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OST-04-17234 - Spirit Airlines - Detroit Cancun
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Spirit Airlines, Inc. OST-04-17234 - Exemption - Detroit-Cancun March 2, 2004 Spirit will use MD-80 aircraft to provide service in the Detroit-Cancun market. The service to be operated by Spirit will not be markedly different in terms of aircraft size or stage length from the Ft. Lauderdale-Cancun service or other services Spirit currently operates. Under the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Air Service Agreement, the United States may designate up to two U.S. carriers to serve each eligible U.S-Mexico city-pair. At present, Northwest Airlines is designated to provide service between Detroit and Cancun, leaving one additional designation available for allocation. Northwest - OST-98-3844 - OST-99-6319 - Order 2000-5-31 - Certificate As Spirit understands, Continental holds authority to hold out codeshare service in the Detroit‑Cancun market by placing its code on services operated by Northwest. Spirit understands that this authority should not affect Spirit's plan to hold out its own direct service in the market. Spirit has been serving the Ft. Lauderdale-Cancun market since December 2003. As such, the Department clearly found Spirit fit, willing and able to provide that service. See Spirit Airlines, Notice of Action Taken Dated July 23, 2003, Docket OST-2003-15306. Counsel: Garfinkle Wang, Anita Monser, 703-294-5890 OST-04-17234 - Exemption - Detroit-Cancun March 18, 2004 Motion of Grand Holdings d/b/a Champion Air for Leave to File Late and Answer | Word As Spirit states in its filing, Page 2 at 5, “Under the terms of the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Air Service Agreement, the United States may designate up to two U.S. carriers to serve each eligible U.S.-Mexico city pair. At present, Northwest Airlines is designated to provide service between Detroit and Cancun, leaving one additional designation available for allocation.” Champion will be submitting a competing application for the remaining one designation available on the Detroit-Cancun city-pair promptly. Given that with Champion Air’s application there will be three mutually exclusive competing applications for one available designation on the Detroit-Cancun city-pair, it is clear the Department has no choice but to conduct a carrier selection proceeding to choose the applicant whose proposal will generate the maximum public benefits, under the principles established by the Supreme Court in Ashbacker Radio Corp. v. the FCC. By: Champion Air, Curt Berchtold, curt.berchtold@championair.com
OST-04-17234 - Exemption - Detroit-Cancun March 30, 2004 Reply of Spirit Airlines and Motion for Leave to File In an ideal world, Spirit would not object to the desire of either Champion or USA 3000 to serve the Detroit-Cancun market. However, given the fact that only one carrier can be designated and licensed to provide this service, the choice should be clear. That choice should be Spirit. The choice of carriers in this case should be clear because Spirit would more fully utilize these scarce traffic rights than would any of the other applicants. DOT previously has sought to maximize the value of limited designation routes by selecting carriers which would make the most of such designations by offering adequate capacity therein. See, US-Mexico All Cargo Exemption Proceeding Order 95-4-34. Just as DOT sought to make the most of a single remaining US-Mexico all-cargo designation in that case by selecting the carrier that would offer superior service and greater capacity than the others, the Department here should award the designation to the carrier that would offer the greatest public benefits use through the award of this scarce resource. Spirit is aware that both Champion Air and USA 3000 have requested DOT to initiate a carrier selection proceeding. While Spirit believes that its proposal to operate a true scheduled service is superior on its face to the competing proposals, and would warrant the issuance of pendente lite authority, Spirit is prepared to participate in any proceeding the Department might establish. Spirit would only ask that this step be taken without undue delay. Counsel: Spirit and Garfinkle Wang, Anita Mosner, 703-294-5890
OST-04-17234 - Exemption - Detroit-Cancun March 30, 2004 Errata to the Reply of Spirit Airlines and Motion for Leave to File Champion is proposing to operate a single weekly frequency on a year-round basis, and three weekly frequencies during the high season. Setting aside the fact that a plan to operate a single frequency should not be viewed as "scheduled" service at all, there is a larger issue as to the link between Champion and Northwest. Northwest should not be permitted to block all competition in the Detroit-Cancun market by holding its own designation, and having its charter carrier alter ego take the sole remaining opportunity by operating a single weekly frequency on the route. Champion over the years has been operating charter service to and from Detroit for MLT/Northwest, and it should continue to do so. Spirit is aware that both Champion Air and USA 3000 have requested DOT to initiate a carrier selection proceeding. While Spirit believes that its proposal to operate a true scheduled service is superior on its face to the competing proposals, and would warrant the issuance of pendente lite authority, Spirit is prepared to participate in any proceeding the Department might establish. Spirit would only ask that this step be taken without undue delay. Counsel: Spirit and Garfinkle Wang, Anita Mosner, 703-294-5890 OST-04-17234 - Exemption - Detroit-Cancun April 5, 2004 Surreply of Champion Air and Motion for Leave to File | Word For the record, Champion Air is not owned by Northwest Airlines. Northwest Airlines did not have any involvement in Champion Air's decision to apply for a designation to operate scheduled service between Detroit, Michigan and Cancun, Mexico (Docket 17405). Furthermore, Champion Air takes exception to Spirit's characterization that Champion Air is Northwest Airlines' "alter ego". Champion Air's decision to file for exemption authority in the Detroit-Cancun market, as well as seven other U.S.-Mexico city-pair markets (Dockets 17407 and 17408), was purely a business decision made by Champion Air. Champion Air has an established interest in Detroit-Cancun service, having operated regular and frequent charter flights in that market for over seven years. The Department should not penalize Champion Air because it has a long standing business relationship with MLT Tours which happens to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines. If the Department is willing to award pendente lite authority during the comparative route proceeding, Champion Air requests such authority since it already is operating charter service in the Detroit-Cancun market and could easily covert those operations to scheduled services. By: Champion Air, Edward Davidson, 952-814-8741, edward.davidson@championair.com 2004 US-Mexico Combination Service Proceeding Order 04-07-17 Issued and Served July 21, 2004 By this order we: (1) institute the 2004 U.S.-Mexico Combination Service Proceeding to select one primary and one backup carrier, to provide foreign air transportation of persons, property, and mail over the following transborder routes: Denver-Cancun, Denver-Puerto Vallarta, Detroit-Cancun, and St. Louis-Cancun; (2) consolidate the already-filed captioned applications into this new proceeding; and (3) direct the applicants to file the requested information, as set forth below.
By: Karan Bhatia OST-04-17234 - Spirit - Detroit-Cancun August 20, 2004 By Motion dated August 18, 2004, United Airlines requested, among other things, that the Department remove Champion as a party to the Denver-Cancun/Puerto Vallarta portion of the US-Mexico 2004 Combination Service Proceeding because of Champion’s failure to file Direct Exhibits in this Proceeding, or otherwise prosecute its pending requests for U.S.-Mexico authority. Spirit Airlines hereby files this Motion to request that, to the extent that the DOT decides to dismiss Champion’s request for Denver-Mexico authority, it should do the same with respect to Champion’s request for Detroit-Cancun authority, as Champion failed to submit Direct Exhibits or otherwise respond to the requests for information required by Order 04-7-17 with regard to that city-pair. Counsel: Garfinkle Wang, Anita Monser, 703-294-5890 OST-04-17470 - Frontier - St. Louis-Cancun August 20, 2004 Answer of USA 3000 to Motions of United and Spirit and Motion of USA 3000 In addition to supporting the dismissal of Champion's applications in the Denver-Cancun, Denver‑Puerto Vallarta, and Detroit‑Cancun portions of this proceeding sought by United and Spirit in their motions, USA 3000 would also urge that Champion's other application in the St. Louis‑Cancun portion of this proceeding be similarly dismissed for the same fundamental reasons advanced by United and Spirit, and to the extent necessary, USA 3000 so moves. Neither USA 3000 nor the other competing applicant for St. LouisCancun transborder city‑pair should be put to the trouble and expense of trying to rebut direct exhibits which do not exist. Counsel: Pierre Murphy, 202-776-3980, pmurphy@lopmurphy.com |
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