 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

WASHINGTON, DC

Issued by the Department of Transportation on July 6, 2004

   NOTICE OF ACTION TAKEN -- DOCKET OST-2004-17986

________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________

This serves as notice to the public of the action described below, taken
by the Department official indicated (no additional confirming order
will be issued in this matter).

Joint Application of Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation, Chautauqua
Airlines, Inc., Mesa Airlines, Inc., Republic Airline, Inc., Shuttle
America Corp., SkyWest Airlines, Inc., Trans States Airlines, Inc.
(Joint Applicants) filed 5/28/2004 for:

XX  Statement of Authorization pursuant to 14 CFR Part 212 , on an
interim basis, to:

for a 90-day period, enable the Joint Applicants to carry the codes of
certain foreign carriers (described below) on services that Joint
Applicants operate as United Express, pending finalization and
Departmental review of relevant contractual agreements.  The Joint
Applicants state that such Statement of Authorization will facilitate
continuity of code-share services offered by certain foreign carriers,
all of which are members of the Star Alliance and code-share partners of
United Air Lines, Inc., on United Express flights heretofore operated
between U.S. points by Atlantic Coast Airlines, Inc. (ACA)  Each of the
Joint Applicants requests authorization to display the two-letter
designator code of any of the foregoing foreign carrier partners on
flights operated by that Joint Applicant as United Express between any
points in the United States.  The Joint Applicants notify the Department
that they intend to code share between Chicago (ORD) and/or Washington,
DC (IAD), on the one hand, and other U.S. points, on the other, as
listed in Attachment A, as initial points of service.

The Joint Applicants state that over the forthcoming weeks, ACA is due
to terminate all of its services as a United Express carrier.  United
has entered into agreements with each of the Joint Applicants to operate
those flights in place of ACA, with such transition process scheduled to
be completed by August 5, 2004.  They further state that the foreign
carrier partners (with few exceptions) do not have pre-existing
code-share relationships with any of the Joint Applicants and therefore
additional authorization is required to enable them to continue to
display their designator codes on established United Express routes
currently operated by ACA.  The Joint Applicants thus request a limited
statement of authorization for an initial 90-day period, pending the
award of similar authority of indefinite duration following the
Department’s review of the above-referenced code-share arrangements
that will be submitted to the Department. 

They further state that prior to the expiration of the 90-day period,
the Joint Applicants expect to file with the Department of
Transportation in the above-captioned docket definitive code-share
agreements with the foreign partners, along with a request that the
Department, subject to its review of those agreements and consistent
with DOT policy, grant a statement or statements of authorization of
indefinite duration, subject to usual conditions the Department
generally attaches to such code-share authority.  The Joint Applicants
state that approval of this application will facilitate continuity of
existing code-share services for passengers and will help minimize the
regulatory burdens on the Department arising from the operational
change-over of United Express services from ACA to the Joint Applicants.
 

No objections were received to the joint application.

Applicant rep:  Jeffrey A. Manley (202) 663-6670  DOT Analyst:  Linda
Senese (202) 366-2367

D I S P O S I T I O N

XX  Granted, (subject to conditions, see below)

The above action was effective when taken:  July 6, 2004 through October
4, 2004.

Action taken by:   Karan A. Bhatia	

		    Assistant Secretary for Aviation

		        and International Affairs	

Conditions:  The limited Statement of Authorization granted above is
subject to the following conditions:

The interim statements of authorization are effective only for a period
of 90 days.  Within that 90 days each of the Joint Applicants must
submit, for Department approval, an acceptable signed code-share
agreement with each of the foreign partner carriers with which each of
the Joint Applicants intends to conduct code-share operations within the
United States.  

The Joint Applicants and/or foreign carrier partners must notify the
Department no later than 30 days before they begin any new code-share
service under the code-share services authorized here.  Such notice
shall identify the market(s) to be served, which carrier will be
operating the aircraft in the code-share market added, and the date on
which the service will begin.  (Such notices shall be filed in Docket
OST-2004-17986.)

Once a code-share agreement has been submitted and approved by the
Department, the Joint Applicants/foreign carrier partners must agree to
promptly notify the Department (Office of International Aviation) if the
code-share agreement providing for the code-share operations is no
longer effective or the carriers decide to cease operating any or all of
the approved code-share services. Such condition is applicable to each
of the code-share arrangements identified in the joint application. 
(Such notice should be filed in Docket OST-2004-17986.)

The code-sharing operations conducted under this authority must comply
with Part 257 and with any amendments to the Department’s regulations
concerning code-share arrangements that may be adopted.  Notwithstanding
any provisions in the contract between the carriers, our approval here
is expressly conditioned upon the requirements that the subject foreign
air transportation be sold in the name of the carrier holding out such
service in computer reservation systems and elsewhere; that the carrier
selling such transportation (i.e., the carrier shown on the ticket)
accept responsibility for the entirety of the code share journey for all
obligations established in its contract of carriage with the passenger;
and that the passenger liability of the operating carrier be unaffected.

The authority granted here is specifically conditioned so that neither
the Joint Applicants nor the foreign carrier partners shall give any
force or effect to any contractual provisions between themselves that
are contrary to these conditions.

We may amend, modify, or revoke this authority at any time without
hearing.

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

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

										Attachment A

US POINTS SERVED BY UNITED EXPRESS FROM

CHICAGO O’HARE AND/OR WASHINGTON DULLES

Between Washington Dulles and Chicago O’Hare and:

Akron/Canton, OH				Lexington, KY

Albany, NY					Lincoln, NE

Allentown/Bethlehem, PA			Louisville, KY

Appleton, WI					Madison, WI

Atlanta, GA					Manchester, NH

Austin, TX					Memphis, TN

Binghamton, NY				Milwaukee, WI

Birmingham, AL				Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN

Bloomington, IL					Moline, IL

Boston, MA					Nashville, TN

Buffalo, NY					New Orleans, LA

Burlington, VT					New York, NY (JFK)

Cedar Rapids, IA				New York, NY (LGA)

Central Wisconsin (Wausau), WI			Newark, NJ

Charleston, SC					Norfolk, VA

Charleston, WV					Oklahoma City, OK

Charlotte, NC					Peoria, IL

Charlottesville, VA				Philadelphia, PA

Cincinnati, OH					Pittsburgh, PA

Cleveland, OH					Portland, ME

Colorado Springs, CO				Providence, RI

Columbia, SC					Raleigh/Durham, NC

Columbus, OH					Richmond, VA

Dayton, OH					Roanoke, VA

Des Moines, IA					Rochester, NY

Detroit, MI					Saginaw, MI

Fargo, ND					Savannah, GA

Fort Wayne, IN					Sioux Falls, SD

Grand Radids, MI				South Bend, IN

Green Bay, WI					Springfield, IL

Greensboro, NC					Springfield, MO

Greenville/Spartanburg, SC			State College, PA

Harrisburg, PA					St. Louis, MO

Hartford, CT					Syracuse, NY

Indianapolis, IN					Traverse City, MI

Jacksonville, FL					Tulsa, OK

Kalamazoo, MI					White Plains, NY

Kansas City, MO				Wichita, KS

Knoxville, TN					Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA

Lansing, MI

 The foreign carriers named are: Air Canada, All Nippon Airways Co.
Ltd., Austrian Airlines, Österreichische Luftverkehrs AG, British
Midland Airways Limited, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and Scandinavian
Airlines System (collectively, the “foreign carrier partners”).

 The Joint Applicants state if any of the Joint Applicants plan to
introduce code-share service in conjunction with any of the foreign
carrier partners in other city pairs not listed in the attachment, they
will notify the Department in advance in writing.  The Joint Applicants
give notice of their intent to display the designator codes of the
foreign carrier partners in conjunction with flights the Joint
Applicants will operate as United Express.  They state that “[F]or
purposes of satisfying the Department’s standard requirement that
carriers provide advance notice of any new city pair in which the
designator code of a foreign carrier will be displayed, the Joint
Applicants request that such notice given by any of the Joint Applicants
with respect to code sharing by any of the foreign carrier partners be
deemed notice given by each of the other Joint Applicants.  Such an
approach, which will minimize the administrative burden on the
Department and the Joint Applicants, [they maintain] is necessary to
accommodate routine United Express schedule and other operational
changes.” (Application at 4, fn 5)

 Exceptions cited are Department Action on Application of
SkyWest/Lufthansa, OST-03-16724 dated January 6, 2004; Department action
on application of Air Wisconsin/Air Canada, OST-02-12050, dated April
16, 2002; and pending application of SkyWest, dated May 21, 2004 in
Docket OST-04-17955 (SkyWest/Air Canada).

 In the circumstances presented, we will be prepared to entertain
requests for waivers from the 30-day advance filing period for these
notices.

 We expect this notification to be received within ten (10) days after
such non-effectiveness or of such decision.

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