Federal Judge: Airports, Airlines, Subject to ADA Rules

The Detroit News

By Paul Egan
September 3, 2008

DETROIT -- The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to airports and to airlines such as Northwest, a federal judge in Detroit has ruled.

U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh on Tuesday denied a motion by Northwest Airlines to dismiss a lawsuit brought by five Detroit area residents with physical disabilities. That means the lawsuit, filed in April by Farmington Hills attorney Richard Bernstein, can continue.

The plaintiffs allege Northwest fails to provide them adequate assistance in the airport and on the plane, causing problems such as missed flights and damaged wheelchairs.

Northwest, in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, argued the Americans with Disabilities Act does not apply to services at airports.

But Steeh ruled otherwise and said in a 13-page opinion that to conclude the ADA did not apply to airports "would leave the door open for acts of discrimination that could not be remedied."

Bernstein said Steeh's ruling has major ramifications for domestic and international air travel.

"This is really a monumental case, and I don't say that often," Bernstein said Wednesday.

Some courts had earlier ruled the ADA did not apply to airports because aircraft are excluded from the definition of "specified public transportation" under the act.

Disabled travelers have had to rely on the Air Carrier Access Act, Bernstein said. But under that act, they have not been permitted to bring private claims and have had to rely on the federal government for enforcement, he said.

Steeh dismissed claims the Detroit area plaintiffs made under the Air Carrier Access Act.

A spokesman for Northwest could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Wayne County Airport Authority, which earlier had an Air Carrier Access Act claim against it dismissed through an agreement with the plaintiffs, was not a party to the motion to dismiss.