This part prescribes a uniform fee to be paid by passengers of direct air carriers and foreign air carriers in air transportation, foreign air transportation, and intrastate air transportation originating at airports in the United States.

In addition to the definitions in §§ 1500.3, 1503.103, and 1540.5 of this chapter, the following terms are used in this part:

Air carrier means a citizen of the United States who undertakes directly to engage in or provide air transportation.

Air transportation means continental interstate air transportation, continental intrastate air transportation, foreign air transportation, non-continental interstate air transportation, or non-continental intrastate air transportation.

Aircraft means a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air.

Airport means any landing area used regularly by aircraft for receiving or discharging passengers or cargo.

Continental interstate air transportation means the carriage by aircraft of persons for compensation or hire within the continental United States.

Continental intrastate air transportation means the carriage by aircraft of persons for compensation or hire wholly within the same state of the continental United States.

Continental United States means the District of Columbia and the States other than Alaska and Hawaii.

Co-terminal means an airport serving a multi-airport city or metropolitan area that has been approved by TSA to be used as the same point for purposes of determining application of the security service fee imposed under § 1510.5 of this part. Copies of the approved list are available on TSA's Web site at www.tsa.gov or by contacting [email protected].

Direct air carrier and foreign air carrier means a selling carrier.

Foreign air carrier means any person other than a citizen of the United States who undertakes directly to engage in or provide air transportation.

Foreign air transportation means the carriage by aircraft of persons for compensation or hire between a place in the United States and any place outside of the United States.

Frequent flyer award means a zero-fare award of air transportation that a domestic air carrier or foreign air carrier provides to a passenger in exchange for accumulated travel mileage credits in a customer loyalty program, whether or not the term frequent flyer is used in the definition of that program.

Non-continental interstate air transportation means the carriage by aircraft of persons for compensation or hire within the United States, but outside the continental United States.

Non-continental intrastate air transportation means the carriage by aircraft of persons for compensation or hire wholly within the same state, territory or possession of the United States, but outside the continental United States.

Nonrevenue passenger means a passenger receiving air transportation from an air carrier or foreign air carrier for which the air carrier or foreign air carrier does not receive remuneration.

One-way trip means continuous air transportation, during which a stopover does not occur; there may be multiple one-way trips on the same air travel itinerary.

Origin point means the location at which a trip on a complete air travel itinerary begins.

Principal means the aggregate amount of all passenger security services fees due to be remitted to the Transportation Security Administration by an air carrier as required by this part.

Round trip means a trip on an air travel itinerary that terminates or has a stopover at the origin point (or co-terminal).

Selling carrier means an air carrier or foreign air carrier that provides or offers to provide air transportation and has control over the operational functions performed in providing that air transportation.

Stopover means a break in travel of more than:

(1) Four (4) hours for continental interstate air transportation or continental intrastate air transportation, and

(2) Twelve (12) hours for non-continental interstate air transportation, non-continental intrastate air transportation, or foreign air transportation.

Terminates means the location at which a trip on a complete air travel itinerary ends.

(a) Each direct air carrier and foreign air carrier described in § 1510.9(a) shall impose a security service fee of $5.60 per one-way trip for air transportation originating at an airport in the United States. Passengers may not be charged more than $5.60 per one-way trip or $11.20 per round trip.

(b) The security service fee must be imposed on passengers who obtained the ticket for air transportation with a frequent flyer award, but may not be imposed on any other nonrevenue passengers.

A direct air carrier and foreign air carrier must identify the security service fee imposed by this part as “September 11th Security Fee” in all its advertisements and solicitations for air transportation.

(a) The following direct air carriers and foreign air carriers must collect security service fees from passengers on—

(1) A scheduled passenger or public charter passenger operation with an aircraft having passenger seating configuration of more than 60 seats.

(2) A scheduled passenger or public charter passenger operation with an aircraft having a passenger seating configuration of less than 61 seats when passengers are enplaned from or deplaned into a sterile area.

(b) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers must collect from each passenger, to the extent provided in § 1510.5, a security service fee on air transportation sold on or after 12:00 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on July 21, 2014. The security service fee must be based on the air travel itinerary at the time the air transportation is sold. Any changes by the passenger to the itinerary are subject to additional collection or refund of the security service fee by the direct air carrier or foreign air carrier, as appropriate.

(c) Whether or not the security service fee is collected as required by this part, the direct air carrier or foreign air carrier selling the air transportation is solely liable to TSA for the fee and must remit the fee as required in § 1510.13.

(d) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers may not collect security service fees not imposed by this part.

(a) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers are responsible for the safekeeping of all security service fees from the time of collection to remittance.

(b) Security service fees collected by a direct air carrier or foreign air carrier are held in trust by that direct carrier for the beneficial interest of the United States in paying for the costs of providing civil aviation security services described in 49 U.S.C. 44940. The direct air carrier or foreign air carrier holds neither legal nor equitable interest in the security service fees except for the right to retain any accrued interest on the principal amounts collected pursuant to § 1510.13(b).

(c) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers must account for security service fees separately, but the fees may be commingled with the carriers' other sources of revenue.

(d) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers must disclose in their financial statements the existence and the amount of security service fee held in trust.

(a) Each direct air carrier and foreign air carrier must remit all security service fees imposed each calendar month to TSA, as directed by the Administrator, by the last calendar day of the month following the imposition.

(b) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers may retain any interest that accrues on the principal amounts collected between the date of collection and the date the fee is remitted to TSA in accordance with paragraph (a) of this section.

(c) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers are prohibited from retaining any portion of the principal to offset the costs of collecting, handling, or remitting the passenger security service fees.

(d) Security service fees are payable to the “Transportation Security Administration” in U.S. currency and drawn on a U.S. bank.

(1) Fees of $1,000 or more must be remitted by electronic funds transfer.

(2) Fees under $1,000 may be remitted by electronic funds transfer, check, money order, wire transfer, or draft.

(e) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers are responsible for paying any bank processing charges on the security service fees collected or remitted under this part when such charges are assessed on the U.S. government.

(a) Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers must establish and maintain an accounting system to account for the security service fees imposed, collected, refunded and remitted. The accounting records must identify the airports at which the passengers were enplaned.

(b) Each direct air carrier and foreign air carrier that collects security services fees from more than 50,000 passengers annually must provide for an audit at least annually of its security service fee activities or accounts.

(c) Audits pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section must be performed by an independent certified public accountant and may be of limited scope. The accountant must express an opinion on the fairness and reasonableness of the direct air carrier's and foreign air carrier's procedures for collecting, holding, and remitting the fees. The opinion must also address whether the quarterly reports required in § 1510.17 fairly represent the net transactions in the security service fee accounts.

(a) Each direct air carrier and foreign air carrier collecting security service fees must provide TSA with quarterly reports that provide an accounting of fees imposed, collected, refunded and remitted.

(b) Quarterly reports must state:

(1) The direct air carrier or foreign air carrier involved;

(2) The total amount of September 11th Security Fees imposed on passengers in U.S. currency for each month during the previous quarter of the calendar year;

(3) The net amount of September 11th Security Fees collected in U.S. currency by the direct air carrier or foreign air carrier for each month during the previous quarter of the calendar year;

(4) The total amount of September 11th Security Fees refunded in U.S. currency by the direct air carrier or foreign air carrier for each month during the previous quarter of the calendar year; and

(5) The total amount of September 11th Security Fees remitted in U.S. currency by the direct air carrier or foreign air carrier for each month during the previous quarter of the calendar year.

(c) The report must be filed by the last day of the calendar month following the quarter of the calendar year in which the fees were imposed.

Direct air carriers and foreign air carriers must allow any authorized representative of the Administrator, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, or the Comptroller General of the United States to audit or review any of its books and records and provide any other information necessary to verify that the security service fees were properly collected and remitted consistent with this part.

A direct air carrier's or foreign air carrier's failure to comply with the requirements 49 U.S.C. 44940 or the provisions of this part may be considered to be an unfair and deceptive practice in violation of 49 U.S.C. 41712 and may also result in a claim due the United States by the carrier collectible pursuant to 49 CFR part 89. These remedies are in addition to any others remedies provided by law.