 

	

	        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

	 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

	         OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

	               WASHINGTON, D.C.

In the Matters of

Blanket Route Integration Authority and Blanket Open-Skies Certificate
Authority

Dockets DOT-OST-2005-22228

            DOT-OST-2007-0084

Served: November 28, 2007

NOTICE

Summary

By this Notice we invite U.S. air carriers holding authority to conduct
foreign scheduled air transportation and interested in obtaining blanket
route integration authority and/or blanket open-skies certificate
authority to notify the Department, as specified below, within fourteen
(14) days of the service date of this Notice.  

Background

The Department continues to implement the regulatory streamlining
initiative, announced in an August 2005 notice (Docket
DOT-OST-2005-22228).  Under the streamlining initiative, the Department
previously invited carriers to seek, and in response issued, blanket
route integration certificates and blanket open-skies certificates to
qualifying U.S. air carriers.  

By Order 2006-1-1, we issued a five-year blanket route integration
certificate to each U.S. air carrier that requested the blanket route
integration authority in response to the August 2005 notice.  The
certificate permits the carrier to integrate all of its route authority,
both currently held and prospective (subject to applicable bilateral
agreement provisions and certain standard conditions).   These
certificates enable those U.S. carriers to enjoy greatly enhanced
routing flexibility without the need to seek route integration authority
as part of future exemption or certificate applications.  

Subsequently, a number of other U.S. air carriers have requested blanket
route integration authority and still others have requested route
integration on a case-by-case basis.  Accordingly, since we are
processing those applications, we are inviting other interested U.S. air
carriers that do not currently hold a blanket route integration
certificate to request one in this docket.  The certificate would be
subject to our standard certificate conditions, as well as the standard
conditions we impose on awards of route integration authority.

Under the streamlining initiative, we also awarded certificated U.S. air
carriers blanket open-skies certificates to serve all existing and
prospective U.S. open-skies partners.  The certificate authority was
granted on a prospective basis to allow U.S. air carriers to serve any
future open-skies partner once an agreement between the United States
and that partner is being applied by the two governments, without the
need for further action by the carrier or the Department.    

We are prepared to entertain requests for the blanket open-skies
certificates from additional U.S. carriers currently authorized to
conduct foreign scheduled air transportation.  The decision to grant a
carrier blanket open-skies certificate authority will be done on a
case-by-case basis.  

Applications

In the interest of administrative efficiency, we would like to ensure
that we receive and can proceed to process additional requests for
blanket route integration authority and/or blanket open-skies
certificate authority from interested U.S. air carriers, as specified
below.  

Blanket Route Integration Authority:

We request that any U.S. air carrier interested in obtaining a blanket
route integration certificate notify the Department no later than
December 12, 2007 by letter  submitted  to the U.S. Department of
Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building Ground Floor,
Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, D.C., 20590, in
Docket 

DOT-OST-2005-22228.   

Blanket Open-Skies Certificate:

U.S. air carriers who now wish to apply for blanket open-skies
certificate authority, to conduct either all-cargo or combination
services, should file applications with the Department in Docket
DOT-OST-2007-0084, no later than December 12, 2007.   Answers to the
applications should be filed no later than January 2, 2008.  Replies to
answers should be filed no later than January 16, 2008.  Applications
should conform to Part 302, Subpart B, of our regulations 

(14 CFR Part 302).

We will serve this Notice on certificated U.S. air carriers, the U.S.
Department of State (Office of Aviation Negotiations), and the Federal
Aviation Administration, and hereby authorize service of documents by
facsimile and by electronic mail.

By:

				PAUL L. GRETCH

				Director, Office of International Aviation

 (SEAL)

Dated: 

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

  HYPERLINK "http://www.regulations.gov"  http://www.regulations.gov  

 See Docket DOT-OST-2005-22228.

 Alaska Airlines, Inc. (Docket DOT-OST-2007-27790), Cargo 360, Inc.
(Docket DOT-OST-2006-26419), Custom Air Transport, Inc. (Docket
DOT-OST-2007-27790), and Southern Air, Inc. (Docket DOT-OST-2006-25478)
have already filed applications requesting blanket route integration
authority.  These carriers need not respond to this Notice.

 See Order 2006-1-1.

 We specifically invited applications for such certificates in a notice
that we issued on April 3, 2007, in Docket DOT-OST-2007-27790 and
requested that applications be submitted by April 23, 2007.

 See Order 2007-4-2 (Docket DOT-OST-2000-8516), Order 2007-4-19 (Dockets
DOT-OST-2006-25917 and DOT-OST-2006-26037), Order 2007-4-20 (Docket
DOT-OST-2005-22578), Order 2007-4-27 (Dockets 

DOT-OST-99-6246 and DOT-OST-2007-27790), Order 2007-7-3 (Docket
DOT-OST-2007-27790), 

Order 2007-7-4 (Dockets DOT-OST-2004-19189, DOT-OST-2004-19398,
DOT-OST-2005-22552, 

DOT-OST-2006-25478, DOT-OST-2006-26419, and DOT-OST-2007-27790).

 The Department’s Office of International Aviation maintains a list of
currently applied open-skies aviation agreements between the United
States and its open-skies partners.  The Department will update the list
as open-skies partners are added.

 This would apply to both combination and all-cargo carriers.  

 The letter should be addressed to the Director, Office of International
Aviation, X-40, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC  20590 and
placed in Docket DOT-OST-2005-22228.  We also direct applicants to send
an electronic copy to Esta Rosenberg, Chief of the U.S. Air Carrier
Licensing Division, at   HYPERLINK "mailto:Esta.Rosenberg@dot.gov" 
Esta.Rosenberg@dot.gov .    

 Filers are encouraged to use the electronic submission capability
available through the Federal eRulemaking Portal (  HYPERLINK
"http://www.regulations.gov"  http://www.regulations.gov ) and follow
the online instructions for filing submissions.  In the alternative, all
filings should be on 8-1/2” X 11” white paper using dark ink (not
green), and be unbound without tabs, which will expedite use of our
docket imaging system.  

 Filers are encouraged to use the electronic submission capability
available through the Federal eRulemaking Portal (  HYPERLINK
"http://www.regulations.gov"  http://www.regulations.gov ) and follow
the online instructions for filing submissions.  In the alternative, all
filings should be on 8-1/2” X 11” white paper using dark ink (not
green), and be unbound without tabs, which will expedite use of our
docket imaging system.  

 Please send an electronic copy of all pleadings to Esta Rosenberg,
Chief of the U.S. Air Carrier Licensing Division, at   HYPERLINK
"mailto:Esta.Rosenberg@dot.gov"  Esta.Rosenberg@dot.gov .

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