Airlines must cap fees to real costs; families sit free.
S. 5447 — FAIR Fees Act of 2026 · Filed by Ed Markey (D-MA) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 22, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill tells the Department of Transportation to write rules within 270 days. Airlines cannot charge fees for changes, cancellations, baggage, seat picks, or priority boarding. Fees are only allowed if they match what the airline actually spends. The rules must explain how to measure fair fees and update every three years. Families with kids under 13 get to sit together without paying extra.
Who it affects
Airline passengers pay less for services that do not cost airlines much. Families with children under 13 get the right to sit together without extra charges.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say what happens if airlines break the rules. The Secretary of Transportation gets to decide what counts as fair.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 6 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Sep 22, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 22, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Department of Transportation — The federal agency that makes rules about airlines and travel.
- Secretary of Transportation — The leader of the Department of Transportation.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,714 characters) on Sep 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 15,163 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-26.
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