OST-98-4184 / American International / US-Brazil / Answer of Challenge Air Cargo / August 3, 1998

 

Application of

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS INC. / Docket OST-98-4184

for an exemption pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 40109 (U.S.-Brazil)

 

ANSWER OF

CHALLENGE AIR CARGO, INC.

 

Challenge Air Cargo, Inc. ("Challenge") submits this answer to the application of American International Airways. Inc. ("AIA") for additional scheduled all-cargo frequencies in the U.S.-Brazil market. /1 In support of this answer, Challenge respectfully states as follows:

Under the terms of its original application. AIA requested 2.0 wide-body frequencies in the U.S.-Brazil market. Since there currently are only 3.5 wide-body scheduled all-cargo frequencies available for allocation by the Department in the U.S.-Brazil market. AIA's application would have conflicted with the application for an additional 2.5 wide-body frequencies (he.. 5.0 narrow-body equivalents) that Challenge originally had planned to file today. However. in order to eliminate the need for the Department to institute a comparative

1/ Challenge heretofore has advised the Department that it did not object to the granting of AIA's application for a waiver of the 90-day dormancy requirement so that AIA could retain two of the wide-body frequencies that previously were allocated to it. That portion of AIA's application was approved by the Department on July 29, 1998.

 

ANSWER OF CHALLENGE AIR CARGO, INC.

Page 2

 

selection proceeding to resolve the conflict. Challenge and AIA have decided to scale-back the scope of their respective service proposals. To that end, Challenge today is filing an application for 2.0 wide-body frequencies (i.e. 4.0 narrow-body equivalents) and understands that AIA similarly will be reducing the scope of its pending application from 2.0 wide-body frequencies to 1.5. Therefore, consistent with the foregoing, Challenge has no objection to the granting of AIA's scaled-back application so long as the Department simultaneously grants the application which Challenge is filing today for an additional 2.0 weekly wide-body frequencies (i.e., 4.0 narrow-body equivalents) in the U.S.-Brazil market.

WHEREFORE, for the foregoing reasons, Challenge Air Cargo, Inc. respectfully urges the Department (i) to grant the pending application of AIA an additional 1.5 weekly wide-body scheduled all-cargo frequencies in the U.S.-Brazil market and (ii) to grant the pending application of Challenge an additional 2.0 weekly wide-body scheduled all-cargo frequencies in the U.S.-Brazil market.

 

Respectfully submitted,

ZUCKERT, SCOUTT & RASENBERGER, L.L.P.

William H. Callaway, Jr.

Lonnie Anne Pera

Counsel for Challenge Air Cargo, Inc.

Dated: August 3. 1998