u.s. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT ATION

Transcription

1 BEFORE THE u.s. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT ATION OFFICE OF THE SECRET ARTY WASHINGTON, DC Application of Fly Jamaica Airways Limited To Engage in Scheduled Combination Service between the U.S. and Guyana Pursuant to 49 U.S.C Docket OST-DOT PETITION Communication with respect to this document should be sent to: Capt. Paul Ronald Reece Chairman & Managing Director Fly Jamaica Airways Limited 2 Holborn Road Kingston 10 Jamaica, W.I. Pierre Murphy Law Offices of Pierre Murphy 1200 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC Telephone: ( Facsimile: ( pmurphy@lopmurphy.com Attorney for Fly Jamaica Airways Limited October 4,2013

2 BEFORE THE u.s. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICE OF THE SECRET ARTY WASHINGTON, DC Application of Fly Jamaica Airways Limited To Engage in Scheduled Combination Service between the U.S. and Guyana Pursuant to 49 U.S.C Docket OST-DOT PETITION Pursuant to the provisions of 14 C.F.R , et seq, and the terms of Order issued herein, Fly JamaicaI respectfully submits this Petition for Review. Background By its application filed on July 16,2013, Fly Jamaica, a flag carrier of Jamaica, had applied for exemption authority to conduct seventh-freedom combination turnaround service in the currently unserved New York, New York (JFK - Georgetown, Guyana (GEO market. The U.S.-Guyana market is governed by a very recently-concluded "Open Skies" Air Services Agreement which entered into force on March 25,2013, after considerable effort by the Common named are used herein.

3 PETITION u.s. authorities to enter into such agreement with Guyana.i Crucially, despite pressing Guyana to enter into this Open Skies Agreement, the U.S. was quite aware that in fact no carrier of Guyana, even if designated and licensed, would be able to operate in the market due to the separate FAA long-standing action designating Guyana as a "Category 2" country. Then, very shortly after the Open Skies Agreement was concluded, the only carrier then operating in the market, Delta Airlines, exited the market for its own commercial reasons as it was fully entitled to do, thus leaving no non-stop U.S. or Guyanese carrier service in this market, a market vital to the commercial interests of Guyana. In view of its now total isolation as regards non-stop air service with the U.S., Guyana's principal trading partner, coupled with the inability of any carrier of Guyana to operate its own aircraft due to FAA's long-standing IASA actions, the Government of Guyana licensed and designated Fly Jamaica as a carrier of Guyana to provide this vital airline service on a 7th Freedom basis. In response to Fly Jamaica's application, no objection was filed by any U.S. air carrier since they could not: Delta and any number of U.S. carriers have for decades freely entered and exited the market at will. Instead, objections were interposed by the U.S. pilots' union ALPA and by the U.S. airline trade association A4A. These objections, although supposedly somehow attributable to actions of Fly Jamaica, were based on alleged discriminatory practices engaged in by the Government of Trinidad & Tobago and the airline it owns, CAL, and certain alleged fuel The only prior Agreement was the 1946 U.K. Bermuda I Agreement. 2

4 PETITION subsidies enjoyed by CAL in Trinidad but not by U.S. carriers servicing that country resulting in discrimination. As demonstrated by its response, none of these arguments pertained in any way to any Fly Jamaica actions nor could they in any way be laid at the door of Fly Jamaica, a small, private, Jamaican carrier. Notwithstanding, pursuant to the Order herein dismissing Fly Jamaica's application, the Department did not even address the fact that these ALPA and A4A objections were unconnected with Fly Jamaica and instead simply stated that the Department was unable to conclude that there was a demonstrable need for non-stop service between the 2 countries. Argument 1. A Demonstrable Need for Service Exists That a clear and demonstrable need exists for non-stop air service between the 2 countries is surely primarily demonstrated by the fact that the U.S. government vigorously pursued an Open Skies Agreement with Guyana in the first place. Pursuing such an Agreement with a country where there were no demonstrable need for non-stop air service would surely have been a total waste of the time and valuable resources of the 2 countries involved. Indeed, had the Government of Guyana known that the first action of the United States, coming a scant few months after entry into force of the Open Skies bilateral, would be the flat denial by the U.S. of its duly licensed and designated carrier following the abandonment of the market by the only 3

5 PETITION U.S. carrier servicing the 2 countries, perhaps the Government of Guyana would have not wasted its resources on such negotiations. A clear and demonstrated need for non-stop air service is further demonstrated by the fact that over the past decades, any number of U.S. carriers have exercised non-stop scheduled rights in this market, both combination and all-cargo. Most recently, during the past decade or so, Delta Airlines operated in the market for a number of years" and before that, North American Airlines operated non-stop scheduled service in the market for several years." 2. The Indirect. One-Stop Services that Exist Are Not Equivalent Services As a viable alternative to non-stop service in a supposedly Open Skies market, the Department seems to suggest that the existing indirect, one-stop GEO-JFK services over a third country operated by Fly Jamaica are equivalent to the non-stop service sought. However, onestop service between Georgetown and JFK over Kingston, Jamaica, with the attendant full customs, security and immigration formalities, deplaning of passengers, baggage and cargo screening, etc., is a huge and unnecessary burden on the vital GEO-JFK travelling and shipping market. See: DOT NOAT issued February 7, 2008 [Docket DOT-OST ]. 4 See: DOT NOAT issued July 23,1999 [Docket DOT-OST ] and DOT Certificate issued by DOT Order [Docket DOT-OST ]. 4

6 PETITION Conclusion The Guyana-U.S. market deserves non-stop service as contemplated by the governing Open Skies Agreement. Due to: (1 the FAA-imposed inability of a carrier of Guyana to provide this service; (2 the lack of any U.S. carrier service; (3 the unnecessary burden on passengers of having to stop in Kingston, Jamaica on the northbound journey; and (4 the effective position of ALPA and A4A that either a U.S. carrier should operate/not operate and that no other carrier may operate, this should not be accepted as being contrary to sound public and bilateral policy and is inconsistent with the particular situation of Guyana under an Open Skies regime. This niche market should be permitted to be serviced on the basis sought by Fly Jamaica's application, and Fly Jamaica requests a review and reversal of Order Respectfull~ubmitted, / -_,,.. ~,/ Pierre ~hy Law 9ftic~sofPierre Murphy 1200 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC Telephone: ( Facsimile: ( pmurphy@lopmurphy.com October 4,2013 Attorney for Fly Jamaica Airways Limited 5

7 Certificate of Service I hereby certify that on October 4,2013, a copy of the foregoing Petition of Fly Jamaica was served via to the following persons: David Semanchik Air Line Pilots Association 535 Herndon Parkway Herndon, VA david.semanchik@alpa.org Jim Casey Keith Glatz Airlines for America 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC jcasey@airlines.org kglatz@airlines.org Robert Wirick Francis Heil AMERICAN AIRLINES th Street, N.W. #600 Washington, D.C robert.wirick@aa.com francis.heil@aa.com John Richardson Joan Canny AMERIJET INTERNATIONAL John L. Richardson, PLLC th Street, N.W. # 420W Washington, D.C jrichardson@johnlrichardson.com jcanny@amerijet.com Dan Weiss Stephen Morrissey CONTINENTAL / UNITED Dept. HQSGV P.O. Box 4607 Houston, TX dan.weiss@united.com steve.morrissey@united.com Alexander Vander Bellen Sametta Barnett DELTA AIR LINES 1275 K Street, N.W. Washington, D.C sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com sametta.c.barnett@delta.com Edward Sauer EVERGREEN INTERNATIONAL Squire, Sanders & Dempsey 1201 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C esauer@ssd.com Marshall S. Sinick FLORIDA WEST Squire, Sanders & Dempsey 1201 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C msinick@ssd.com Robert Cohn Patrick Rizzi FRONTIERIREPUBLIC Hogan Lovells Columbia Square 555 Thirteenth Street, NW Washington, DC robert.cohn@hoganlovells.com patrick.rizz@hoganlovells.com Jonathan Hill Robert Land JETBLUE 1200 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC jhill@dowlohnes.com robert.land@jetblue.com

8 Thomas Ting MN AIRLINES (SUNCOUNTRY 1300 Mendota Heights Road Mendota Heights, MN Bob Kneisley SOUTHWEST/AIRTRAN 1901 L Street, N.W. Suite 640 Washington, D.C bob.kneisley@wnco.com Joanne Young SPIRIT 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W. Suite 600 South Washington, D.C jyoung@yklaw.com Anita Mosner Jennifer Nowak UPS Holland & Knight 2099 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Suite 100 Washington, D.C anita.mosner@hklaw.com jennifer.nowak@hklaw.com Howard Kass US AIRWAYS 2345 Crystal Drive Alexandria, VA howard _kass@usairways.com Malcolm Benge WORLDINORTH AMERICAN Zuckert, Scoutt & Rasenberger th Street, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC mlbenge@zsrlaw.com jhfoglia@zsrlaw.com ~~~ Kristin K. Leake