[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 186 (Tuesday, September 26, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56213-56214]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-8300]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

[Docket No. FAA-2004-16944]


Operating Limitations at Chicago O'Hare International Airport; 
Order To Show Cause and Request for Comments

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of Order To Show Cause and request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The FAA has issued an order to show cause, which solicits the 
views of interested persons on the FAA's tentative determination to 
modify the August 2004 order temporarily limiting scheduled operations 
at O'Hare International Airport (O'Hare). The text of the order to show 
cause is set forth in this notice.

DATES: Any written information that responds to the FAA's order to show 
cause must be submitted by September 29, 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.
    Privacy: We will post all comments we receive, without change, to 
http://dms.dot.gov, including any personal information you provide.
    Using the search function of our docket web site, anyone can find 
and read the comments received into any of our dockets, including the 
name of the individual sending the comment (or signing the comment on 
behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review 
DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published 
on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-19478) or you may visit http://dms.dot.gov.
    Docket: To read background documents or comments received, go to

[[Page 56214]]

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: Komal Jain, Office of the Chief 
Counsel, Regulations Division, AGC-240, Federal Aviation 
Administration, 800 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20591; 
telephone (202) 267-3073.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Order To Show Cause

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has tentatively 
determined that it is necessary to modify the August 2004 order, as 
amended, (the Order) temporarily limiting scheduled operations at 
O'Hare International Airport (O'Hare). Under the Order, the FAA may 
modify or withdraw any provision in the order on its own or on 
application by any air carrier for good cause shown. The FAA proposes 
to eliminate the prohibition on trading or transferring (buying, 
selling, or leasing) arrival authorizations for consideration for the 
remaining duration of the Order. We believe there may be merit to 
allowing carriers to modify their schedules for competitive or 
operational reasons through various market mechanisms prior to the 
effective date of the August 29, 2006, final rule regulating scheduled 
arrivals at O'Hare.
    The FAA invites air carriers and other interested persons to submit 
written comments by no later than September 29, 2006, in Docket FAA-
2006-16944 on this proposal. After reviewing and evaluating the 
comments, the FAA expects to issue a final modification to the Order 
based on this proposal.

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 18 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. The Order took effect November 1, 2004, and was subsequently 
extended on March 25, 2005, October 6, 2005, and March 31, 2006. It 
terminates at midnight, October 28, 2006, when the August 29, 2006, 
final rule, Congestion and Delay Reduction at Chicago O'Hare 
International Airport, becomes effective. 71 FR 51382.
    The Order established two means through which air carriers can move 
an existing arrival that has been authorized under the Order and 
scheduled within the period from 7 a.m. though 8:59 p.m. The first is 
through requests for schedule changes that are subject to the 
Administrator's approval and a determination that the schedule change 
would not adversely affect operations or congestion at O'Hare, taking 
into account the strict limits on operations per hour that were 
established when the Order first took effect. The second is through a 
trade of an arrival time for another but on a one-for-one basis with 
another air carrier. Once again, the trade is subject to the 
Administrator's approval and a determination that the trade will not 
increase congestion or adversely affect operations at the airport. At 
the time of the Order, the FAA determined that these two mechanisms 
would provide carriers with adequate flexibility to make changes if 
necessary during peak hours of operation.

Order To Show Cause

    When it issued the Order the FAA intended that it would be in 
effect for a short duration--until the FAA published a final rule to 
limit scheduled arrivals at O'Hare and establish allocation, transfer 
and other procedures not included in the Order. The FAA did not 
anticipate that the Order would be extended through October 2006. 
Limiting trades of scheduled arrivals, so that they could occur only on 
a one-for-one basis and remain in place only for the duration of the 
Order, particularly when coupled with a prohibition on sales and 
leases, has had the unintended effect of eliminating any flexibility to 
shift operations even when such shifts would not contribute to 
congestion or interfere with the hourly cap on operations.
    In order to facilitate the most efficient transition from the Order 
to the final rule, the FAA proposes to allow carriers to make long-term 
adjustments to their holdings of scheduled arrivals during the last 
remaining days of the Order, as described below. Under this proposed 
modification, the FAA would accept permanent trades, which the FAA 
would then recognize at the effective date of the final rule. As 
several carriers have long-standing, multi-seasonal trades to adjust 
schedule operating times, this proposal would facilitate the 
finalization of those or other trades and transfers prior to the 
commencement of the 2006 winter scheduling season.
    Underlying this proposed decision is that through the Order's 
elimination of a usage requirement, there are several scheduled 
arrivals that while allocated have not been fully utilized. It was not 
until August 29, 2006, when we issued the final rule on O'Hare 
operations, that carriers could have definitely known that under-
utilized authorizations could be transferred for consideration rather 
than simply traded temporarily on a one-for-one basis.\1\ 
Unintentionally, the FAA thus created a 2-month window in which 
carriers may have found it to their benefit to hold onto their arrivals 
rather than trade them, saving them potentially to obtain monetary 
value in a secondary market. We are concerned that this contributes 
towards an inefficient use of authorizations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ Section 93.27 provides for the sale and lease of authorized 
authorizations in a blind, cash-only secondary market.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    For these reasons the Administrator has tentatively determined that 
there is no longer any justification for maintaining a restriction that 
arrival authorizations may only be transferred on a one-for-one basis 
and a prohibition on sales, leases and other transactions that result 
in the transfer of arrival authorizations for consideration. Therefore, 
with respect to scheduled flight operations at O'Hare under the August 
2004 Order, as amended, the FAA proposes to adopt the following 
measures in substitution for ordering paragraph 6:
    6. An air carrier who is currently operating or will operate at 
O'Hare by December 31, 2006, may buy, sell, lease or otherwise transfer 
or trade any scheduled arrival from 7 a.m. through 8:59 p.m. to or from 
any other air carrier who is operating or will operate at O'Hare by 
December 31, 2006. Each air carrier must receive advance written 
approval of the Administrator, or her delegate, of the trade or 
transfer. All requests to trade or transfer a scheduled arrival must be 
submitted in writing to the FAA Slot Administration Office, facsimile 
(202) 267-7277 or e-mail [email protected], and must come from a 
designated representative of the air carrier.

Request for Comments

    The FAA invites all interested persons to submit written comments 
on the proposals described in this order by filing their written views 
in Docket FAA-2006-16944 on or before September 29, 2006.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on September 22, 2006.
James W. Whitlow,
Deputy Chief Counsel for Policy and Adjudications.
[FR Doc. 06-8300 Filed 9-22-06; 2:07 pm]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P