OST-97-2481
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OST-97-2481
Aero California S.A. de C.V. (Exemption, Code Sharing with American Airlines)
OST-97-2481 | May 7, 1997
Application
for Exemption Authority
American and Aero California are planning to implement their code share agreement by August 1, 1997, and require several months to arrange for that implementation. Accordingly, they request expedited approval of this Application so that advance marketing and sales of the proposed services can commence as soon as possible and the public can begin to benefit from the enhanced competition that will result from approval of the Application.
Attachments - Code Share Cities | Service List
Answers are due by May 22, 1997
Counsel: Steptoe Johnson, David Coburn, 202-429-8063
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California S.A. de C.V. (Exemption and Statements of Authorization, US-Mexico Codesharing)
OST-97-2477 & 97-2481 & Undocketed | May 22, 1997
Consolidated
Answer of Alaska Airlines
Alaska has one further potential concern about America's pending codeshare agreement - the Los Angeles-Mexico City market. Since the code-share agreement indicates that Mexico City is one of the Mexican behind-the-gateway cities to which American intends to display its code on Aero California's internal Mexican sectors, it is unclear whether American therefore intends to hold out Los Angeles-Mexico City services on a connecting flight, code-share basis. It is also unclear whether the Mexican Government's code-share policy would extend to such connecting flight-"behind-the-gateway" operations. With the well-known history of Alaska's interest in the Los Angeles-Mexico City market, Alaska would strongly object to any entry of American in that market as long as the Mexican Government intends to limit the number of U.S. carriers in the largest and most important U.S. Mexico market.
Counsel: Alaska and Squire Sanders, Marshall Sinick, 202-626-6651
Joint
Consolidated Answer of United Air Lines and Compania Mexicana de
Aviacion
American and Aero California, unlike United/Mexicana, have chosen not to restrict the city pairs in which they propose to code share. The Department will have to address the issue of whether such unlimited, systemwide U.S.-Mexico code shares may be approved consistent with the terms of the U.S./Mexico bilateral air services agreement as well as with the public interest. Implementation of these services may also require bilateral consultations to determine the extent to which such systemwide code sharing will be allowed and under what conditions.
Counsel: Squire Sanders, Robert Papkin, 202-626-6601 for Mexicana | United and Ginsburg Feldman, Joel Burton, 202-637-9130
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California, S.A. de C.V. (Exemptions and Statements of Authorization)
OST-97-2477, 97-2481, Undocketed | June 3, 1997
Joint Reply of American Airlines and Aero
California
Aside from suggested conditions with respect to designation limitations, the American and Aero California applications for code-sharing authority are unopposed. The Department should immediately grant these applications, and should continue to work with the Government of Mexico to achieve a code-sharing designation policy that will increase competition and provide benefits to consumers in the U.S.-Mexico market.
Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647, carl_nelson@amrcorp.com / Steptoe Johnson, David Coburn, 202-429-8063
Aero California S.A. de C.V. and American Airlines, Inc. (Exemption to Code Share / Statements of Authorization)
OST-97-2481, 97-2477, Undocketed | June 12, 1997
Consolidated
Answer of Continental Airlines and Motion for Leave to File
The Los Angeles-Mexico City market demonstrates why a new agreement must be reached. Continental, like Alaska, has had a longstanding interest in serving the Los Angeles-Mexico City market, but it has been precluded from doing so because of the two-designation limitation insisted upon by Mexico in that market. Even with two U.S. carriers and two Mexican carriers serving the market independently, demand clearly has exceeded supply in the Los Angeles-Mexico City market for some time. Instead of four third/fourth freedom carriers serving the Los Angeles-Mexico City market independently, however, two pairs of carriers may soon be code-sharing together in the market. With Delta and AeroMexico already code-sharing in the market and United and Mexicana seeking authority to do so, effective competition demands additional entry in the market even more than it did when each carrier was offering its service entirely independently. In markets where only two carriers from each country can be designated and each of the Mexican carriers seeks to code-share with one of the U.S. carriers, the U.S. should insist upon open designation, or, at a very minimum, two additional designations for U.S. carriers.
Counsel: Continental and Crowell Moring, Bruce Keiner, 202-624-2500
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero Califronia, S.A. de C.V. (Exemption and Statements of Authorization, US-Mexico Codesharing)
OST-97-2477 | OST-97-2481 | Undocketed | June 17, 1997
Apart from the fact -- as we will discuss below -that Continental's pleading is highly improper and in violation of the Department's rules and orderly administrative procedures, there is no basis to delay approval of the proposed American/Aero California code-share pending bilateral negotiations with Mexico. Having approved the Delta/Aeromexico applications, despite the absence of a code-sharing provision in the bilateral agreement, it would not be appropriate for the Department to reject "further" requests, and indeed to do so would confer an unfair competitive advantage on Delta and on its partner Aeromexico, which with its affiliate Mexicana constitutes the dominant flag carrier of Mexico. Continental's interest in seeking a moratorium on new U.S.-Mexico code-shares pending negotiation of an amended bilateral agreement is not based on any principled reason why such a moratorium might be appropriate. Rather, what is plain is that Continental does not have a code-share partner in the U.S.-Mexico market, and thus wants to do what it can to delay or impede the ability of other carriers to offer new and competitive services to the traveling public.
Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647, carl_nelson@amrcorp.com
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California S.A. de C.V. (Exemptions and Statements of Authorization, US-Mexico Codesharing)
OST-97-2477 | OST-97-2481 | Undocketed | June 19, 1997
Response of United
Air Lines and Motion for Leave to File
Any delay of the United/Mexicana code share while the Department resolves issues raised by the American/Aero California application would be particularly unfair in circumstances where Delta and Aeromexico have already been allowed to implement their own code share pursuant to a scope of operations comparable to that proposed by United and Mexicana. United takes no position with respect to whether the American/Aero California issues must be resolved through bilateral negotiations. However, the much narrower United/Mexicana code share raises no issues that have not already been addressed and resolved by the Department in the case of the comparable Delta/Aeromexico code share. No bilateral consultations were required there and none are required here. The Department approved the Delta/Aeromexico code share under principles of comity and reciprocity which have equal applicability to the proposal of United and Mexicana.
Counsel: United and Ginsburg Feldman, Joel Burton, 202-637-9130
Aero California, S.A. de C.V. (Notice of Action Taken)
OST-97-2481 | Posted June 27, 1997
Exemption from 49 USC section 41301 to permit Aero California to conduct scheduled, combination services in certain U.S.-Mexico markets (see Attachment 1 of the application), including the following five markets: 1) Loreto-Albuquerque; 2) Mazatlan-Phoenix; 3) Puerto Vallarta-Dallas/Fort Worth; 4) Puerto Vallarta-Phoenix; and 5) San Jose del Cabo-San Francisco. (On May 7, 1997, Aero California and American Airlines filed an undocketed, joint application for approval of their code-sharing arrangement in certain U.S./Mexican markets, including the above five, and American filed in Docket OST-97-2477 an application for underlying exemption authority to implement the arrangement. These requests are pending.)
By: Paul Gretch / Counsel: David Coburn, 202-249-8063
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California S.A. de C.V. (Exemption and Statements of Authorization, US-Mexico Code Sharing)
OST-97-2477, OST-97-2481, Undocketed | July 1, 1997
Motion for
Leave to File and Response of Delta Air Lines
If the Department decides to consider blanket code-share authority, Delta/Aeromexico and other U.S. carriers with Mexico code-share arrangements have a right to seek comparable blanket authority to provide competing code-share services on a systemwide basis. The Department will need to determine the extent to which multiple blanket U.S.-Mexico code-share services would be consistent with the U.S.-Mexico bilateral agreement and/or would be accepted by the Government of Mexico on an extrabilateral basis. This inquiry will require consultations between the Governments of the United States and Mexico. Delta believes that the public interest strongly supports a liberal code-share regime and a policy that fosters and promotes the expansion of services of all types (direct and code-share) by carriers from both the United States and Mexico. To the extent that bilateral designation limitations restrict the Department's ability to grant blanket code-share authority to multiple U.S. carriers, the Ashbacker doctrine requires that other U.S. carriers have an opportunity to have a comparative evaluation of competing requests for systemwide authority.
Counsel: Delta and Shaw Pittman, Robert Cohn, 202-663-8060
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California S.A. de C.V. (Exemptions and Statements of Authorization, US-Mexico Code-Sharing)
OST-97-2477, OST-97-2481, Undocketed | July 8, 1997
Delta, which already has broad code-sharing authority in the U.S./Mexico market and thus a competitive advantage over Joint Applicants, may be hoping to close the door behind it by suggesting that the American/Aero California application is more complex than is in fact the case. Like the Delta/AeroMexico, and the recently approved United/Mexicana code-share arrangements, the Joint Applicants have simply applied for code-sharing and related exemption authority, nothing more and nothing less. Consistent with Delta's announced support for "a policy that fosters and promotes the expansion of services of all types,'' the Joint Applicants seek authority that embraces more city pairs than either of the other code-sharing carrier partners chose to request. However, the fact that more points are included in the American/Aero California application than Delta or United (and their partner carriers) opted to include in their prior code-share arrangements (1) does not mean that different procedures should be applied by the Department for handling this application than would apply for any other code-share application in this market; (2) does not change the fact that consultations with the Mexican Government on designation and other issues may be appropriate here as would be the case with any code-share application in the U.S./Mexico market; and (3) most certainly does n give rise to Ashbacker rights with respect to hypothetical applications of other carriers for code-sharing that may overlap with the American/Aero California application.
Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647, carl_nelson@amrcorp.com / Steptoe Johnson, David Coburn, 202-429-8063 for Aero California
Aero California, S.A. de C.V. (Notice of Action Taken)
OST-97-2481 | Posted July 10, 1997
Scheduled combination services in certain US-Mexico markets, including Mazatlan-Dallas. In reaching our decision to grant Aero California authority to serve the subject market, we found that the operation is encompassed by the U.S.-Mexico Agreement, and we noted that the Mexican carrier's request for underlying authority to conduct these services is unopposed. We determined that the circumstances of this case warranted duration of authority for one year (which is consistent with our usual policy of granting interim exemption authority). Also, we deferred action on Aero California's request for underlying exemption authority in Docket OST-97-2481 to serve the additional U.S.-Mexico markets.
By: Paul Gretch / Counsel: David Coburn, 202-429-8063
Order 97-7-31 | OST-97-2477 and OST-97-2481 | Undocketed | OST-96-1988 | OST-97-2161 and Undocketed | Undocketed | Issued July 29, 1997 | Served August 4, 1997
Order
Granting (In Part) Exemption and Statements of Authorization and Order to Show Cause
By this order we grant, in part, the captioned applications of American Airlines, Inc. (American), and Aero California S.A. de C.V. (Aero California), for exemption authority and statements of authorization to permit the carriers to engage in certain code-share services in various U.S.-Mexico markets. Additionally, this order proposes certain conditions to be imposed on all U. S.-Mexico code-share arrangements to permit, in certain instances, direct air carrier services to replace code-share services in a given city-pair market.
By: Charles Hunnicutt
OST-97-2477/2481 | Undocketed | OST-96-1988 | OST-97-2161 and Undocketed | Undocketed
Joint Comments of American Airlines and Aero California on
Order 97-7-31
Second, and even more importantly, a conditional grant of the application would unambiguously signal to the Mexican authorities that the Department favors, as the Order 97-7-31 states, the expansion of U.S.-Mexico service options through codeshare arrangements. In this connection, the Joint Applicants believe that the grant of the application subject to the issuance of designations and underlying economic authority could further the bilateral discussions between the U.S. and Mexico on codesharing arrangements and leave no question as to the intent of the Department to allow extensive codesharing services to be offered in the U.S.-Mexico market.
Counsel: Steptoe Johnson, David Coburn, 202-429-8063 | American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California, S.A. de C.V. / United Air Lines, Inc. and Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, S.A. de C.V. / Delta Air Lines, Inc. and Aerovias de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (for exemptions, designations and statements of authorization, US-Mexico code-sharing)
OST-97-2477 | OST-97-2481 | OST-97-1988 | OST-97-2161 | Undocketed | August 19, 1997
United is aware of at least one U.S.-Mexico code share that involves two U.S. carriers. This is the code share operated by Alaska Airlines, Inc., and Northwest Airlines, Inc. (Order 96-12-8) That code share also has an impact on U.S. carrier designations to the extent that Northwest must be designated on certain U.S.-Mexico city pairs in order to hold out service in its own name. It would be unfair to impose the proposed condition only on U.S./Mexican carrier code shares while leaving the U.S./U.S. carrier code shares unconditioned. Indeed, the issue of imposing such a condition was originally raised by United in the context of the Alaska/Northwest code share. See Answer of United, dated May 9, 1996 in Docket OST-96-1332.
In these circumstances, United objects to issuance of a final order based on the tentative findings and conclusions in Order 97-7-31 with respect to the condition on U.S.-Mexico code shares unless the Department is prepared to impose the same condition on all U.S. carrier U.S.-Mexico code shares, including those involving two U.S. carriers. The Department should issue an amended order to show cause proposing to apply that condition to the code share of Alaska and Northwest as well as to any other outstanding and future U.S.-Mexico code shares involving two U.S. carriers.
Counsel: United Air Lines and Ginsburg Feldman, Joel Burton, 202 637 9130
OST-97-2477 | OST-97-2481 | OST-97-1988 | OST-97-2161 | Undocketed | August 25, 1997
Joint Answer of United Air Lines and Mexicana
If the Department decides to grant the relief requested by American and Aero California relating to the deferred portions of their code-share applications, it should grant the same relief to United and Mexicana with respect to the deferred portions of their code-share applications. The benefits recited by American and Aero California to be derived from the conditional grant of their deferred applications apply with equal weight to those of United and Mexicana.
Counsel: United and Ginsburg Feldman, Joel Burton, 202-637-9130 / Squire Sanders, Robert Papkin, 202-626-6601 for Mexicana
American
Airlines, Inc. / AeroCalifornia S.A. de C.V. / United Airlines, Inc. /
Compania
Mexicana de Aviacion, S.A. de C.V. | Delta Airlines, Inc. / Aerovias de Mexico, S.A. de
C.V. (US-Mexico Code-Sharing)
OST-97-2477 | OST-97-2481 | OST-97-1988 | OST-97-2161 | Undocketed | September 4, 1997
Consolidated Reply of Northwest Airlines, Inc.
and Motion for Leave to File
The Department should not authorize code-share operations involving Mexican carriers until all requisite designations and underlying economic authority have been secured. The Department also should continue to limit to 179 days all authorizations of code-share operations involving Mexican carriers. See Order 977-31 (granting United/Mexicana and American/Aero California authority to code-share in certain markets but limiting the effective periods to 179 days; Notice of Action Taken dated September 3, 1997 "limiting to 179 days Aeromexico's authority to code-share with Swissair).
Counsel: Megan Poldy, 202 842 3193
Order 97-9-38 | OST-97-2477 and OST-97-2481 | Undocketed | OST-96-1988 | OST-97-2161 and Undocketed | OST-96-1332 | Undocketed | Issued September 29, 1997 | Served October 3, 1997 | Posted October 2, 1997
Final Order and Order on Reconsideration
By this order we make final our tentative decision in Order 97-7-31, issued July 29, 1997, to condition all existing and future U.S.-Mexico code-share authorities to establish a rebuttable presumption in favor of replacing code-share services with direct air carrier services in a given city-pair market. Further, upon reconsideration, we affirm our decision in Order 97-7-31 to defer action on certain portions of the American/Aero California applications.
It has been our longstanding policy to grant authority only in cases where the route rights are available under the bilateral agreement between the United States and the country involved or where we have assurance from the country involved that it is prepared to approve the proposed operations on an extrabilateral basis. Furthermore, because of the limited-entry nature of the U.S.-Mexico market, along with the dormancy provisions attached to all U.S.-Mexico route authority, we have awarded U. S.-Mexico authority only in markets where carriers have firm plans for service. Consistent with these policies, we granted the applications of American and Aero California only in markets where the authority was available under the U.S.-Mexico aviation agreement and where Aero California held the requisite authority and corresponding Mexican Government designation. No party has presented any persuasive reason to deviate from those polices here.
By: Charles Hunnicutt
American Airlines, Inc. / Aero California, S.A. de C.V. / American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California, S.A. de C.V.- (New Notice of Action Taken)
OST-97-2477 | OST-97-2944 | Filed May 7 and September 30, 1997 | OST-97-2481 | OST-97-2961 | Filed May 7 and October 1, 1997 | Undocketed | Filed May 7 and September 30, 1997 | Action Taken March 20, 1998
Scheduled foreign air transportation of persons, property, and mail between various points in the United States and various points in Mexico, to allow for expansion of the code-share arrangement between American Airlines, Inc. (American), and Aero California S.A. de C.V. (AeroCalifornia).
Applicant Representative: Carl Nelson for American, 202.496.5647 ; David Coburn for Aero California, 202.297.8063
American Airlines, Inc. and Aero California, S.A. de C.V. (Notice of Action Taken)
OST-97-2477 | OST-97-2944 | OST-97-2481 | OST-97-2961 | Undocketed | Filed May 7, 1997, September 30, 1997, October 1, 1997 | Action Taken April 28, 1998
Scheduled foreign air transportation of persons, property, and mail between the terminal point Boston, Massachusetts, and the coterminal points La Paz, Loreto, and Mazatlan, Mexico. Aero California plans to operate the service under a code-share arrangement with American.
Display Aero California's "JR" airline designator code on nights operated by American between Los Angeles and Boston for the carriage of Aero California's Mexico-Boston traffic described above.
Applicant Rep: Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647 for American / David Coburn, 202-429-8063 for Aero California
Order Confirming Notices of Action Taken
Order 98-6-2 | Issued June 2, 1998 | Served June 8, 1998
By: Paul Gretch
Aero California, S.A. de C.V. (Exemption Renewal, Mexico-US Codeshare with American)
OST-97-2481 | June 26, 1998
Application for Renewal of Exemption Authority
Answers are due by July 13, 1998
Counsel: Steptoe Johnson, David Coburn, 202-429-8063
Aero California S.A. de C.V. - (Renew Codesharing with American Airlines, Inc.)
OST-97-2481 | July 10, 1998
Application for Exemption Authority
Aero California renewal of its exemption from 49 U.S.C. § 41301, issued in this Docket, allowing it to conduct scheduled foreign air transportation of persons, property and mail between Mazatlan, Mexico and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas pursuant to a code-share agreement with American Airlines, Inc. (American).
Answers are due by July 27, 1998.
Counsel: Steptoe Johnson, David Coburn and Benjamin Achenbach, 202.429.8063
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