US-Colombia

Order 2007-12-21
OST-2007-0006

Issued and Served December 21, 2007

Order on Reconsideration

By this order we grant the petition of American Airlines, Inc. for reconsideration of Order 2007-11-23 in the above-captioned proceeding. On reconsideration, we deny the relief requested.

We are not persuaded by American’s claims that reexamination of the allocation of its seven frequencies in this proceeding is arbitrary and capricious, or that we have violated its due process rights. In our previous actions permitting American to retain its frequencies noted above, we explicitly put American on notice that we would reexamine the matter if it did not use its frequencies as proposed. Subsequent to that notice, American changed its proposed use of the frequencies. With regard to American’s due process rights, we note that, contrary to the assertions in American’s petition, we have not taken any frequencies away from American. All seven frequencies remain available for American’s use, subject to the outcome of this proceeding in which American can participate fully. American will have the opportunity to seek to demonstrate on a record the public interest benefits of its alternative use of these frequencies in the Miami-Bogota and Miami-Medellin markets, and to assert that the public interest favors its retention of the frequencies. Under these circumstances, we see no persuasive basis to remove from this proceeding our consideration of the seven frequencies that American had previously proposed for solely Miami-Barranquilla service.

By: Andrew Steinberg