[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1678 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1678

  To amend title 49, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
    Transportation to initiate investigations of unfair methods of 
  competition by major air carriers against new entrant air carriers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 4, 1999

 Mr. Sweeney introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 49, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
    Transportation to initiate investigations of unfair methods of 
  competition by major air carriers against new entrant air carriers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Airline Competition and Fairness Act 
of 1999''.

SEC. 2. UNFAIR METHODS OF COMPETITION AGAINST NEW ENTRANT AIR CARRIERS.

    Section 41712 of title 49, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(a) In General.--'' before ``On the 
        initiative''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) Unfair Methods of Competition Against New Entrant Air 
Carriers.--
            ``(1) In general.--In any case in which a major air carrier 
        is competing with a new entrant air carrier in providing air 
        transportation on a route between a hub airport of the major 
        air carrier and another airport, the Secretary shall initiate 
        an investigation under subsection (a) to determine whether the 
        major air carrier has been or is engaged in an unfair method of 
        competition if the Secretary finds that--
                    ``(A) the major air carrier has added seat capacity 
                on the route and has sold such a large number of seats 
                on the route at very low fares that the ensuing self-
                diversion of revenue has resulted in lower local 
                revenue than would have resulted from a reasonable 
                alternative response by the major air carrier to the 
                competition;
                    ``(B) the number of passengers that the major air 
                carrier has carried on the route at the new entrant air 
                carrier's low fares (or at similar fares that are 
                substantially below the major air carrier's previous 
                fares) has exceeded the new entrant air carrier's total 
                seat capacity on the route, resulting, through self-
                diversion, in lower local revenue than would have 
                resulted from a reasonable alternative response by the 
                major air carrier to the competition; or
                    ``(C) the number of passengers that the major air 
                carrier has carried on the route at the new entrant air 
                carrier's low fares (or at similar fares that are 
                substantially below the major air carrier's previous 
                fares) has exceeded the number of low-fare passengers 
                carried by the new entrant air carrier on the route, 
                resulting, through self-diversion, in lower local 
                revenue than would have resulted from a reasonable 
                alternative response by the major air carrier to the 
                competition.
            ``(2) Exception.--Even if the Secretary makes a finding 
        described in paragraph (1), the Secretary is not required to 
        initiate an investigation in accordance with paragraph (1) if 
        the Secretary also finds that there are strong reasons to 
        believe that the major air carrier's response to competition 
        from the new entrant air carrier does not violate subsection 
        (a).
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section, the following definitions 
apply:
            ``(1) New entrant air carrier.--The term `new entrant air 
        carrier' means an air carrier that has been providing air 
        transportation according to a published schedule for less than 
        10 years and pursues a competitive strategy of charging low 
        fares.
            ``(2) Hub airport.--The term `hub airport' means an airport 
        that each year has at least .25 percent of the total annual 
        boardings in the United States.
            ``(3) Major air carrier.--The term `major air carrier' 
        means a passenger air carrier that is certificated under 
        chapter 411 of this title and included in Carrier Group III 
        under criteria contained in section 04 of part 241 of title 14, 
        Code of Federal Regulations.''.
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