US Certified Air Carriers and Presidential Campaign Organizations

Order 2007-2-5

Issued February 5, 2007 | Served February 8, 2007

Order Granting Waivers

During previous Presidential Election Campaigns, many campaign organizations desired to charter aircraft from commercial airlines. In response to this demand, the Department (and prior to 1985 the Civil Aeronautics Board) granted U.S. certificated carriers waivers from the provisions of 14 CFR Part 212 of the Aviation Economic Regulations to permit them to charter aircraft to the campaign organizations. (See Order 2003-8-22) Waivers were necessary because the charters (on behalf of the campaign organizations) did not meet the regulations governing single entity charters. Specifically, for a charter group to qualify as a single entity, the participants are not permitted to pay either directly or indirectly for the air transportation. However, the campaign organizations wanted to allow Secret Service and news media personnel to travel on the flights and reimburse the campaign organizations for their travel. We found this practice reasonable and therefore granted appropriate waivers from the single entity rules.

In order to avoid the burden of handling numerous similar requests for the 2008 campaign on a case-by-case basis, we find again that it would be in the public interest to grant all U.S. certificated carriers a blanket waiver of the provisions of Part 212 of the Economic Regulations, specifically section 212.4, to provide charter service on behalf of the 2008 Presidential Election Campaign Organizations. We will also grant similar waivers to the campaign organizations to the extent that the charters they arrange do not conform to the single entity rules.

By: Paul Gretch