The Transportation Department is looking for ways to enhance its oversight of airline slot trades at the three major airports in the New York area, including a requirement that trades between airlines be subjected to a public-interest test to review their impact on competition.
The plans were published Thursday in a Federal Aviation Administration rulemaking notice that seeks industry comment on various alternatives for new procedures that would go into effect in the fall of 2016.
Under existing rules, takeoffs and landings at the airports are generally limited to 71 operations per hour at LaGuardia and 81 per hour at Newark and Kennedy. These limits would remain.
Also unchanged would be a general policy that airlines with assigned time slots for these operations are allowed to buy, sell, lease and trade them, subject to FAA approval.
Currently, however, these transactions tend to be privately negotiated away from public view. Although large slot sales can be subjected to antitrust analysis by the Justice Department, they normally do not undergo any public-interest review by the FAA’s parent, the DOT.
The FAA is exploring several alternatives that would introduce some transparency to the secondary market for slots, such as requiring that offers, bids and/or transactions be publicly posted on an FAA-managed bulletin board.
In addition, the FAA is proposing that slot transactions be submitted to the DOT for a required review of their impact on competition, service to small communities or related public-interest issues. The DOT said it would harmonize its review procedures with those of the Justice Department to avoid imposing duplicative burdens on carriers.
Comments on the proposal are due April 8.
Source: Travel Weekly