'Country of Final Assembly' Required on Safety Cards

Air Safety Week, July 12, 2004

Airlines have one year to provide information to passengers indicating the country in which the airplane they are flying was assembled.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is incorporating that information on the safety cards placed in seat-back pockets, a stratagem playing to mixed reviews. Some believe the safety card is an appropriate place for the required notice, while others believe this dilutes and distracts attention from the primary safety message of the card.

How the safety card became the instrument for this newly required information shows the significant difference between the words "an" and "the," a seemingly subtle yet significant point that will be addressed shortly.

The final rule issued June 29 by the FAA responds to a congressional requirement to include the country of final assembly. The provision was added to the FAA's Fiscal 2003 Reauthorization Act, without which there would be no FAA. The requirement was included in the bill at the direction of Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House transportation and infrastructure aviation subcommittee. Mica has said the intent is to provide the consumer with additional information, akin to that found on clothing labels, for example.

However, the mandate may stem from a larger controversy over trade. Last year, legislators unhappy with the perceived lack of support by U.S. allies such as France for the war in Iraq attempted to pass "Buy American" legislation that was opposed by the U.S. aerospace industry. That failed effort has been revived this year with proposed legislation that would eliminate offsets. Offsets are agreements in which a customer nation is guaranteed jobs from the seller as part of the deal. Opponents of offsets maintain that the practice bleeds away U.S. jobs.

Hence, the "country of final assembly" mandate for airliners adds visibility to the larger debate over international trade issues and discontent with tepid international support for the U.S. war in Iraq.

Now to the difference between "an" and "the." The legislation said:

"The Secretary of Transportation shall require ... an air carrier using an aircraft to provide scheduled passenger air transportation to display a notice, on an information placard available to each passenger ... that informs the passengers of the nation in which the aircraft was finally assembled." (Emphasis added)

This language suggests that a separate card can be printed and inserted into the seat-back pocket.

However, the committee report accompanying the legislation interprets the statute as calling for the information to be made available "on the placard in the seat back pocket." (Emphasis added)

The FAA interpreted this language as clear guidance that Congress intended the information to be incorporated onto the existing safety information placard. However, neither the statute nor the committee report specifically identified the safety information card as the place for the notice.

Airlines have until June 2005 to ensure that more than 750,000 seat-back pockets contain safety cards with the required information. Given that the normal replacement cycle for the cards would not meet the 12-month deadline, the FAA is allowing operators to print stickers and have their cabin cleaning staffs affix them to the current safety cards. At an estimated cost of 50 cents per sticker, the FAA figures that the total cost will be around $522,000. That cost is for stickers and the management time for each carrier to ensure that the stickers are applied.

The order affects U.S. carriers only. The initiative was exempted from a cost-benefit calculation, the the FAA explaining the waiver on the grounds that "Congress, which reflects the will of the American people, has determined that this final rule is in the best interest of the nation and therefore provides a benefit." Sources say an economic analysis was performed and the rule was judged "not cost beneficial." Politics trump process.

Industry was not afforded an opportunity to comment. An FAA source explained, "Many of the air carriers impacted may have wanted to comment, however we do not have the authority to write a rule that is in conflict with the statute, so any comments received not in accordance with the statute would not have been considered."

Reactions ranged from strong support to outright opposition.

Hans Ephraimson, head of the Air Crash Victims Family Group, said, "We have been asking for this for a long time and had hoped it would be done voluntarily."

"Nobody knows the provenance of an airplane, so at least this is a way to provide the information," he added. "The safety card has a diagram of the airplane, so this is an appropriate place to put the country of assembly."

Paul Hudson, director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project (ACAP), questioned the appropriateness of the mandate. It is one thing for a purchaser of a product to be provided information on where the product was built or assembled, "but in this case the passenger is not the purchaser."

Moreover, Hudson went on to say, country of final assembly provides nil information of any value to the consumer. For example, he said, "The dollar value of the domestic content should be shown." Such information would accord with product labeling laws in the United States for automobiles, and for the Swiss watch industry.