[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 217 (Thursday, November 10, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 68388]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-22451]



[[Page 68388]]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

14 CFR Part 389

[Docket No. OST-99-5003]
RIN 2105-AC47


Withdrawal of Proposed Rulemaking Action; Fees and Charges for 
Special Services

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT.

ACTION: Withdrawal of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: This document withdraws an Office of the Secretary (OST) 
notice of proposed rulemaking that proposed to update the fees and 
charges paid by recipients of certain aviation licensing and related 
services provided by the Department. The proposal was predicated on 
specific labor and overhead cost studies and data that, with the 
passage of time and organizational changes within OST, have been 
rendered stale, greatly reducing their utility as bases for cost-based 
fees and charges.

ADDRESSES: You may obtain a copy of this document from the DOT public 
docket through the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov, docket number OST-
99-5003. If you do not have access to the Internet, you may obtain a 
copy of the notice by United States mail from the Docket Management 
System, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh 
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. You must identify docket number OST-
99-5003 and request a copy of the document entitled ``Withdrawal of 
Proposed Rulemaking.''
    You may also review the public docket in person in the Docket 
office between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal 
holidays. The Docket office is on the plaza level of the Department of 
Transportation. Additionally, you can also get a copy of this document 
from the Federal Register Web site at http://www.gpo.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John D. Miller, Office of Aviation 
Analysis (X-50), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and 
International Affairs, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590; 
(202) 366-4834; fax: (202) 366-7035; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Part 389 of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations--Fees and 
Charges for Special Services--describes certain special services 
related to aviation economic proceedings, such as certification of new 
air carriers, licensing of air taxi operators, and award of 
international route authority to U.S. airlines, that the Department 
provides to the public, and sets forth the fees and charges applicable 
to those services.
    In January 1999, we issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), 
64 FR 3229, to obtain comments on proposed revisions to the filing fee 
schedule and related provisions of Part 389. In the main, the NPRM 
proposed (1) To eliminate, except in the case of a treaty or agreement, 
the waiver of processing fees for those foreign air carriers whose home 
countries waive processing fees for U.S. air carriers, as set forth in 
existing section 389.24; (2) to revise and update the individual 
services and related fee amounts included on the schedule contained in 
existing section 389.25(a), including significant fee increases for 
several existing services and new fees for several services not 
previously covered; and (3) to implement certain procedural changes to 
facilitate processing of licensing applications.
    Our proposed fee amounts were based on work-process analysis of 
more than 600 service applications, including (1) the direct labor 
costs incurred to process individual applications and (2) the office 
space, utilities and related overhead costs allocable to individual 
applications based on the organizational structure of the Office of the 
Assistant Secretary for Avaition and International Affairs.

Comments

    We received comments on the NPRM from the British Government, the 
Air Transport Association of America, the International Air Carrier 
Association, and representatives of 20 foreign air carriers. All 
commenters objected to our proposal to eliminate the waiver of foreign 
air carrier processing fees as contrary to U.S. law and provisions of 
bilateral agreements, or as counterproductive for U.S. air carriers. 
Similarly, all contested the rationale for, or proposed amount of, one 
or more of our individual fee items as unreasonable, unwarranted or 
excessive. No party objected to our proposed changes to facilitate 
applications processing.

Withdrawal

    Following our receipt and review of comments on the NPRM, 
unanticipated events interrupted the rulemaking process. In particular, 
the horrific events of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath required 
us to redirect resources to more immediate priorities. Under the Air 
Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act (Pub. L. 107-42), for 
example, we were charged with dispensing up to $5 billion in direct 
payments to assist air carriers that had suffered losses as a result of 
the September 11 attacks. The delays experienced since September 11 
have greatly reduced the utility of the labor cost data underlying our 
1999 fee proposal. That proposal has been further compromised by 
outdated overhead allocations due to numerous organizational changes 
which have occurred within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for 
Aviation and International Affairs since the NPRM was issued. For these 
reasons, the Department believes that the labor and overhead cost 
estimates used to develop its proposed fees are no longer timely and do 
not support finalization of the proposed rule. We are, therefore, 
withdrawing the 1999 NPRM.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on November 4, 2005.
Michael W. Reynolds,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs.
[FR Doc. 05-22451 Filed 11-9-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-62-P