Order 01-03-17

Order 01-3-17

Midwest Express Airlines, Inc.

Order 01-3-17
OST-00-7189

Issued March 15, 2001
Served March 15, 2001

Order Granting Request

Exemption/Slots - Kansas City, MO- Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport

By Order 2000-7-20, issued July 14, 2000, the Department granted the application of Midwest Express for an exemption to permit it to reassign one DCA slot from the 2100 hour to the 0700 hour in order to permit it to offer daily Kansas City-Washington (DCA) service with Stage 3 MD-80 aircraft. By letter to the Federal Aviation Administration dated September 21, 2000, Midwest Express requested that it be permitted to reassign the 0700 hour slot operation permitted by Order 2000-7-20 from the 0700 hour to the 1000 hour for the period November 1, 2000, through March 31, 2001. By Order 2000-10-27, the Department granted the Midwest Express request.

By a subsequent letter to the Department. dated February 1, 2001, Midwest Express requests that this 1000 slot operation now be permanently reassigned to the 1100 hour. Midwest Express's code-share partner, Air Midwest, serves a number of rural communities with flights into Kansas City that currently arrive in Kansas City after Midwest Express' flight to DCA has already departed. Moving the Kansas City to DCA flight about an hour later will enable these passengers to connect to Midwest Express's nonstop flight to DCA.

We again find that grant of the Midwest Express request meets all five criteria. The only potential criterion that could jeopardize Midwest Express's request is the two operations per hour criterion (number 3, above). The other four criteria are unchanged from when we approved Midwest Express's application by Order 2000-7-20. In this regard we have reviewed our past actions granting exemptions for the reassignment of Reagan National slots pursuant to 49 U.S.C. §41714(d), and we have found that there have been no exemptions granted for the reassignment of slot exemptions during the 1100 hour period.

By: Susan McDermott