Bill
HB 3369
HB 3369 requires air carriers to provide safe, dignified, and timely assistance to passengers with disabilities, with strict device handling, notification, loaner options, and trai
Status & Procedural History
- Introduced: Rep. Yolonda Morris, first reading 2/18/2025; filed 2/26/2025.
- Committee activity: Referred to Rules (and Public Education); public hearing and committee substitute; reported favorably as substituted and placed on General State Calendar. As of 5/13/2025: laid on the table subject to call. Companion: SB 2929.
Purpose / Intent
- To strengthen protections and service obligations for air travelers with disabilities by requiring safe, dignified, and timely assistance from carriers and indirect carriers, clarifying carrier responsibilities for assistive devices (e.g., wheelchairs, scooters), and imposing training and notification requirements.
Key Defined Terms
- “Assistive device”: equipment that helps an individual with a disability.
- “Carrier” and “Indirect carrier”: entities that provide or sell air transportation services.
- “Mishandled”: lost, delayed, damaged, or pilfered.
- “Dignified” and “Safe”: defined to emphasize respect for independence/privacy and avoidance of bodily harm.
- “Hands-on training”: in-person practice with models/equipment and realistic scenarios.
Major Provisions and Requirements
- Service standard: Carriers/indirect carriers must provide assistance in a safe, dignified, and prompt manner; promptness judged by totality of circumstances (with specific timelines elsewhere).
- Enplaning/deplaning: Carriers must provide or ensure timely assistance (wheelchairs, accessible motorized carts, boarding wheelchairs, ramps, lifts, aisle-chair assistance) when requested or offered and accepted. Special procedures for deplaning passengers in aisle chairs (personnel and equipment availability).
- Assistive-device notifications: Carriers must timely notify passengers when an assistive device is loaded into or retrieved from cargo; if the device does not fit in cargo, carrier must notify the passenger.
- Mishandling: If a wheelchair/scooter is mishandled, carriers must immediately inform the passenger of rights to: file a claim, receive a loaner, choose preferred repair/replacement vendor, access a Complaints Resolution Official (CRO), and obtain CRO contact information.
- Liability presumption: Carrier presumed liable for mishandling unless it demonstrates circumstances were outside its control.
- Timely return/delivery: If a checked wheelchair/scooter is delayed, the carrier must transport it to the passenger’s final destination within 24 hours of the passenger’s arrival and offer pickup at the airport or delivery to another reasonable location.
- Loaners: If waiting for return/repair/replacement, carriers must use best efforts to provide an adequate loaner device.
- Training: Carriers operating aircraft with 19+ passenger seats must ensure personnel (including contractors) who interact with travelers or handle assistive devices receive appropriate training, including hands‑on practice as appropriate. CROs have additional training requirements.
Who Is Affected
- Passengers with disabilities using assistive devices; commercial air carriers and indirect carriers operating in Illinois; airport operators and staff who assist passengers or handle assistive devices.
Notes / Limitations
- Text of the introduced version is partially truncated in places; the summary reflects the substantive provisions present in the bill text as introduced. The bill also references federal law (Air Carrier Access Act) and creates state-level remedies/obligations consistent with that framework.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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