Airport Alert: DOT Issues Final Order on Air Service Obligation Adjustments; Plan Allows Carriers to Suspend Service to Communities

The Department of Transportation late yesterday issued a Final Order that will allow 15 carriers receiving financial assistance under the CARES Act to suspend service to a long list of communities including some that will lose service from multiple carriers.  The latest move comes after the agency has approved a series of exemption requests from individual carriers.  
 
Several airports filed comments and raised objections to DOT's plan.  One airport director provided a reasonable suggestion that the agency "identify metrics or benchmarks that would trigger a requirement for carriers to return service to exempted markets."  But DOT rejected that suggestion, and the agency's Final Order did not include any modifications from the tentative plan that this agency outlined on May 22.  
 
"The Department recognizes the challenges faced by communities resulting from the loss of certain air services," the Final Order states.  "However, the Department believes that the process we are finalizing here strikes an appropriate balance between the needs of communities to maintain at least minimal access to the national air transportation system during the public health emergency, and the needs of carriers to conserve financial resources to weather this time of unprecedented loss of demand." 
 
Air Service Reductions: DOT said previously that it will allow carriers to "reduce the number of points they must serve as a proportion of their total service obligation."  Specifically, DOT "will allow covered carriers to exempt from their service obligation five (5) percent of the points in their service obligation list, or five (5) points, whichever is greater."  
 
For instance, Delta provides service to 210 covered points will be allowed to exempt from their service obligations 11 points - or 5 percent.  JetBlue, on the other hand, provides service to 58 covered points and will be allowed to exempt 5 points since that is greater than 5 percent of the carrier's covered points.
 
Approved Exemption Requests:  Fifteen carriers submitted exemption requests to DOT under this plan:  "Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Elite Airways, Frontier Airlines, Cape Air, JetBlue Airways, Ravn Alaska, Seaborne Virgin Islands, Silver Airways, Southern Airways Express, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, and United Airlines."  
 
DOT's Final Order will allow those carriers to suspend service to more than 60 communities through September 30.  Some communities will lose service from multiple carriers, raising the total number of exemptions to 75.  
 
Previously, DOT indicated that it had "granted all requests (up to each carrier's maximum) that would not result in any point losing all Covered Carrier service or otherwise result in inadequate capacity or connectivity to serve the point."  The agency also said that "every covered point will continue to receive service from at least one covered air carrier."