Order 00-7-20

Midwest Express Airlines, Inc.

We noted in Order 94-9-49, and more recently affirmed in Order 99-11-4, /3 that our authority to grant exemptions for slot slides at Reagan National is applicable only in limited circumstances to meet the specific needs of carriers holding a limited number of slots at that airport. Midwest Express currently holds or operates sixteen Reagan National slots and has demonstrated a need for nonstop Washington-Kansas City service that it will implement through the slot slide authorized here. The exemption will enable Midwest Express to operate nonstop service between Reagan National and Kansas City and thus meet the increasing demand in that market. The applicability of our slot exemption authority is appropriate under the exceptional circumstances Midwest Express has presented.

With regard to the issue set forth by Vanguard Airlines, on July 5 the Department issued Order 2000-7-2 granting 12 slot exemptions for within-perimeter service at Reagan National under a separate statute contained in the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21). Since that case is now concluded, and Vanguard is no longer an applicant for slot exemptions at Reagan National, its opposition to the request of Midwest Express to slide a slot to an alternative time, to the extent that such a slide would jeopardize Vanguard's application for slot exemptions, is moot.

By:  Bradley Mims

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