TAG Aviation (UK) Ltd.

Order 2008-4-21
OST-2008-0008 - Foreign Air Carrier Permit - Europe-US
OST-2005-22829 - Exemption - UK-US Charter Air Transportation

Issued and Served April 14, 2008

Order Renewing and Amending Exemption and To Show Cause

TAG UK has requested that we grant it, in addition to authority currently contained in the U.S.-EU Agreement, authority to conduct transportation authorized by any additional rights made available to European Community carriers in the future. We are granting TAG UK’s request for this authority by exemption (and tentatively granting it by foreign air carrier permit). We are, however, requiring TAG UK, before it commences any new service under this authority, to provide us with evidence that it holds a homeland license for that new service, unless it has already provided such evidence.

With respect to the applicant’s request for exemption authority, we find that grant of this authority, as conditioned, is consistent with the public interest. We also find that the applicant is financially and operationally qualified to perform the services authorized, and that it is substantially owned and effectively controlled by citizens of Member States of the European Union, consistent with the provisions of the U.S.-EU Agreement

The record indicates that TAG UK is owned by TAG Holding, a Swiss company. TAG Holding is partially owned by a company owned by a trust (46.63 percent), with the remaining ownership held by three other companies. The ultimate beneficiaries of the trust include EU citizens, who have an indirect ownership interest in TAG Holding of 39.41 percent. EU citizens also hold 26.47 percent of the three companies that own the remainder of TAG Holding. Thus, 65.88 percent of the ownership of TAG Holding, and of TAG UK, is held by EU citizens

By: Paul Gretch