Delta Air Lines, Inc.

OST-04-17082 - Precautionary Ninety Day Notice of Conclusion of Seasonal Service

February 10, 2004

Precautionary Ninety Day Notice of Conclusion of Seasonal Service

Gives notice on a precautionary basis of the conclusion of all of its 2003-2004 winter seasonal service at the following points after the dates indicated:

• Aspen/Eagle/Vail, Colorado April 4, 2004
• Steamboat Springs/Hayden/Craig, Colorado April 4, 2004
• Jackson Hole, Wyoming April 4, 2004
• Indio/Palm Springs, California May 31, 2004

Although neither Delta nor other airlines have previously filed such notices with respect to the conclusion of seasonal services, in light of the Department's Order 2003-9-21 Delta is filing this notice to advise the Department of the dates on which its seasonal service is scheduled to end.

Counsel: Delta, W. Paul Zampol, 404-715-2779

OST-04-17082 - Precautionary Ninety Day Notice of Consclusion of Seasonal Service

March 1, 2004

Anwer of Continental Airlines

Continental urges the Department to dismiss Delta's precautionary notice and establish firmly that suspension notices are not required with respect to seasonal services. Like Delta, Continental will be terminating its services at Aspen/Eagle/Vail and Steamboat Springs/Hayden/Craig at the end of the winter ski season as Continental, Delta and other carriers have done for years without submitting notices.

To avoid the problem experienced in Greenbrier/White Sulphur Springs/Lewisburg (Order 2003-9-21), the Department should require carriers terminating year-round service at a point to eliminate seasonal services from their calculations in determining whether a notice is actually required; to indicate which, if any, of the services at the relevant point are seasonal if a notice is required; and to exclude seasonal flights from information provided to the Department on flights remaining at the point after the notifying carrier's termination

Counsel: Continental and Crowell & Moring, Bruce Keiner, 202-624-2615

Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Order 04-04-12
OST-04-17082 - Precautionary Ninety Day Notice of Conclusion of Seasonal Service

Issued April 19, 2004

Order Dismissing Notice | Word

After careful consideration of Delta’s notice and Continental’s answer, we have decided to dismiss Delta’s notice as unnecessary. We agree that the very concept of seasonal service presupposes a suspension of that service at the end of a period of seasonally higher demand. In fact, the concept is apparently so well understood and widely accepted that we are unaware of any community complaints about the suspension of such services without formal notice since the essential air service program’s inception in 1978.

Delta’s concern that requiring a seasonal carrier to file notice at the end of a season puts the carrier at risk of being held in beyond its seasonal service is unfounded, since the Department will not hold a seasonal carrier in to perform year-round essential air service. We will not hold in a carrier even for seasonal service except in the rare instances where essential air service communities have been guaranteed seasonal-only service, in which instances we will require seasonal service until a replacement carrier is found.

We agree with Continental that a carrier offering year-round service should not count seasonal services when determining whether it needs to file notice at a community where it intends to suspend service. However, we do not agree that such a carrier should exclude seasonal services in its description of remaining services at the community. Rather, seasonal services should be included and identified as such, thus affording the Department a full picture of scheduled services available at the community and facilitating our review of the effect that the carrier’s suspension of service would have on the community

By: Karan Bhatia