Streamlining Regulatory Procedures for Licensing US and Foreign Carriers

Order 2005-12-5
OST-2005-22228

Issued and Served December 9, 2005

Order to Show Cause - Bookmarked

By this order we tentatively find that it is in the public interest to grant to each air carrier in the above-captioned proceeding the blanket route integration certificate attached as Appendix A to this order.

In response to the Notice, we received more than 20 submissions to the Docket from U.S. carriers seeking blanket route integration authority. The applicants of record are listed above, in the caption for this proceeding. For the most part, the carriers requesting such authority urged us to grant it in the broadest possible terms so that it would encompass prospective or future awards of authorities, as well as all currently held authority, and would be valid for an indefinite period or, alternatively, the longest possible duration, as opposed to the five-year term described in the Notice.

Decision:

We have tentatively decided to grant to each applicant of record a blanket route integration certificate covering all of its current and prospective international route authorities. We tentatively find that the award of such authority, with the enhanced operational flexibility and administrative convenience it would accord to the holder, is consistent with the public convenience and necessity. The authority would be subject to standard route integration and certificate conditions, and such other conditions as the Department may establish. The certificate would be awarded for a five-year duration and open to renewal. Consistent with the Notice, we will use a self-executing final order (Appendix B) to issue to each applicant of record an initial five-year blanket route integration certificate of public convenience and necessity in the form attached as Appendix A, assuming no objections and upon completion of the 49 U.S.C. § 41307 Presidential review.

We have considered requests that we issue longer term or even indefinite route integration authority. However, we tentatively find that it would be more reasonable in the circumstances presented to award the authority for an appropriate and suitably limited length of time to give us the opportunity to review our streamlining approach to blanket route integration authority before renewing it. We tentatively regard five years as the appropriate length of time for this purpose.

We note that some applicants of record may have previously submitted applications requesting route integration authority, among other things. To the extent superseded by the action taken here, we will deem those portions of pending applications as moot, as Department action on them would be duplicative and narrower in scope than the blanket route integration authority we intend to issue, and we will deem all such requests to have been dismissed without prejudice.

By: Paul Gretch