The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Aviation Enforcement Office provided guidance to airlines and ticket agents about the requirement for notifying passengers if a flight they are selling is being operated under a code-sharing arrangement.The new law makes it clear that when a consumer requests an airline itinerary on the Internet, any code-sharing arrangement must be included on the same screen and next to the itinerary. Currently, code-sharing on some websites is being disclosed through a hyperlink or when one passes the cursor over a link. Under the existing Department rules, code-share disclosure must include the corporate name of the transporting carrier and any other name under which the flight is offered to the public. The Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office will give airlines and ticket agents 60 days to modify websites that are now using links for code-share disclosure to bring them into compliance before instituting enforcement action.The notice providing the guidance is available on the Internet at http://airconsumer.dot.gov/rules/guidance.htm.Source: DOT News Release 4-11 of Jan. 10, 2011
