Republic Airways Holdings, parent of Frontier and the
defunct Midwest Airlines, has won a court decision against the Department of
Transportation for taking away a pair of takeoff and landing slots at
Washington Reagan National Airport.
The case was triggered by Republic's acquisition of Midwest
in 2009. At the time, Midwest was operating three daily Washington-Kansas City
flights, which Republic intended to continue after the acquisition.
DOT, however, determined that one of the slots had been awarded
under a special program to encourage new entry and/or flights to underserved
markets and could not be transferred, and it decided to withdraw that slot and
award it to another airline.
Midwest protested that the slot was not "transferred"
but merely acquired as part of a merger, and cited precedents involving other
airline mergers to buttress its case.
DOT, however, rejected those claims and awarded the slot to
Sun Country Airlines for service to Lansing, Mich.
Republic appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals,
which recently ruled that DOT action was "arbitrary and capricious,"
saying DOT not only failed to observe its own precedents, but "ignored
them completely."
In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel vacated the DOT
order, which could have the effect of returning the slot to Republic.
According to Frontier's website, Republic operates three
daily nonstops in the market under Frontier's F9 code.
Source: Travel Weekly