Posted: 11/13/02

3:10 p.m.

	           UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

      DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

             OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

                  WASHINGTON, D.C.

_______________________________

In the Matter of

Requests for Interim Authority for U.S.-Hong Kong Fifth-Freedom 

All-Cargo Frequencies

Dockets OST-2002-13737, 2002-13795, 2002-13804, 2002-13816

________________________________

						Served:  November 13, 2002

Notice Establishing Common Answer and Reply Dates

Under the October 19, 2002, Memorandum of Understanding between the
United States and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the
People’s Republic of China (Hong Kong), U.S. carriers may, among other
things, provide a frequency-limited number of additional fifth-freedom
services.  By Notice served October 29, 2002, the Department solicited
applications and requests for all of the new U.S. carrier rights set
forth in the MOU that are frequency-limited, with the exception of those
all-cargo frequencies that do not become available until the third year
of the phase-in.  These applications were to be filed by November 5,
2002.  Eight U.S. carriers filed for all-cargo fifth-freedom
frequencies.  The Department is in the process of establishing
procedures for those applications and will issue an order on such
procedures in the near future. 

In addition to the requested applications, four U.S. carriers (Federal
Express, Northwest, Polar, and United Parcel Service) have filed
separate applications for immediate, interim allocation of the available
frequencies, and each seeks a different shortened answer period for
responses to the respective applications.  Under the Department’s
regulations, the normal answer period for frequency requests is fifteen
days after filing of an application, with replies due seven days after
the last day for filing an answer.   In order to facilitate our
consideration of these applications in an expeditious fashion, we have
decided to establish a common date for the filing of answers and for the
filing of replies for the four applications seeking interim authority. 
Therefore, acting under authority assigned in 14 CFR 385.3, we will
require that answers to the applications filed in the above-captioned
Dockets be filed no later than Monday, November 18, 2002, and that
replies be filed no later than Wednesday, November 20, 2002.  While
these dates will shorten the answer period for three applications and
the reply period for all applications, we believe that the public
interest will best be served by establishing the common dates and will
eliminate any confusion as to filing dates for these related
applications.

 

We authorize service of documents by facsimile and by electronic mail. 
We will serve this notice by facsimile or email on all parties served
with the four requests for immediate interim frequencies. 

By:

						PAUL L. GRETCH

			Director, Office of International Aviation

(SEAL)

Dated:  November 13, 2002

An electronic version of this notice is available on the World Wide Web
at 

  HYPERLINK "http://dms.dot.gov//reports/reports_aviation.asp" 
http://dms.dot.gov//reports/reports_aviation.asp 

 Federal Express, Docket OST-2002-13737, filed November 1, 2002;
Northwest, Docket OST-13804, filed November 7, 2002; Polar Air Cargo,
Docket OST-13795, filed November 7, 2002; and UPS, filed November 12,
2002.

 14 CFR 302.307 and 14 CFR 302.308.

