ACRP IdeaHub Legal Aspects of Airport Programs

The recent COVID 19 pandemic put a spotlight on the challenges facing airports in preparing to address pandemics in the future. State and local governments own and operate many of the airports in the U.S. and airports are like cities in many respects. In responding to potential pandemics, airports would benefit from developing strategies for addressing the federalist system in public health governance. The risk of future... more »

This would provide airports with a survey of civil rights and other related laws applicable to airports, including Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)/Airport Concession DBE, the Americans With Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The digest would include benchmarking best practices for airports in complying with such laws, such as for minority and disadvantaged... more »

It is proposed to conduct legal research to produce a survey of Federal, state, and foreign privacy laws applicable to the collection and use of biometric technology by the air industry, analyses and categorization of pertinent laws, and their requirements, and a discussion of practices best designed to foster compliance.

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Legal Research Digest 34: Airport Public Health Preparedness and Response: Legal Rights, Powers, and Duties addressed the legal issues concerning the measures to detect communicable diseases, regulations to control communicable diseases, methods for decontamination, emergency legal preparedness, privacy, and potential sources of liability.

This LRD was released in August... more »

The purpose of this digest would be to explore the legal issues of operating spacecraft under 14 CFR Parts 400 to 460 at Part 139 and non-certified aviation facilities.

The legal, policy, and regulatory environment may present challenges for certifying and authorizing some technologies due to novel features and combinations of features that could be found in novel aircraft designs. While this is not an exhaustive list, some of these could include distributed electric propulsion/tilt-wing propulsion, vertical take-off and land, autonomy hardware and software, optionally piloted configurations,... more »

The Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) program rules set for th in 49 CFR Part 23 prohibits airport sponsors from entering into long-term, exclusive (LTE) agreements for concessions, except under very limited conditions and only with pre-review and approval from the FAA Office of Civil Rights. The DOT published the final rule in the Federal Register on June 20, 2012, but according to one compliance... more »

COVID-19 has grounded aircraft all around the country exceeding the gate and "regular" parking capacity of several airports. Airport operators and flight operators have coordinated for parking these overflow aircraft in non-traditional configuration (i.e., denser parking configuration than the default layout) and on unusual areas of the airfield (e.g., taxiways, runways, decommissioned pavement). At many airports, portions... more »

This research would review legal precedence associated with on-airport homeless populations.