OST-98-3671
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OST-98-3671
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare-Sioux City/Branson)
OST-98-3671 | March 25, 1998
Application for an Exemption from the High Density Rule
Application to commence twice-daily nonstop service in the Chicago-Sioux City, Iowa and Chicago-Branson, Missouri markets. AMA will operate these flights using 30-passenger Dornier 328 aircraft, of which it has nine in its fleet. These operations, which AMA plans to inaugurate this summer, will require four daily arrival and four daily departure slots at O'Hare.
Answers are due by April 10, 1998
Counsel: Boros Garofalo, Aaron Goerlich, 202-822-9070
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare)
OST-98-3671 | April 10, 1998
Re: Letter in Support of American Port Services
By: John Harden, VP Business Development
AMA's application for slots under the exemption provision for new entrant Services cannot be granted consistent with the Department's decisional standards for such exemptions. The only new entrant standard that AMA does meet is the definition of a new entrant carrier set forth in the statute as a carrier that does not hold a slot and that has never sold or given up a slot, at the HDR airport where the slot exemption is requested.
Counsel: United and Ginsburg Feldman, Joel Burton, 202-371-9130
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare)
OST-98-3671 | April 21, 1998
Reply of Exec Express II d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air
The reality is that United opposes AMA's application for the same reason it has opposed the O'Hare slot applications of all other non-United Express carriers: United views such exemptions as chipping away at its O'Hare hub dominance, whereby it controls nearly 800 slots. The Department has found that "data on slot holdings and on average fares in individual markets tend to support the view that slot constraints at O'Hare have been a barrier to price-competitive new entry. It is in United's interest to keep O'Hare that way -- and in United's view, if communities like Sioux City and Branson must suffer the consequences, so be it.
Counsel: Boros Garofalo, Aaron Goerlich, 202-822-9070
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare)
OST-98-3671 | April 22, 1998
Motion for Leave to File | Answer
of Springfield-Branson Regional Airport
Springfield does not fear competition. That is not the reason for opposing AMA's request. With limited O'Hare slots available for exemptions, with two carriers already requesting slots for service to SGF, with SGF the preferred airport for serving both Springfield and Branson, with jet service preferred by the public, with it unlikely that O'Hare can viably support service in the Springfield-Branson market by two carriers, Springfield does not believe that awarding the requested Chicago slots to AMA for service to Branson is sound from either a policy or a practical point of view.
Attachment: Resolution of Support that the Name of the Springfield Regional Airport be Changed to the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport, October 1994
By: SH&E, Robert Dunn, 617-225-2800
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare)
OST-98-3671 | May 1, 1998
Motion for Leave to File and Reply of Aspen Mountain Air
AMA notes that SGF has urged the Department to flatly deny AMA's application. Has it escaped SGF's attention that the application also requests slots for O'Hare-Sioux City service, or does Springfield have something against Sioux City? While AMA feels very strongly that slots should be granted for its proposed Branson-ORD service, it is equally adamant that slots should be granted for its proposed Sioux City-ORD service. Apart from the April 10 answer of United Airlines, which in large part has been squelched by Order 98-4-21 (and to which AMA has previously replied), AMA's Sioux City-O'Hare proposal is unopposed.
Counsel: Boros Garofalo, Aaron Goerlich, 202-822-9070
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare)
OST-98-3671 | May 26, 1998
Motion for Leave to File and Amendment to Application
Five ORD slots remain to be allocated, whereas AMA's March 26 application requests eight slots. To the extent the Department is presently unable to allocate more than five ORD slots, AMA is willing to accept five rather than eight slots as originally requested. AMA's intention would be to combine the above five slots with one ORD operation during non slot-controlled hours (9:15 p.m. through 6:44 a.m.) so that AMA could operate three arrivals and departures per day at ORD. AMA would allocate these three daily flights for service to Sioux City, Iowa and Branson, Missouri in accordance with the communities' respective needs, the volume of traffic generated, the respective competitive environments, the economic return to AMA, and other relevant factors.
Counsel: Boros Garofalo, Aaron Goerlich, 202-822-9070
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare)
OST-98-3671 | June 8, 1998
Answer of United Air Lines and Contingent
Motion for Leave to File
There is no public interest justification for the Department to grant applications for new entrant exemption slots at O'Hare that fail even to meet the Department's announced guidelines for granting such exemptions. Aspen Air's application must, therefore, be denied, whether the carrier is seeking five or eight exemption slots.
Counsel: United and Ginsburg Feldman, Joel Burton, 202-637-9130
Exec Express II, Inc. d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air (High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare)
OST-98-3671 | June 12, 1998
Motion for Leave to File and Reply of Aspen Mountain Air
It is truly ironic for United to acknowledge that Sioux City could benefit from receiving nonstop service to O'Hare yet at the same time argue against AMA's receiving an exemption to provide that service. It is as though United doesn't "get" the fact that Congress specifically directed the Department to use exemption authority to improve service with aircraft carrying less than 60 passengers between O'Hare and nonhub airports. United recognizes Sioux City's problem, but proposes no solution. Only AMA is proposing a solution, and the Department should act promptly to enable its implementation.
Counsel: Boros Garofalo, Aaron Goerlich, 202-822-9070
| Order 98-9-24
OST-98-3671 |
Issued and Served September 24, 1998 | Order Granting in Part Petition
for Reconsideration and Deferring Applications for Slot Exemptions at Chicago
O'Hare Airport |
Exemptions from CFR Part 93 |
By this order the Department is amending its action in Order 98-4-21 by increasing from 16 to 18 the number of slot exemptions granted to Simmons Airlines, dlbla American Eagle (American Eagle), at Chicago O'Hare Airport as a means of facilitating the provision of nonstop regional jet services between O'Hare and Duluth, MN, Fayetteville, AR, Montgomery, AL, and Shreveport, LA. Specifically, consistent with the action we took in Order 98-4-21, we are permitting American Eagle to reassign to those markets 18 of the slots it is currently using to perform EAS operations between O'Hare and Bloomington, IL, Champaign, IL, and La Crosse, WI, and, pursuant to our authority under 49 U.S.C. section 41714(a), we will replenish those slots with an equal number of exemptions to assure the continued provision of the Essential Air Service (EAS) operations. Grant of the 18 exemptions is conditioned on their being used solely to provide the specified EAS operations and on American Eagle's implementation of an equal number of scheduled nonstop frequencies with regional jet aircraft between O'Hare and the cities designated above. We will authorize the exemptions for an indefinite period and will thus discontinue the interim (sixmonth) limitation previously imposed on the exemptions in Order 98-4-21. We are deferring action on pending applications for O'Hare slot exemptions by Exec Express II, d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air; the Community of Savannah/Hilton Head; and Atlantic Coast Airlines.
By: Charles Hunnicutt
| Order 99-3-12 OST-98-4604 OST-98-3603 OST-99-5130 OST-98-3671 |
Issued and Served March 16, 1999 |  Order Reserving Slot
Exemptions at Chicago O'Hare Airport |
High Density Rule, Chicago O'Hare Slots |  HTML |
By this order the Department is establishing an experimental allocation of Chicago O'Hare Airport slot exemptions to be deployed by selected communities for the purpose of assisting those communities in acquiring nonstop air service to O'Hare. Specifically, we are reserving a total of three O'Hare slot exemptions each for the communities of Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia/Hilton Head, South Carolina, for the provision of such service. The service must be provided with Stage 3 jet aircraft, and is limited to a 179-day period. We find that this at lion is in the public interest.
By: Charles Hunnicutt
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