Enforcement Policy Regarding Unfair Exclusionary Conduct in the Air Transportation Industry

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

[Docket No. OST-98-3713]

Enforcement Policy Regarding Unfair Exclusionary Conduct in the

Air Transportation Industry

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT.

ACTION: Notice extending comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Department (or DOT) published a proposed Statement of the

Department of Transportation's Enforcement Policy Regarding Unfair

Exclusionary Conduct in the Air Transportation Industry on April 10,

1998, and requested public comment (63 FR 17919). Subsequently, on May

21, 1998, the Department extended the due date for comments to July 24,

1998, from June 9, 1998, and the due date for reply comments to

September 8, 1998, from July 9, 1998. By this notice, the Department is

now further extending the due date for reply comments from September 8,

1998, to September 25, 1998.

DATES: Reply comments must be submitted on or before September 25,

1998.

ADDRESSES: To facilitate the consideration of comments, each commenter

should file eight copies of each set of comments. Comments must be

filed in Room PL-401, Docket OST-98-3713, U.S. Department of

Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590. Late-

filed comments will be considered to the extent possible.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jim Craun, Director (202-366-1032) or

Randy Bennett, Deputy Director (202-366-1053), Office of Aviation and

International Economics, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Aviation

and International Affairs, or Betsy Wolf (202-366-9349), Senior Trial

Attorney, Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Aviation

Enforcement and Proceedings, U.S. Department of Transportation, 400

Seventh St. SW, Washington, DC 20590.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: DOT published a proposed Statement of the

Department of Transportation's Enforcement Policy Regarding Unfair

Exclusionary Conduct in the Air Transportation Industry and requested

comments on the proposed statement (63 FR 7919, April 10, 1998). The

proposed policy statement was developed by the Department of

Transportation in consultation with the Department of Justice and sets

forth tentative findings and guidelines for use by DOT in evaluating

whether major air carriers' competitive responses to new entry warrant

enforcement action under 49 U.S.C. 41712. The due dates for comments

and reply comments were June 9, 1998 and July 9, 1998, respectively.

Subsequently, in answer to an emergency petition from the Air

Transport Association of America (ATA) to extend the comment period,

the Department determined that it would be reasonable and in the public

interest to give commenters more time for preparing their responses to

the proposed statement. On May 21, 1998, we published a notice in the

Federal Register (63 FR 28021) extending the due date for comments to

July 24, 1998, from June 9, 1998, and the due date for reply comments

to September 8, 1998, from July 9, 1998.

The Department has now decided, on its own initiative, to extend

the period for reply comments from September 8, 1998 to September 25,

1998. In an effort to encourage a meaningful dialogue on the issues

involved in the policy statement, the Department has conducted meetings

with various air carrier parties and several additional meetings are

scheduled for the near future. Since our regulations require that a

written summary of the meetings be placed in the docket, we have

decided to extend the due date for reply comments to more easily

accommodate the submission of the written summaries and to give

commenters an opportunity to file comments after reviewing the

documents.

At the same time, the Department is co-sponsoring with the

publishers of Aviation Week and Space Technology the ``Deregulation 20

Summit'' on September 23 and 24. Because the agenda for this meeting

provides for the discussion of issues relevant to our proposed policy,

and the panelists for that meeting have expertise on those issues, we

anticipate that the summit will produce additional insights that should

be included in the docket.

[[Page 49151]]

Issued in Washington, DC on September 8, 1998, under authority

delegated by 49 CFR 1.56(a).

Charles A. Hunnicutt,

Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs.

[FR Doc. 98-24592 Filed 9-11-98; 8:45 am]

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