	                 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

        DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

               OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

                        WASHINGTON, D.C.

							Served:  August 4, 2003

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In the Matter of

Application for Approval of Agreement by the 

International Air Transport Association

Docket OST-2003-14480

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NOTICE  

On February 7, 2003, the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
filed an agreement in the above-captioned docket for approval.  On
February 26, 2003, in response to a request from the High-Tech Air
Freight Shippers Coalition (the Coalition) for a 90-day extension of the
normal 21-day comment period, we extended the comment period to May 29,
2003.  Numerous comments were received on the record by May 29.

On June 9, 2003, IATA submitted a request for approximately 30 days in
which to respond to the comments.1/ On June 24, we granted IATA’s
request, and it filed responsive comments on July 9.

On July 15, the Coalition filed a request for a 30-day period to reply
to IATA’s responsive comments.  In support of its request, the
Coalition states that IATA presented new information and a variety of
additional argumentation in its July 9 filing, and that parties should
have an opportunity to respond.

On July 21, IATA stated that it will not object to the Coalition’s
request.  However, IATA also wished to make it clear that IATA’s
member carriers support the application filed in February and want the
Department to act favorably on the application as soon as possible after
the ad hoc procedures that apply to this matter are completed.

We believe that the same reasons that warranted a 90-day extension of
the initial comment period, and a 30-day period for IATA to file
responsive comments, apply equally to the Coalition’s request. 
Permitting the Coalition and other parties to file replies to IATA’s
responsive comments by August 15 will assist in developing an adequate
record for decision, and will not appreciably delay our review process.

_______________________

1/ Since Subpart E of Part 303, which establishes procedures for the
review of inter-carrier agreements, does not specifically provide for
responses to comments, we have treated these requests for successive
rounds of comments as motions to file otherwise unauthorized documents
under Part 302.6.

Therefore, acting under authority assigned to the Director, Office of
International Aviation, 14

CFR 385, we establish a date of August 15, 2003, for the filing of
replies to IATA’s response to comments previously received on the
agreement in the above-captioned docket. 

We will serve this notice on all interested parties who have filed
pleadings in the docket and served  IATA .

 

By:

PAUL L. GRETCH

Director

Office of International Aviation

(SEAL)

Dated:  July 30, 2003 

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

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

Posted: July 30, 2003

4:00 pm

