Under the Air Transport Agreement between the United States and Ecuador, U.S. all-cargo carriers may operate a maximum of 15 round-trip all-cargo frequencies per week over the routes specified in the annex of the agreement, using narrow-body aircraft or their wide-body equivalent.. Frequency allocations for U.S. carriers are as follows (based on narrow-body aircraft): Challenge, 7; Arrow Air, 3; Fine Airlines, 2; and Kitty Hawk International, 3. In a submission in Docket OST-2000-7343, Kitty Hawk states that it "has recently ceased active operations and has filed for protection pursuant to Chapter I I of the United States Bankruptcy code," has no intention of reentering the Ecuador market and does not object to reallocation of its frequencies to another carrier. (May 23, 2000 Answer of Kitty Hawk International)

Three U.S. carriers--Evergreen International Airlines, Atlas Air, Inc., and Gemini Air Cargo-have filed applications with the Department for reallocation of Kitty Hawk's frequencies. In addition, Amerijet International has indicated that it is interested in the Ecuador market. (See answer of Amerijet in Docket OST-2000-7343.) The Department has also received several informal inquiries from other carriers indicating interest in serving this market. It is our desire to enable interested carriers to use these opportunities as soon as possible. Before we decide how to award the available opportunities, to ensure that we have applications from all interested carriers, we request that all other U.S. carriers interested in making use of the available frequencies file applications as specified below with the Department no later than June 22, 2000. Answers to applications should be filed no later than June 27, 2000. Replies to answers should be filed no later than June 30, 2000.