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Last Updated 02/19/03 08:26 PM

Applications and Renewals: 

Air Japan - Codeshare Notices with ANA and United

Alaska - Los Angeles-Guadalajara

American - Additional Codeshare Notice with Lan Chile

Great Lakes - EAS Termination at Scottsbluff, NB and Riverton, WY

IATA - Application for Approval of Agreements

Sunrise d/b/a Flair - Motion to Withdraw Application to Resume Operations

Answers and Replies: 

American - Los Angeles-Guadalajara Seasonal - Answers of Alaska and United

DCA Slots - Objection of Midwest Airlines to AirTran

Delta - Rio de Janeiro/Buenos Aires Dormancy - Answer of American

Qantas - Codeshare with American - Comments of United

Notices of Action Taken:

Israir - Tel Aviv, Israel-New York  Passenger Charters

Volga-Dnepr - Cape Canaveral-Denver 

Notices and Orders:

None

Air Japan Co., Ltd.

Hereby gives notice that the NH* designator code of All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. will be displayed on Air Japan flights between Tokyo (Narita) and Honolulu, commencing March 30, 2003.

Counsel: Zuckert, Scoutt & Rasenberger L.L.P, Charles Simpson, 202-298-8660

Hereby gives notice that the UA* designator code of United Air Lines, Inc. will be displayed on Air Japan flights between Tokyo (Narita) and Honolulu, commencing March 30, 2003.

Counsel: Zuckert, Scoutt & Rasenberger L.L.P, Charles Simpson, 202-298-8660

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Alaska Airlines, Inc.

Hereby requests an exemption from 49 U.S.C. 41101 and from any regulations of the Department to the extent necessary to permit Alaska to engage in year round scheduled foreign air transportation of persons, property and mail between Los Angeles, California, on the one hand, and Guadalajara, Mexico, on the other hand. Alaska requests that this exemption be granted for at least a two-year period. Alaska plans to commence service on this route on June 8, 2003.

Alaska plans to commence daily year round scheduled service in the Los Angeles­Guadalajara market on June 8, 2003. All operations will be conducted with B737-400 aircraft configured to seat a total of 138 passengers-12 first class and 126 economy class.

The only U.S. carrier today serving the Los Angeles-Guadalajara market with its own aircraft is Delta Airlines, Inc., which operates a single daily flight. In contrast, the Mexican carriers Aeromexico and Mexicana operate two and four flights daily, respectively, providing Mexican carriers with a six to one daily frequency advantage. Clearly, this is a market in need of a robust additional U.S. carrier service option. Alaska can and will provide passengers with that option.

Counsel: Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P, Marshall Sinick, 202-626-6651

Related Dockets:  OST-2003-14447 |  OST-2001-9431

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American Airlines, Inc.

Alaska is today submitting a competing application requesting an exemption permitting Alaska to operate year round scheduled service between Los Angeles and Guadalajara. Approval of Alaska's application will increase substantially U.S. carrier competition on the route while ensuring the generation of maximum consumer benefits.

Because of existing bilateral limitations, the competing appliications of Alaska and American are mutually exclusive. Under the principles established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Ashbacker Radio Corp. v. FCC, the Depai anent is required to conduct a carrier selection proceeding to choose the applicant whose proposal will generate the maximum public benefits. Alaska will demonstrate in that proceeding the superiority of its application and why its proposal should be selected over American's proposal.

Counsel: Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P, Marshall Sinick, 202-626-6651

United has no objection to the award of an exemption to American for the period between July 2 and August 31, 2003. American does not state for what term it seeks exemption authority other than to refer to its plan to serve this city pair for this discrete period of time. The term of its exemption should, therefore, properly be limited to that period. 

Under the U.S./Mexico bilateral air services agreement, only two U.S. carriers may be designated to operate services in a given transborder city-pair such as Los Angeles-Guadalajara. Delta Air Lines, Inc. ("Delta") is also designated and operating scheduled service between Los Angeles and Guadalajara. As a consequence, for the period that American holds one of the two designations for this city pair, no other U.S. carrier may be designated, even if such a carrier were to propose more frequent or longer­term service than American. The Department normally imposes a dormancy condition on U.S.-Mexico transborder authority to avoid wastage of valuable operating rights that are not being used. That condition provides that a carrier must notify the Department "if it discontinues services on a route segment for 90 days or longer." Since American does not even propose to serve this segment for a period of 90 days, the normal dormancy condition as to this segment would be meaningless. By limiting the exemption to the discrete period for which American proposes seasonal service, however, the Department can assure that a designation for this city pair will be available for service by another carrier that may wish to offer more frequent or longer-term service once American's seasonal service has terminated.

Counsel:  United and Wilmer Cutler, Jeffrey Manley, 202-663-6670, jmanley@wilmer.com

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American Airlines, Inc. and Lan Chile, S.A.

Hereby give notice that effective no sooner than 30 days from the date of this notice, it will display Lan Chile's "LA" designator code on flights operated by American beyond Los Angeles to Toronto, Canada.

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

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Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Delta asks for dormancy waivers through December 31, 2003, alleging "adverse economic conditions" but without stating any firm plans to resume service. In these circum­stances, the frequencies should be returned to the unallocated pool, where they will be available for other carriers to use them, free from any claim that the frequencies cannot be reassigned because they are tied up by an extended dormancy waiver. See, e.g., Denial of Dormancy Waiver to Continental (U.S.-Brazil and U.S.-Ecuador), Notice of Action Taken, OST­2002-11615, December 10, 2002 ("we find that the public interest would be best served by reassigning these frequencies to the unallocated pool of frequencies so that whenever Continental or another carrier has firm plans to use them, it may apply for the frequencies accordingly"); Denial of Dormancy Waiver to Continental Micronesia (U.S.-Japan), Notice of Action Taken, OST-2002-11614, September 30, 2002 (same); Denial of Dormancy Waiver to Delta (U.S.-Japan), Notice of Action Taken, OST-2002­11706, September 30, 2002 (same).

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

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Essential Air Service at Scottsbluff, Nebraska / Great Lakes Aviation

At the time of the filing of this notice, Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., operating as Great Lakes Airlines provides service at Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Great Lakes' schedules are operated utilizing its own ZK two letter code and reservation system. The company also provides high quality connections, sold through its United Airlines and Frontier Airlines code-share agreements.

Great Lakes Airlines service at Scottsbluff currently consists of three weekday non-stop round-trips to Denver International Airport, a major connecting hub for United Airlines and Frontier Airlines, in 19-seat Raytheon/Beech 1900D equipment.  Great Lakes Airlines provides the only scheduled passenger air service at Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

Increasing costs and a reduction in passenger revenue in the post September 1 1th environment has caused Great Lakes to incur losses in providing scheduled service at many service points. Given the current economic downturn and a potential war with Iraq, it is unlikely that any significant improvement will occur in the near future.

By: Douglas Voss, 307-432-7000

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Essential Air Service at Riverton, Wyoming / Great Lakes Aviation

At the time of the filing of this notice, Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., operating as Great Lakes Airlines provides service at Riverton, Wyoming. Great Lakes' schedules are operated utilizing its own ZK two letter code and reservation system. The company also provides high quality connections, sold through its United Airlines and Frontier Airlines code-share agreements.

Increasing costs and a reduction in passenger revenue in the post September 11th environment has caused Great Lakes to incur losses in providing scheduled service at many service points. Given the current economic downturn and a potential war with Iraq, it is unlikely that any significant improvement will occur in the near future.

By: Douglas Voss, 307-432-7000

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International Air Transport Association

By: David O'Connor, 202-293-9292

By: David O'Connor, 202-293-9292

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Israir Airlines and Tourism LTD

Exemption from 49 U.S.C. 41301 to conduct charter foreign air transportation of persons and property between Tel Aviv, Israel, and New York, NY; and other charters pursuant to 14 CFR 212 of the Department’s regulations.

By: Paul Gretch 

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Qantas Airways Limited

Beginning March 31, 2003, QANTAS plans to start service on a routing Melbourne-Los Angeles-Chicago. The service will operate three times per week. QANTAS has also announced that it will provide convenient connections to its Chicago passengers who are traveling to Sydney. According to a February 3, 2003, QANTAS press release, these connections for its Chicago-Sydney passengers will be made in Los Angeles to flights QANTAS will operate between Los Angeles and Sydney. In July, QANTAS will start additional Los Angeles-Sydney services via Auckland and will offer its Chicago passengers connections to those flights in Los Angeles.

QANTAS proposes to carry American code-share passengers on the Los Angeles-Chicago sector of its Melbourne-Los Angeles-Chicago flights. While QANTAS has clarified in its supplemental notice that it will not carry local traffic between Los Angeles and Chicago, it has not stated whether it will carry American code-share traffic between Los Angeles and Chicago that connects from other QANTAS or American flights at Los Angeles. Based on the press release noted above, however, it appears that QANTAS does intend to carry such connecting traffic on its Los Angeles-Chicago flights. This would include, for example, American-coded traffic connecting from QANTAS' Sydney-Los Angeles and Auckland-Los Angeles services.

If QANTAS is to be permitted to carry such connecting code-share traffic between two points in the U.S., then United should be able to carry similar code-share traffic between two points in Australia. United operates San Francisco-Sydney and Los Angeles Sydney flights, and the San Francisco flight extends beyond Sydney to Melbourne. United wishes to carry code-share passengers connecting to its Sydney­Melbourne flights from services offered by United's code-share partners to and from Sydney. Therefore, before allowing QANTAS to carry connecting code-share traffic on the Los Angeles-Chicago sector, the Department should confirm that the Australian authorities are willing to permit United to carry connecting code-share passengers on its Sydney-Melbourne sector.

Counsel:  United and Wilmer Cutler, Jeffrey Manley, 202-663-6670, jmanley@wilmer.com

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Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport - Establishment of Slot Proceeding

By letter dated February 14, 2003 counsel for AirTran Airways requested a waiver from the strict 90-day startup condition. Midwest opposes the AirTran request for relief from this standard DOT condition. Midwest, unlike AirTran, is ready willing and able to commence Kansas City-DCA service by April 23, 2003 in full compliance of the 90-day startup requirement and will do so if Midwest is granted two of the four AirTran slots on which it has now defaulted. Rather than deprive the traveling public of additional flight opportunities to DCA, even for a short period of time, the DOT must reject the AirTran request for a waiver and to reassign two of the four slots to Midwest, given its ability to make prompt use of the scarce resource.

The AirTran request is ironic considering the fact that Spirit was stripped of its exemption authority, thereby freeing up four DCA slots for redistribution in this proceeding, because of its inability to meet the deadline for resuming operations. AirTran, like all other applicants for DCA slots, was on clear notice of the time­sensitive nature of the proceeding and the need to commence service within the 90 days permitted to do so. Therefore, it cannot now be heard to plead for more time especially based on the unjustified reasons stated by AirTran in its letter request.

Counsel:  Silverberg Goldman, Robert Silverberg, 202-944-3300

February 14, 2002 Letter from AirTran not released to Public

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Sunrise Airlines, Inc.  d/b/a Flair Airlines

Sunrise Airlines, Inc. hereby moves to withdraw its notice of intent to resume scheduled passenger services without prejudice to the refiling of a new application for commuter air carrier authority at a future date.

Counsel: Pillsbury Winthrop, John E. Gillick, 202-775-9800

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Volga-Dnepr J.S. Cargo Airline

Exemption pursuant to 49 U.S.C. section 40109(g) to permit it to operate two one-way cargo charter flights between Denver, CO, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, February 23-28, 2003, using its AN-124 aircraft, to transport outsized cargo consisting of a Centaur IIAS upper stage launch vehicle, an Atlas booster payload and associated equipment, on behalf of Lockheed Martin Space Systems. The applicant stated that Lockheed Martin required urgent delivery of the equipment in order to complete scheduled mission integration and subsequent launch processing activities in time for a scheduled May launch. It also stated that the cargo is too large for transportation on U.S. carrier aircraft, and that surface transportation was not feasible because of the time involved, the delicate nature and high value of the cargo, and conditions unsuitable to maintaining system integrity compliance.

By: Paul Gretch

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