UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

WASHINGTON, D.C.  





ESTABLISHMENT OF SLOT EXEMPTION PROCEEDING 

PURSUANT TO 49 U.S.C. § 41718(a) 

Docket OST-2000-7181

NOTICE  

On July 5, 2000, pursuant to the provisions of the Wendell H. Ford
Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21), the
Department issued Order 2000-7-1, which granted a total of 12 slot
exemptions at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) for
services outside the 1,250 mile perimeter to the following carriers:
America West Airlines, Inc., Frontier Airlines, Inc., National Airlines,
and Trans World Airlines, Inc.  

Under the provisions of that order, National was granted two slot
exemptions to provide one nonstop round trip a day to Las Vegas.  

In order to optimize utilization of valuable slots and slot exemptions,
the Federal Aviation Administration has a use-it-or-lose-it requirement
in which slots or slot exemptions that are not being utilized at least
80% of the time in a two-month period are automatically returned to the
FAA for lack of use.  In the aftermath of September 11, the FAA
suspended this use-it-or-lose-it requirement in order to give all
carriers time to recover without losing slots or slot exemptions.  The
current suspension of the use-it-or-lose-it requirement expires on
October 27.  

On September 3, 2002, by letter to the Department, National Airlines,
among other things, requested a six-month extension of the FAA
suspension of the use-it-or-lose-it requirement at DCA.  By letter dated
September 27, the FAA denied National’s request and stated the
Department would institute a proceeding to reallocate the two slot
exemptions unless National provided assurance that it would institute
DCA service in a timely fashion so as to comply with the FAA’s
use-it-or-lose-it requirement.  In a September 30 response, National
indicated that it could not provide that assurance.  These letters have
been placed in Docket OST-2000-7181.  

This notice begins a formal proceeding to select a replacement carrier
for these exemptions.  

In anticipation that the Department would move to select a replacement
carrier, several air carriers have already filed applications for the
exemptions, and other air carriers have indicated an interest in
requesting the available slot exemptions at the appropriate time.  

Given these developments, the Department will now consider, using the
criteria set forth in 49 U.S.C. § 41718(a), applications from air
carriers for the two slot exemptions, to provide nonstop service to DCA
from airports beyond the 1,250 mile perimeter.  The statutory criteria
include that the granted exemptions will (1) provide air transportation
with domestic network benefits beyond the 1,250 mile perimeter; (2)
increase competition by new entrant air carriers or in multiple markets;
(3) not reduce travel options for communities served by small hubs
airports and medium hub airports within the 1,250 mile perimeter; and
(4) not result in meaningful travel delays.  

Completed applications must be submitted by October 17, and comments
with respect to any timely filed request for slot exemptions must be
filed by October 31.  The applications from the carriers that have
applied prior to this notice will be considered and need not be
resubmitted; however, such carriers may update or supplement their
applications within the prescribed time period.  

As a final matter, we note that National’s currently allocated slot
times for its nonstop DCA-Las Vegas service are in the 0800 and
2000-hour periods.  Since 49 U.S.C. § 41718(c)(2) does not allow us to
assign more than two slot exemptions per one hour period, and most one
hour periods were fully subscribed by the Department’s Notice dated
August 2, 2000, we may not be able to accommodate carrier requests for
alternative slot exemption times.  

We shall serve a copy of this notice on all certificated air carriers,
the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and the Federal Aviation
Administration’s Slot Administration office.  

By:

READ C. VAN de WATER 

Assistant Secretary for Aviation

and International Affairs

Dated:  October 9, 2002

(SEAL)

An electronic version of this document will be available on the World
Wide Web at:

http://dms.dot.gov/



 By Order 2001-6-20, issued June 22, 2001, the Department reallocated
two slot exemptions originally awarded to Trans World Airlines to Alaska
Airlines, Inc., for service between DCA and Seattle.  

 Applications have been received from American Airlines, Inc., America
West Airlines, Inc., Delta Air Lines, Inc., Frontier Airlines, Inc.,
United Air Lines, Inc., and US Airways, Inc.  Frontier has also
requested pendente lite authority to operate an additional DCA-Denver
flight until a final decision is made regarding the two National slot
exemptions.  We intend to process this case expeditiously and, thus, we
will not make a temporary award as Frontier has requested.  

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Posted: 10/9/2002

10:50am		Served:  October 15, 2002

              

