OST Filings for February 15, 2001

OST Docket Filings for February 15, 2001

Last Updated 02/16/01 11:27 AM

Applications and Renewals:

American - Miami- Santa Cruz/La Paz Renewal | IATA (2)

Answers and Replies:

Air Canada/United - Answer of American | Air Excursions - Additional Information | American/TAM - Codeshare Compliance

Era Aviation - Proposal for EAS | Santa Barbara - Amendment (Venezuela Wet-Lease) | Wendell Ford - Answer of Northwest to Delta/Letters in Support

U.S.- Turkey (4)- Answers of American/Delta/Northwest/United

Notices of Action Taken:

None

Notices and Orders:

Commutair - Service Obligation | Express I - Service Obligation

Air Canada and United Air Lines, Inc.

OST-01-8873 OST-01-8875	February 15, 2001	Consolidated Answer of American Airlines	U.S.- Canada- Australia; LAX- SYD
		Service List

American has no objection to these applications, provided that the Department also grants the application by Qantas in OST-00-7785, submitted on August 10, 2000, to display the American code on flights operated by Qantas between points in Australia and points in Canada via Honolulu, between Honolulu and points in Canada, and (as at present) between points in Australia and Honolulu.

The Qantas request has been pending for more than six months, is unopposed, and has long been ripe for immediate approval. American would strongly object to approval for Air Canada and United without simultaneous approval for Qantas.

Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202.496.5647, carl_nelson@aa.com

Index

American Airlines, Inc.

OST-97-2302	February 15, 2001	Application for Renewal of Exemption	Miami- Santa Cruz/La Paz, Bolivia
		Service List

American instituted service between Miami and Santa Cruz (which operates via La Paz in the southbound direction) in 1991. American's flights provide significant benefits to passengers and shippers needed service between Miami and Bolivia, as well as to customers in beyond cities that receive on-line connections via American's Miami hub.

Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202.496.5647, carl_nelson@aa.com

Index

American Airlines, Inc. and TAM-Transportes Aereos Meridionais, S.A.

OST-97-2419	February 15, 2001	Re: Compliance Statement	U.S.- Brazil
		Attachment: Compliance Statement
		Service List

Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647, carl_nelson@aa.com

Index

Commutair

Order 01-2-13
OST-00-7556

Issued February 14, 2001
Served February 20, 2001

Order Extending Service Obligation

Termination of Service at Oneida County Airport

By: Randall Bennett

Index

Era Aviation, Inc. d/b/a Era Aviation

OST-00-8488

February 15, 2001

Proposal of Era Aviation to Provide EAS to IIiamna, Alaska with a Request for a Subsidy

90-Day Notice to Terminate Essential Air Service Between Anchorage and Iliamma, Alaska

By: Era Aviation, Mike Le Norman

Index

Express I, Inc. d/b/a Northwest Airlink

Order 01-2-12
OST-00-7855
OST-00-7856
OST-00-7857

Issued February 14, 2001
Served February 20, 2001

Order Extending Service Obligation

Terminate Air Service Owensboro Davies County Regional Airport

By: Randall Bennett

Index

Santa Barbara Airlines, C.A.

OST-00-8448	February 15, 2001	Amendment No.1 to Application for Exemption	Foreign Air Carrier Permit; U.S.- Venezuela Scheduled Passenger
		Service List

Santa Barbara desires to reach an agreement with a U.S. certificated air carrier to provide the wetlease services for which it has applied in this Docket. However, the U.S. carrier utilizes the Fort Lauderdale gateway as its principal service point in this area and service via the Miami gateway would be costly, inconvenient and not suitable for its operations. Accordingly, Santa Barbara requests the Department of Transportation (the "Department*) to authorize Santa Barbara to engage in scheduled foreign air transportation of passengers, property and mad between including the points Caracas and Maracaibo, Venezuela and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, limited to a long term wet lease arrangement with a U.S. certificated air carrier to be filed and approved by the Department.

Counsel: Lawrence Wasko, 202.862.4370

Index

Steven Wilson d/b/a Air Excursions/ d/b/a Chilkat Aviation

OST-99-5948	February 1, 2001 Docketed February 15, 2001	Re: Additional Information	Akron-Canton/O'Hare
		Attachment: Balance Sheet

By: Hank Myers, 425.641.8243

Index

U.S.- Turkey Combination Service Third-Country Code-Share Opportunities

OST-01-8781	February 15, 2001	Answer of American Airlines	U.S.- Turkey
		Exhibits AA-A1 to AA-A13: American Proposal
		Service List

Each of the applicants already has on-line access to the U.S.-Turkey market. American has a bilateral codeshare arrangement with Turkish Airlines. Delta provides its own service to Turkey with daily 3767 flights to Istanbul from New York (JFK). Last year, Delta, Northwest, and United were awarded third-country codeshare authority to serve Turkey with their respective European partners in U.S.-Turkey Third-Country Codeshare Opportunities, Order 2000-8-17,.August 18, 2000.

Accordingly, in the present proceeding, American is seeking its first third-country codeshare opportunity to serve Turkey (and its second overall opportunity in light of its arrangement with Turkish Airlines). Delta is seeking its third opportunity to serve Turkey. Northwest and United are seeking their second opportunities.

In these circumstances, Delta should be ranked last among the applicants. Delta already serves Turkey with its own aircraft and crews, and Delta was awarded a third-country codeshare opportunity last year to serve Turkey with Air France via Paris. Moreover, in its application, Delta has proposed relatively poor elapsed times between its U.S. gateway cities and Istanbul. Before Delta is granted a third opportunity, American should receive frequencies for service to Turkey with Swissair via Zurich. That will introduce a new codeshare partnership into the marketplace, with important benefits for consumers, and additional competition against the existing Delta/Air France, Northwest/KLM, and United/Lufthansa arrangements.

Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202.496.5647, carl_nelson@aa.com

OST-01-8781	February 15, 2001	Consolidated Answer of Delta Air Lines	U.S.- Turkey
		Exhibits DL-R-1 to DL-R-6: Delta's Proposal
		Service List

Four carriers have applied for a total of forty-two third-country codeshare frequencies from an available pool of fourteen frequencies. Significantly, each applicant carrier - American, United, Northwest and Delta -- currently enjoys access to the U.S.-Turkey marketplace on a codeshare basis. The question for the Department, therefore, is which carrier or carriers are most deserving, and will benefit the traveling public to the greatest extent, through an expansion of third-country codeshare services.

Delta's long-standing commitment to the U.S.-Turkey marketplace and its need to match the rising competitive challenge of the American/Turkish Airlines alliance mitigate strongly in favor of an award to Delta. Unlike the other carrier applicants, Delta is the only carrier that is currently exercising any of the unlimited direct service opportunities that are available to U.S. carriers under the U.S.-Turkey transitional open skies agreement. Rather than taking advantage of the direct service opportunities that are available to them, American, United, and Northwest are seeking to bolster their Turkey service offerings by relying exclusively on third-country codeshare opportunities - the only service opportunities that remain restricted under the terms of the transitional agreement.

Counsel: Shaw Pittman, Alexander Van der Bellen, 202.663.8060

OST-01-8781	February 15, 2001	Consolidated Answer of Northwest Airlines	U.S.- Turkey
		Service List

This proceeding is unique to many of the third-country code-share allocation proceedings the Department has conducted in the past in that all of the applicants are already incumbents in some respect in the U.S.-Turkey market. Existing services offered to Turkey by each of the incumbents is summarized as follows:

American presently offers 15 weekly nonstop frequencies between the U.S. and Turkey involving three U.S, gateways (New York, Miami and Chicago) by code-sharing on flights operated by Turkish Airlines ("THY"), as well as services within Turkey beyond Istanbul.
Delta presently offers a total of 14 weekly U.S.-Turkey frequencies, including a daily New York-Istanbul nonstop service operated by Delta and seven third-country code-share frequencies offered via Paris in conjunction with Air France.
Northwest presently offers seven weekly U.S. -Turkey third-country code-share frequencies, via Amsterdam in conjunction with KLM.
United also operates seven weekly U.S. -Turkey third-country code-share frequencies, via Frankfurt in conjunction with Lufthansa.

Counsel: Northwest, Megan Rosia, 202-842-3193, megan.rosia@nwa.com

OST-01-8781	February 15, 2001	Consolidated Answer of United Air Lines	U.S.- Turkey
		Exhibits UA-A1 to UA-A14: United Proposals
		Service List

All of the applicants already offer some service to Istanbul. United and Northwest each offer a single daily U.S.-Istanbul code-share connection, American offers 15 weekly nonstop U.S.-Istanbul code-share services with THY and Delta offers a daily nonstop in its own aircraft plus a daily code-share connection to Istanbul via Paris with Air France. United and Northwest each propose a second daily code-share service to Istanbul, while American and Delta each propose to offer a third daily service to that city. The second daily Istanbul services proposed by United should be given priority over the Istanbul services proposed by the other carriers because United's additional services would offer more competitive benefits than those of the other carriers.

In order to compare services proposed for Istanbul, certain adjustments are needed to assure uniformity. United included only the best connection from each U.S. gateway, whereas Northwest included multiple connections to the same U.S. gateway where they existed. Thus, Northwest includes three Detroit flights and two Los Angeles flights as connections to its new Amsterdam-Istanbul code-share flight. In order to provide a uniform comparison United has counted only those Northwest flights which make the best connection to its AMS-IST flight, putting Northwest on the same basis as United." United also eliminated from its schedules connections which required overnight layovers and has made the same adjustment to other carriers' schedules for purposes of comparison. Such a uniform comparison demonstrates that United's proposed Istanbul services will offer more benefits than the services to that city that would be offered by any other applicant. With a total of seven additional U.S.-Istanbul frequencies, United would serve 14 U.S. gateways offering a total of 196 weekly U.S.-Istanbul code-share connecting frequencies. No other applicant would use the frequencies it seeks to offer a comparable level of competitive services.

Counsel: Wilmer Cutler, Jeffery Manley, 202.663.6670, jmanley@wilmer.com

Index

The Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (Slot Exemptions)

OST-00-7181	February 15, 2001	Answer of Northwest Airlines	Washington D.C. (DCA)- Salt Lake City (SLC)
		Service List

Northwest urges the Department to institute an expedited proceeding to determine the best allocation of TWA’s slot exemptions should the Department recall them. At the appropriate time, the Department should issue a comprehensive instituting notice or order simultaneously setting procedural dates for applications and responsive pleadings, and detailing any evidence the Department believes it will require in order to make its allocation decision. Requiring carriers to file multiple rounds of largely repetitive pleadings only imposes unnecessary burden on the Department, the carrier applicants and the communities involved.

Counsel: Northwest, Megan Rae Rosia, 202.842.3193, megan.rosia@nwa.com

OST-00-7181

February 14, 2001

Letter of the Great Falls International Airport Authority in Support of Delta's Application

Washington D.C. (DCA)- Salt Lake City (SLC)

Counsel: Great Falls International Airport Authority, Cynthia Schultz

OST-00-7181

February 14, 2001

Letter of the Washington Public Ports Association in Support of Northwest's Application

Washington D.C. (DCA)- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Counsel: Washington Public Ports Association

OST-00-7181