For several reasons, Chicago strongly urges the Department to grant expeditiously the slot exemptions requested in these eight applications for the purpose of initiating or continuing air service at O’Hare. First, grant of these exemptions is in the public interest, providing both inter- and intra-gateway competition, while benefiting the traveling and shipping public. Chicago conservatively estimates the collective economic benefit of this international air service to be over $964 million for the Chicago region in terms of increased jobs, trade, and tourism. Second, unlike the only occasion in which the Department turned down a foreign air carrier application for a slot exemption at O’Hare, each of the carriers in the instant proceedings except Czech Airlines filed a timely request for slots with the FAA. And, in the case of Czech Airlines, it filed a late application with the FAA only because it was unable to finalize plans to obtain the necessary equipment to serve the flight.

We will grant SAS an exemption to enable it to perform one daily late afternoon Copenhagen-Chicago scheduled flight arrival at O’Hare during the l999 summer season; and we will also grant Lufthansa an exemption to enable it to perform one daily Frankfurt-Chicago scheduled flight arrival at O’Hare during the l999 summer season. We find that grant of these exemptions is consistent with the public interest.