Washington Wire - 2000-01-24

<B>Washington Wire</B>

<B>Clinton Details ASAP</B>
President Clinton on Jan. 14 released details of the Aviation Safety Action Program, a new piece of the Administration's plan to reduce commercial aviation accidents by 80 percent by 2007. The program, which includes participation by the Federal Aviation Administration, airlines and employee unions, will encourage aviation employees to report minor safety-related incidents to their employers and to FAA on a confidential basis.

Airline employees often are reluctant to report data that might result in FAA enforcement action, Clinton said. But ASAP will protect employees who report routine problems, while at the same time preserving FAA's ability to prosecute cases or to refer them to the Department of Justice for prosecution.

"With the unions' encouragement and cooperation, this program has been a huge success," American Airlines president Don Carty said following Clinton's announcement. "During the past five years, a large number of voluntary reports have been made by employees, either through AA's computer system or through a special telephone hotline, and those reports have solved or helped prevent many actual or potential safety problems."

<B>LAX Ruling Returns Landing Fees</B>
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of airlines that challenged the diversion of increased landing fees from Los Angeles International Airport to the city of Los Angeles.

LAX officials said they had expected the ruling, which will result in the return of roughly $100 million to the airlines and a $0.25 reduction in the airport's current $1.74 per-1,000-pounds landing fee in order to reflect airfield valuation based on historic rather than current costs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation earlier ruled that the city of Los Angeles could not assign a current value to land acquired for airport use years ago and then use that new value to set landing fees. Instead, landing fees must be based on the actual cost of acquiring the airfield property.

<B>FAA: Foreign Carriers Need Not Comply</B>
The FAA has ended a rulemaking that would have required foreign airlines to comply with employee drug and alcohol testing rules that are mandated for U.S. airlines, noting that the International Civil Aviation Organization has developed testing standards that can be used instead. FAA said that although the substance abuse prevention rules imposed on U.S. airlines are costly, "those costs alone do not warrant the imposition of similar regulations on foreign air carriers when compared to recent multilateral actions as well as the legal and practical difficulties in imposing such rules."

<B>Northwest, Malaysia Apply For Immunity</B>
Northwest and Malaysia Airlines have applied to DOT for antitrust immunity for the cooperative agreement they signed in December. The carriers requested at least five years of immunity covering the coordination of passenger and cargo services, and reciprocal codesharing and frequent flyer programs. They plan to offer coordinated connections between their flights, as well as single tickets and through-handling of baggage. Northwest said that similar alliances in Europe and Latin America have been effective in creating competitive pressure, and predicted they could be effective in Asia as well. As "a small player in a weakened market," Northwest said it must establish this alliance with Malaysia in order to offer daily service in the U.S.-Malaysia market and secure a long-term presence there.