Request for Change

Non-Substantive Change Request to OMB Control Number 0920-1328

Program Contact

Colleen Brouillette

Division of Global Migration and Quarantine

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

1600 Clifton Road NE, H16-3

Atlanta GA 30333

Submission Date: 04/26/2021

CDC requests approval for a non-substantive change to OMB Control No. 0920-1328; Requirement for Airlines to Collect Designated Information for Passengers Destined for the United Sates Who are Departing from, or Were Otherwise Present In, The Democratic Republic of the Congo or The Republic of Guinea

Justification for changes:

On March 5, 2021, CDC received emergency approval for this information collection to collect designated traveler information for a period of 6 months from airline passengers who had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or the Republic of Guinea (Guinea) within the last 21 days. This information collection was necessary due to outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in these countries that were identified earlier this year.  

 

Since March 1, 2021, there have been no new confirmed EVD cases reported in DRC and all contacts of cases that were being monitored for EVD have passed the 21-day incubation period. With no new cases reported in more than 42 days (>2 incubation periods), no remaining hospitalized patients with EVD, and no contacts of confirmed EVD cases still requiring monitoring, the potential risk for Ebola virus exposure in DRC has greatly diminished. Therefore, CDC no longer requires contact information from airline passengers who were departing from or were otherwise present in DRC within the last 21 days. 

Burden:

The estimates for hourly annualized burden and cost for this collection fall into categories associated with the provisions of the March 2, 2021 Order.  They are as follows: 

• Time required for travelers to provide their contact information to airlines 

• Time required for airlines to solicit the contact information from travelers notify passengers that the obligation to provide the information is a United States Government requirement 

 

CDC’s estimate the total hourly burden for the duration of this information collection is 110 hours. 

 

Total Hourly Burden 

 

• Based on preliminary information received from CBP concerning the number of travelers from Guinea to the United States, CDC anticipates approximately 33 arrivals a day on the high end. This information collection was approved for 6 month on March 5, 2021, which leaves 132 days remaining in the collection period, as of April 26, 2021. This results in 4,356 arrivals over the next 132 days. 

• For the purposes of this information collection request under the Paperwork Reduction Act, to account for the estimated time associated with travelers providing the additional contact information, CDC used the following sources and assumptions for each reservation or kiosk interaction, and for these purposes a reservation or kiosk interaction when the information is solicited and provided is a response. 

• For passengers: 

• CDC estimates 30 seconds for each traveler entering the United States to provide the contact information.  This may range from 20 seconds for online reservations, to 30 for person-to-person reservations.  But CDC is using the upper bound for the purposes of this analysis. 

• CDC’s estimated time value is greater than that provided by CBP in their PRA analysis under OMB Control No. 1651-0088 Passenger and Crew Manifest for Passenger Flights, which is 10 seconds and is already inclusive of time required under APIS regulations for individuals residing outside the United States to provide a U.S. address. 

• This time value is consistent with those provided by TSA in their economic analysis of Secure Flight, which ranges from 20-30 seconds per reservation. 

• CDC notes above that for non-U.S. persons arriving in the United States CBP already requires address in the United be submitted, which may reduce the amount of time needed per passenger on average. 

• CDC also notes that many passengers may fly internationally multiple times per year and that once passengers’ information is collected by travel agents, airline agents, or the online bookings/kiosks, that information may be stored for multiple flights and just confirmed, or only certain pieces of data would need to be updated.  This practice would further reduce the amount of time on average required for each traveler to provide the contact information fields. 

• For these reasons, CDC believes 30 seconds is a reasonable estimate of time burden associated with this collection for passengers. 

• For air industry:  

• To account for airline industry time costs to collect this information from the passengers, CDC is duplicating the burden associated with the passengers themselves: 30 seconds per interaction. 

• CDC is adding an additional 30 seconds for the airlines or aircraft operators to notify passengers that the obligation to provide the information is a United States Government requirement. 

• Because it is not feasible to allocate a number of passengers to each airline staff member who solicits the information from passengers, CDC’s estimate provides for one response per airline employee.  

• CDC notes that some airlines may have incorporated an ability to solicit this information using a web-based platform, removing any airline staff from the interaction.  This would reduce the burden to airlines.   

 

Burden attributable to collection and submission of traveler contact data  

Type of Respondent	Form Name	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Average burden per response  (in hours)	Total burden  (in hours)
International Passengers (3rd party disclosure)	No Form: Traveler Contact Information	4,356	1	.5/60	37
Airline staff (airport check-in or gate agent)	No Form: Traveler Contact Information	4,356	1	1/60	73
Total					110

 

Estimated Annualized Burden Costs attributable to collection and submission of traveler contact data 

 

• The cost for traveler time to provide the additional data was estimated by using recommended hourly value of travel time savings for all types of travel from the U.S. Department of Transportation.  This dollar value is $47.10 per hour¹.  

• The cost for airline staff was estimated by using the Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks job series from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes434181.htm.  CDC used a mean hourly wage rate of $21.34 x 2 to account for wages, benefits and overhead costs. 

• Burden costs associated with this collection total $4,859 

 

Burden attributable to collection and submission of traveler contact data 

Type of Respondent	Form Name	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate	Total Respondent Cost
International Passengers (3rd party disclosure)	No Form	37	$47.10	$1,743
Airline staff (ticket counter or gate)	No Form	73	$42.68	$3,116
Total				$4,859

 

Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers 

 

Prior to describing CDC’s analysis, CDC notes that CBP provides the following breakdown of annual costs for APIS in the PRA analysis for Passenger and Crew Manifest (OMB Control No. 1651-0088). As APIS would be an option for providing this information, CDC believes this provides one useful estimate of annual costs: 

 

“The estimated operations and maintenance costs associated with this information collection are $68,361,719.  This is calculated as follows: Large carrier operations and maintenance costs associated with APIS and UNEDIFACT interface: 184,050,663 passengers multiplied (x) by ($0.33) per passenger = $60,736,719.” 

 

Apportioning additional cost for the 4,356 estimate travelers from Guinea, based on the total cost provided by CBP above, would result in a small additional cost across the industry: $1,438 per year.       

Description of Changes:

The information above gives updated burden hours for the remaining period of time for this information collection. It removes burden hours for collection of information for passengers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All other information remains the same as the initial information collection package. The only change is number of passengers.