UNDOCKETED

This serves as interim notice to the public of the action described below, taken orally by the Department official indicated; the confirming order or other decisional document will be issued as soon as possible.

Joint Applicants: AIR PACIFIC LIMITED and CANADIAN AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL LTD.

Date filed: August 20, 1997, as supplemented August 25, 1997

Relief requested: Statement of Authorization under 14 CFR Part 212 to permit Air Pacific and Canadian Airlines to engage in a code-share/blocked-space arrangement for scheduled service (indefinite duration) between Nadi, Fiji, and the Canadian coterminal points Vancouver and Toronto; via Honolulu, Hawaii. Under the arrangement, Air Pacific will carry Canadian Airlines’ code between Nadi and Honolulu, and Canadian Airlines will carry Air Pacific’s code between Honolulu and the two Canadian points.

If renewal, date of last action(s): New authority.

Applicants’ representatives: Thomas J. Whalen and Evelyn D. Sahr 202-289-0500.

Responsive pleadings: On August 26 and on August 27, 1997, Northwest Airlines filed pleadings, and on August 27 and August 28, 1997, Delta Air Lines filed pleadings in this case. Both carriers urged the Department not to grant the application until Canada is prepared to act favorably on analogous code-share requests by U.S. carriers. On September 3 and September 16, 1997, the joint applicants filed additional pleadings. On September 25, 1997, Delta Air Lines filed a pleading in response to the joint applicants’ September 16 pleading, restating its position concerning the state of reciprocity with Canada in this code-share area.

DISPOSITION

Action: Approved for a period of one year. Action date: November 19, 1997

Effective date of authority granted: November 19, 1997, through November 19, 1998.

Basis for approval: During U.S.-Canada bilateral consultations held on November 18, 1997, the two delegations reached an ad referendum agreement, memorialized in an Agreed Minute, that their Governments would allow cooperative marketing arrangements between each other’s airlines and third-country airlines. This understanding provides, among other things, for the third-country code-share operations at issue on the record of this proceeding.

Except to the extent exempted/waived, this authority is subject to the terms, conditions, and limitations indicated:

Joint Applicants’ foreign air carrier permit conditions.

Special conditions/Partial grant/Denial basis/Remarks: These code-share operations must comply with 14 CFR 399.88 of the Department’s rules and the further conditions that this foreign air transportation be sold in the name of the carrier holding out the service in computer reservation systems and elsewhere, and that the carrier selling such transportation accept all obligations established in its contract of carriage with the passenger (that is, the ticket).

Action taken by:

Paul L. Gretch, Director
Office of International Aviation
under assigned authority (14 CFR 385)

(Petitions for review may be filed from now until 10 days after the service date of the confirming order/letter. Filing of a petition shall not stay the effectiveness of this action.)