better Service its customers. They implemented nearly every single idea. With that introduction, please allow me to address the subject of the airline Passenger Experience, what it is and what it can be. Apex neutrally tracks, verifies and validates and certifies ratings for over 1 million fliess a year over 600 airlines via trip it the leading management app worldwide, only one in 17 airlines makes it to the five star status and one in four makes it to the four star status. Im proud to share with you the United States reached an incredible milestone last year as alaska, american, delta, hawaiian, jet blue, jsx, southwest, spirit and united all reached either four or five stars as independently rated by their Airline Passengers. Spirit airlines has proudly joined me here today at this hearing to share how their invest in the guest philosophy improved their verified passenger ratings thereby advancing to a apex 2024 airline. A and inflation has dropped by approximately 50 over the past two decade as. Keeping air travel costs lower than historic totals even after including all ancillary revenue fees. Competition has driven u. S. Airlines to offer more variety in types of airline Passenger Experience than ever before. Innovation has enabled u. S. Airlines to offer Better Options to their customers including the disabled. So this end apex served a leading role on the u. S. Department of transportation Access Advisory Committee advancing closed captioning and audible description options. Voluntarily u. S. Airlines have been placing enhancements across new in Flight Entertainment systems in seat backscreen and in bring your own accessory options and Better Options for improved hes of access for wheelchair bound passengers. This resonates personally with me for the paralyzed veterans of america testifying here today and my wife personally served a quadriplegic before becoming a medical doctor and surgeon and my father proudly served in the u. S. Army and flies frequently with my family using hi wheelchair. What does the future bring for u. S. Airline passengers . Our customers will enjoy flights more than ever with expanded entertainment and connectivity options. The number of aircraft with inFlight Entertainment screens worldwide will continue to increase while bring your own e vice options will cover all u. S. Commercial aircraft this decade each new screen by delta weighs two pounds less than the pred setter saving millions of gallons of fuel despite more screen size for passengers. New technologies for our key airline suppliers will make future seatback screens as thin and light as seatback hard plastic. Seating advancements have enabled passengers two to three inches more leg room than historic seats in existing space as ive indicated in my written testimony. U. S. Airline ticket prices should continue to track lower than the rate of inflation as airlines now burn 53. 7 less fuel per passenger than the 1990s. This helps benefit our passengers, our airlines, and our world with a carbon Emission Reduction averaging 2. 3 less each and every year for the past decade alone. Our u. S. Airlines are voltly spending spending tens of billion dollars including face matching from the u. S. Department of homeland security, that securely interlinked with the airlines without any transfer of photos. Other new technology deployed by our airlines are advancing to complete journey management including ground transportation, automated bag tracking all along your journey and remembering your personal preferences. This is only the beginning thank you mr. Leader. Of advancing ill be wrapping up, yes, chairman. Youre wrapped up. Sorry, i got to i got to move on. Of course. Thank you very much. I want to recognize mr. Klein for five minutes. Spirit airlines. Good morning chairman larson, and chairman member defazio, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is matt klein from Spirit Airlines. Spirit airlines is the largest ultra low cost carrier or ulcc in the u. S. We serve over 50 u. S. Domestic airports and 25 international destinations. Our total prices including all ancillary products and services are on average more than 30 below those of other airlines on our routes. Corporate travelers and more affluence consumers have many choices in todays market. Spirits product is designed for highly priced sensitive travelers, mainly ordinary individual consumers, families, and small and medium businesses who pay for their own tickets and who face narrower options. This continues to be an underserved segment in todays market and we are proud to fill the need. Were the Fastest Growing airline in the u. S. For the past one, three, five and ten years consistently running high load factors so it seems American Consumers are responding favorably to the choice with we provide in the market for airline travel. What may be less widely known is the tremendous strides spirit has made to become one of the most Reliable Airlines in the country. We ranked fourth nationally in on time performance in 2018 and based on unofficial statistics in 2019 as well, beating out three out of the four big airlines and all of the other low cost carriers. We also rank strongly on completion factor and on baggage handling. None of that is easy to do for a Smaller Airline as we have less built in redundancy and recovering from unforeseen events and we believe it adds up to terrific value for our guests and were seeing a positive reaction from our consumers both in satisfactory surveys. And it is not just about operational reliability. Over the past three years spirit rolls out an ongoing initiative we called invest in the guest. That comprised enhances Service Training for crews and investment in technology liken hansed airport kiosks and our new selfbag drop machine that will speed our guests through the checkin process at the airport. We also recently announced a refresh of the interior cabins featuring all new seating that provides significantly greater comfort, personal space, and usable leg room. Later this year we will begin installing next generation full streaming wifi across our fleet. The first ulcc to do so. I believe were the only major u. S. Carrier to have wheel cheer accessible lavatories installed on most aircraft. Spirit is operating one of the most fuel efficient ranking consistently in consumption per passenger and engines burn about 16 less fuel than the most recent generation, not just fuel efficiency but also noise efficiency. In addition to several other awards in the past two years, we are proud to have won seattles prestigious fly quiet award for two years in a row. In the u. S. , the large distances, the disbursal of families across country and the needs of our interconnected Business Environment makes air travel more essential than in other countries. At spirit we recognize our product may be not for everyone but were proud to offer low priced rely able service with those with no other option and the prices charged by other airlines were pleased to help drive savings for all travelers whether they fly us or not. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you today. Great. Thank you mr. Klein. As noted earlier, Ranking Member graves is here and well recognize him for five minutes for his opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Airline travel has truly revolutionized this planet, giving us access to areas that never were previously accessible. Giving us integration and exposure to cultures to people, though resources that we previously would not have had access to. Weve been able to deliver doctors and lifesaving medicines to folks in need and lift folks out of poverty and able to introduce technology and innovation improving lives around the world as a result of Aviation Technology and commercial air travel. It really is amazing to sit in go through the exercise of thinking about potentially not having that amazing technology. But also right here in the United States as i recall in 2017 we had 841 million Airline Passengers, that is projected by 2038 that is projected to reach 1. 28 billion passengers. The whole experience doesnt start when you get on the plane. The experience starts well before that. We have three kids. I know going through the exercise of schlepping the luggage in the car and going to a remote parking spot and taking the shuttle and getting to the airport, trying to find the right gate, checking in your bags, trying to get through security, trying to get actually checked in on a plane, seated, and that whole experience is it is pretty intimidating and ill say it again, when you have three kids that youre i know im supposed to say in toe but usually following, it is pretty intimidating and it is pretty overwhelming. And so i do think that it is 2020 and mr. Leader, dr. Leader, you talked about the technology out there today and it really is amazing. It is fantastic the way tech has been integrated into airplanes in terms of the a. V. Type opportunities. One of the home airports that i represent and share with congressman rich mand, new orleans airport. They allow us to bags at the parking lot, at the parking garage, which is fantastic and not taking them on the shuttle and Everything Else that we have to do. But there are other areas where we can improve, where we could use technology to help improve that experience. Because the cumulative experiences i hear from constituents all of the time does need improvement and looking at the statistics, the upward trend in passenger travel, it is going to become more challenging. It is going to get worse not better in terms of the volume and we need to ensure that were using technology that has a system that could actually accommodate or facilitate it and allow it to be a pleasurable experience. In the United States as you know weve gone from eight major carriers down to four. When i look at the numbers and you look at the complaints about airline travel, as i recall over half of them, over half of them are complaints concerning international carriers, not our domestic carriers. I havent done the math or looked at the statistics but im going to guess we have more folks flighting on domestic carriers than international and as weve seen in this committee across issues, there is a culture difference among international versus domestic carriers and certainly something we need to continue to focus on. I also want to make note that in the faa bill that we did in 2018 we made over 40 had included over 40 different provisions related to consumer issues and Passenger Experience. As the chairman noted perhaps there are a few that we need to continue focusing on and working together with everyone in this room to continue to improve that experience as best we can. But i do want to make note, everything from seat size to strollers, evacuation standards, voluntary bumping, oxygen mask, protecting pets on planes, and i believe a dozen different provisions, mr. Page, related to passengers with disabilities. So certainly progress has been made as the faa works to implement those. But ill say it again and i think the chairman noted, we certainly need to ensure that we continue to revisit this, this is a process and continue to improve the experience as much as we can. Lastly, right now obviously one of the things on peoples minds is coronavirus. And we need to make sure that we all continue to focus on it this. Outbreaks in south korea, italy, iran, and other areas are infecting more new patients on a daily basis than occurring in china. And if outbreaks can happen there, they can happen here. We need to work in a bipartisan manner and ensure that we focus on this particular issue, aviation air travel and ensure that were making this experience as safe as possible. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back and appreciate the opportunity to give an opening statement. Thank you, and now i want to move on to member questions. Each member will be recognized for five minutes and ill start by recognizing myself. Ill start with mr. Page. Last fall during the subcommittee recent round table on accessibility, you discussed the pva collaboration with the administration on a recent rule to improve lavatory access in aircraft and can you give us the proposed thoughts on the rules and where we are with the development . Um, well, um, as you know, the department put out the nprm and comments are going back in reference to that. Spirit testified theyre an airline that most of their planes have space flex one which is a lavatory at the end of the airplane that a person in an aisle chair can traverse back and get into the lavatory with assistance from the flight attendant. As gao just mentioned, most of the airlines are not purchasing accessible lavatories and boeing and airbus have a product on the market. So the real deal is when are they going to start buying those lavatories . Mr. Leader, can you elaborate a little bit more on Technology Investments to improve accessoribility. Certainly. When it comes to restrooms the space option was done on a voluntary basis, designed so you could have two lavatory that become one so it is more accessible for people that need the Additional Space and room. We have other new technologies that are, as i put in my written testimony, will enable airlines to actually use space that could not otherwise be used in the aircraft for a more accessible lavatory by expanding the lavatory out. As ive worked with Airlines Across the u. S. , this is a central area of concern. One in which im very proud of what Spirit Airlines has done as a Market Leader in this space and in which all of the airlines more assertively doing as they do cabin redesigned and new orders from airbus and boeing. There are more options than before, airlines care and the big requirement and that is what space flex allows you have two lavatories for most of the passengers because we do want to serve all passengers but when it comes to serving the disabled passengers, the two lavatory become one for greater ease of access. It is the perfect type of compromise that advances our industry. Mr. Klein, you did note where spirit is on lavatory accessibility. What kind of what level of investment was necessary to make that happen . We did go through a retrofit that at the time was a half of the fleet of the retrofit in order to put those accessible labs into the aircraft and now every new delivery take moving forward and i think that project finished up about two years ago and since then every new delivery is right there as it comes in. If i may add one other piece to what dr. Leader mentions is we also have an our aircraft the widest aisles you could have on a single aisle aircraft. It is important to us. We put certain types of seats in that create more width for the aisle as well just to help address the issues that mr. Page mentioned earlier. All of your planes are single aisle . Yes, that is correct. All single aisle. That is correct. Yeah. Mr. Page, back to you on wheelchairs in the aisle and the design of the wheelchairs they use, ive never seen a wheelchair used that isnt sort of a basically metal pipes with cushions and so on. Is there some Research Going into looking into redesigning and using different materials so you have a lighter, stronger aisle wheelchair to help out with the folks in the disability community. You have two products. You have the aisle chair which is what airlines and the airports use to get on the plane. And then the onboard wheelchair which will take you back to the restroom if you need it. Access board put out an input for the standards tor the on board wheelchair. There are no recent standards for the aisle chair. The aisle chair gets you on the plane and that is the one that gives you trouble, as i described in my testimony. Because of basically my seat is 18 by 19 and im sitting on a 14 inch aisle seat. And the width of the aisle is narrow also. Right. So your question of standards, there are three or four different products that the airlines use. The columbia is the most wide used across the industry. And there are a couple of others that are used but theyre not specifically designed for someone with a permanent disability such as myself. Thank you. Im going to turn now to mr. Graves and youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Von, id ask you a question. In your testimony you indicated the number of denied borders have decreased or gone down including in 2018 however mr. Mcgee indicated a trend otherwise. Do you have any idea the differences . Sure. No, absolutely. Thank you por the question. In 2019 it is correct that the numbers have gone up for involuntary denied boardings going from 11,000 to 21,000 in 2019. We looked into that data more carefully and found that that is really all a result of two specific airlines. American and southwest were responsible for all of those additional denied boardings involuntarily. And part of that might be our work on denied borders, some of the Airlines Warned us because of some of the boeing max issues there nay be an uptick in the number for this year so that might be part of the explanation for that. And just very quickly, in regard to that, as i recall, those two airlines that you noted are the two airlines that had had the largest investment in the max fleet i believe. Thats correct. So it is likely there is a direct correlation there. There is directly possibly a correlation, sure. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Klein, do you have any idea, im not sure if you kept statistics, indicating the thub of first time air passengers that spirit has accommodated . We you lowered the bar in terms of access to airline travel, right. Absolutely. So it is a great question. We actually dont have specific statistics and we dont say is this the first time youve ever flown but when we go into certain new cities, when we went to haiti we know there were people flying for the first time to places like haiti creating access to people in south florida. We know for example, we Just Announced service yesterday from new orleans to honduras, san pedro, and there are people in new orleans taking their first flight when we start that service in june. So we dont know exactly what the statistics are. But when we go into new roots with we attract new guests that are infrequent travelers as well. They may not have the opportunity to fly often and we go into new roots, we grow markets stimulate with low fares on average well grow markets and the whole industry as we get competed with, well grow markets by 30 . And fares come bound by 22 on average. And the 12 months following our entry into service. So we do know that were driving new growth. And those are industry numbers as we we act as a discipliner of sorts on fares. Our competitors choose to compete with us and when they choose to compete with us on price the whole market grows and that could happen in large routes as well. Routes where people fly all of the time, say newark to fort lauderdale, very large market. We entered that in october of 2016. The market grew from a large route, it almost doubled and grew by 88 even though there was service in the market already. We seek out those kind of underserved opportunities and create the travel opportunities for those that dont get to fly often. Thank you. I could tell you from one of our home airports in new orleans, every time i walk in the spirit area of the airport, it is absolutely the people that are there for tourism, that are there having a good time and in many cases still out from the night before but that is fine. But it clearly is it appears any way that it is opening up aviation access to folks that previously wouldnt have made that decision. It is actually comparable in some cases to, hey, should we drive here or fly to new orleans. And it is fantastic to see that whole group, what i believe, just anecdotally, opening access to a whole group of travelers that previously wouldnt have chosen that option and seen it out of reach. I certainly do appreciate that. And dr. Leader, mr. Mcgee, i mention that we had 40 changes to kind of addressing passenger issues in the faa bill, would you like to comment on where you see sort of best opportunity for experience as a result of some of the revisions in that bill, either of you or both . Certainly. One of the key provisions was the minimum seat