[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 51 (Thursday, March 16, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13668-13670]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-2595]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

[Docket No. FAA-2004-16944]


Operating Limitations at Chicago O'Hare International Airport

ACTION: Notice of order to show cause and request for information.

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SUMMARY: The FAA has issued an order to show cause which solicits the 
views of interested persons on the FAA's tentative determination to 
extend through October 28, 2006, an August 18, 2004, order limiting the 
number of scheduled aircraft arrivals at O'Hare International Airport 
during peak operation hours. The text of the order to show cause is set 
fourth in this notice.

DATES: Any written information that responds to the FAA's order to show 
cause must be submitted by March 22, 2006.

ADDRESSES: You may send comments [identified by Docket Number FAA-2004-
16944] using any of the following methods:
     DOT Docket Web site: Go to http://dms.dot.gov and follow 
the instructions for sending your comments electronically.
     Government-wide rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the instructions for sending your 
comments electronically.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building, Room PL-401, 
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
     Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on the plaza level of the 
Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    For more information on the rulemaking process, see the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
    Privacy: We will post all comments we receive, without change, to 
http://

[[Page 13669]]

dms.dot.gov, including any personal information you provide. For more 
information, see the Privacy Act discussion in the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section of this document.
    Docket: To read background documents or comments received, go to 
http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to Room PL-401 on the plaza level of 
the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gerry Shakley, System Operations 
Services, Air Traffic Organization; Telephone: (202) 267-9424; E-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Order To Show Cause

    The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) August 18, 2004, 
order limiting scheduled operations at O'Hare International Airport 
expires on April 1, 2006. The FAA has tentatively determined that it 
will extend the order through October 28, 2006. This order to show 
cause invites air carriers and other interested persons to submit 
comments in Docket No. FAA-2004-16944 on this proposal to extend the 
duration of the August 2004 order.
    If the FAA were to allow the August 2004 order to expire as 
presently scheduled, the FAA anticipates a return of the congestion-
related delays that precipitated the voluntary schedule reductions and 
adjustments reflected in the August 2004 order. The FAA has adopted a 
rule limiting unscheduled flights at O'Hare,\1\ but it has applied no 
limits on scheduled flights at O'Hare, other than the August 2004 
order. In a separate docket, the FAA solicited public comment on a 
proposed rule that would limit the number of scheduled arrivals at 
O'Hare.\2\ The comment period for the proposed rule ended on May 24, 
and the FAA and the Office of the Secretary of Transportation have 
evaluated the comments filed in that proceeding and expect to issue a 
final rule shortly. It is not possible, however, to implement a final 
rule in time for the beginning of the summer scheduling season.\3\ The 
FAA expects that the extension of the August 2004 order will permit the 
order's expiration to coincide with the effective date of the final 
rule.
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    \1\ 70 FR 39610 (July 8, 2005).
    \2\ 70 FR 15520 (Mar. 25, 2005).
    \3\ We note that carriers customarily use 90- to 120-day lead 
time in establishing their operating schedules.
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    The FAA's authority to extend the August 2004 order is the same as 
the authority cited in that order. The FAA proposes to extend the 
August 2004 order under the agency's broad authority in 49 U.S.C. 
40103(b) to regulate the use of the navigable airspace of the United 
States. This provision authorizes the FAA to develop plans and policy 
for the use of navigable airspace and, by order or rule, to regulate 
the use of the airspace as necessary to ensure its efficient use.

Background

    On August 18, 2004, the FAA issued an order limiting the number of 
scheduled arrivals that air carriers conduct at O'Hare during peak 
hours. The August 2004 order followed a period during which O'Hare 
operated without any regulatory constraint on the number of aircraft 
operations, and O'Hare experienced significant congestion-related 
delay. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 
November 2003, O'Hare ranked last among the nation's thirty-one major 
airports for on-time arrival performance, with on-time arrivals 57.26% 
of the time. O'Hare also ranked last in on-time departures in November 
2003, yielding on-time departures 66.94% of the time. The data for 
December 2003 reflected a similar performance by O'Hare--ranking last 
with 60.06% of arrivals on time and 67.23% of departures on time. 
Despite the high proportion of delayed flights, when the air carriers 
published their January and February 2004 schedules in the Official 
Airline Guide, the schedules revealed that the air carriers intended to 
add still more flight operations to O'Hare's schedule.
    In January 2004, the two air carriers conducting most of the 
scheduled operations at O'Hare--together accounting for about 88% of 
O'Hare's scheduled flights--agreed to a temporary 5% reduction of their 
proposed peak-hour schedules at the airport. When the voluntarily 
reduced schedules failed to reduce sufficiently O'Hare's congestion-
related flight delays, the two air carriers agreed to a further 2.5% 
reduction of their scheduled peak-hour operations at O'Hare. The FAA 
captured the voluntary schedule reductions in FAA orders, and the 
orders were effective through October 30, 2004.
    By the summer of 2004, it was apparent that the schedule reductions 
agreed to in the first half of the year, which were made by only two of 
the many air carriers conducting scheduled operations at O'Hare, were 
unlikely to be renewed after the orders expired on October 30, 2004. In 
the absence of a voluntary constraint, the industry's proposed 
schedules for November, as reported in the preliminary Official Airline 
Guide in July 2004, indicated that the number of scheduled arrivals 
during several hours would approach or exceed O'Hare's highest possible 
arrival capacity. During one hour, the number of scheduled arrivals 
would have exceeded by 32% O'Hare's capacity under ideal conditions.
    Therefore, the FAA invited all scheduled air carriers to an August 
2004 scheduling reduction meeting to discuss overscheduling at O'Hare, 
voluntary schedule reductions, and retiming flights to less congested 
periods. The August 2004 meeting and subsequent negotiations led the 
FAA to issue the August 2004 order, which limited the number of 
scheduled arrivals conducted by U.S. and Canadian air carriers at 
O'Hare during peak operating hours. The order also defined 
opportunities for new entry and for growth by limited incumbent air 
carriers at O'Hare. The order took effect November 1, 2004, was 
previously extended on March 21 and October 2, 2005, and in the absence 
of a further extension, it will expire on April 1, 2006.
    The flight limits implemented by the August 2004 order have been 
effective. Delays have decreased, and customers have seen improved on-
time arrival performance as a result of the depeaked flight schedules. 
For the period from November 2004 through June 2005, the average 
minutes of arrival delay decreased by approximately 27% when compared 
to the same period last year. This level of delay reduction is somewhat 
better than the 20% reduction in delays that the FAA's computer 
modeling anticipated. We attribute this primarily to weather conditions 
that were more favorable than average and to certain peak hours in 
which the arrivals actually scheduled have been below the hourly limit 
adopted in the August 2004 order.
    During the first 12 months that the order was in effect (November 
2004 through October 2005), the average minutes of arrival delay at 
O'Hare have decreased by approximately 24 percent when compared to the 
same 12-month period the year before. The longer arrival delays lasting 
more than one hour have decreased by 28 percent. Overall, the on-time 
arrival performance at O'Hare has increased by almost 7 percentage 
points. As a result, O'Hare performed near the average for the rest of 
the National Airspace System (NAS), which is a dramatic improvement 
over the airport's bottom-tier performance during much of 2004. 
Performance since November 2005 declined by some measures due to the 
normal impact of winter weather on O'Hare and the NAS.

[[Page 13670]]

However, we continue to show overall improvement compared to the same 
period before the schedule adjustments.

Order To Show Cause

    The FAA has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to address 
appropriate limitations on scheduled operations at O'Hare. The comment 
period for the proposed rule closed on May 24, and the FAA and the 
Office of the Secretary of Transportation are completing the rulemaking 
process. However, the FAA cannot implement a final rule sufficiently in 
advance of the August 2004 order's current expiration date.
    To prevent a recurrence of overscheduling at O'Hare during the 
interim between the expiration of the August 2004 order on April 1, 
2006, and the expected effective date of the rule, the FAA tentatively 
intends to extend the August 2004 order. The limits on arrivals and the 
allocation of arrival authority embodied in the August 2004 order 
reflect the FAA's agreements with U.S. and Canadian air carriers. As a 
result, maintaining the order through the summer scheduling season 
constitutes a reasonable approach to preventing unacceptable congestion 
and delays at O'Hare. In addition, we find that it is reasonable to 
match this proposed extension of the August 2004 order with the 
scheduling cycle for summer 2006. The August 2004 order, as extended, 
would expire on October 28, 2006.
    Independence Air, which was assigned ten arrivals in the August 
2004 order, ceased all operations at O'Hare on January 5, 2006. The 
August 2004 order does not include a mechanism to reallocate such 
unused capacity; however, it does not appear that the arrival authority 
assigned to Independence Air is excess capacity. The principal premise 
for the August 2004 order was the FAA's determination that O'Hare at 
present can accommodate 88 scheduled arrivals per hour in average 
meteorological conditions without triggering intolerable congestion-
related delays. In negotiating the schedule adjustments among 
individual air carriers for the August 2004 order, however, several 
peak afternoon and evening hours received scheduled arrivals that 
exceed the agency's preferred limit of 88 scheduled arrivals per hour. 
Accordingly, the unused arrival times assigned to Independence Air 
under the order would offset the hours that were scheduled above the 
preferred limit, and we tentatively conclude that it is operationally 
beneficial not to reallocate the arrival times formerly used by 
Independence Air at this time.
    Accordingly, the FAA directs all interested persons to show cause 
why the FAA should not make final its tentative findings and tentative 
decision to extend the August 2004 order through October 28, 2006, by 
filing their written views in Docket No. FAA-2004-16944 on or before 
March 22, 2006. The FAA is not soliciting views on the issues 
separately under consideration in the proposed rulemaking. Therefore, 
any submissions to the current docket should be limited to the issue of 
extending the August 2004 order.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on March 13, 2006.
Rebecca Byers MacPherson,
Assistant Chief Counsel for Regulation.
[FR Doc. 06-2595 Filed 3-14-06; 11:16 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P