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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 179 / Monday, September 20, 2021 / Proposed Rules from the crisis only serves to jeopardize more jobs and further risks U.S.
international connectivity.
A4A supports a waiver of minimum slot usage requirements for international operations at U.S. slot-controlled airports and IATA Level 2 airports. A4A
believes a waiver of minimum slot usage requirements for international operations is needed because international demand remains repressed and to ensure a level playing field. A4A states that international operations remain significantly deterred as a result of COVID19 and direct government actions. Further A4A highlights that many countries have included reciprocity requirements previously and will likely wait until the U.S. acts before providing relief to ensure foreign carrier access to slots and gates in the U.S. when they resume operations. A4A asserts, without reciprocity U.S. carriers will lose slots in key international markets and be put at a significant competitive disadvantage relative to foreign competitors.
JetBlue and ACINA oppose continued slot usage relief and support a return to usual 80/20 minimum slot usage requirements. ACINA believes that the U.S. is turning the corner in our battle against Coronavirus and that there are beginning to be opportunities for international travel. ACINA states that ending slot usage waivers will allow affected airports to begin piecing together their future air services portfolios that enable airports to drive sustainable economic growth for the communities they serve. Likewise, JetBlue believes that demand has returned and is growing and the U.S.
airline industry will not be able to recover with full haste if competitionaltering slot waivers continue without restriction. In addition, JetBlue believes that international flying levels may never return and broad waivers discourage the repurposing of slots previously used for international service. However, JetBlue states that it appreciates the complexities in international markets that were raised in the IATA letter and urges that DOT/
FAA enable a case-by-case evaluation for limited exemptions based on extreme circumstances such as border closure or conditions of entry that represent de facto border closure.
Southwest opposes continued slot usage relief at domestic-focused airports. Southwest specifically requests that the FAA reject any further requests for waivers of slot usage requirements for DCA and LGA, considering a the resurgence in the demand for domestic airline travel since
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March 2021, and b that DCA and LGA
have perimeter restrictions that ensures the vast majority of flights from these airports are domestic. In addition, Southwest states, reopening these two predominately domestic airports would reflect the reality that domestic traffic is far more robust than international markets. Further, Southwest requests the FAA reduce barriers to competition at DCA and LGA and believes returning to normal slot usage requirements will clear the way for such competition to resume.
Discussion of Proposal Continued Relief for International Operations Through March 26, 2022
In consideration of the foregoing information, the petitions that the FAA
has received, and the evolving and highly unpredictable situation globally with respect to ongoing impacts from COVID19 at the current moment, the FAA proposes to extend, for all international operations, the current limited, conditional relief that FAA has already made available through October 30, 2021, through the end of the Winter 2021/2022 season on March 26, 2022.32
This relief would be limited to slots and approved operating times used by carriers for international operations, through March 26, 2022, and would be subject to the same terms and conditions, with minor modifications, that the FAA has applied to the relief already made available through October 30, 2021, which the FAA reiterates in this notice. International operations, for purpose of this notice, are flights intended for operation between one of the U.S. slot-controlled or IATA Level 2
airports and any point in a foreign jurisdiction.
It is not the policy of the Department of Transportation DOT to use slot and Level 2 rules to reserve capacity for historic incumbent carriers until demand returns to predetermined levels. Instead, it is the policy of the Department to encourage high utilization of scarce public infrastructure. Under the established standard, slot usage waivers are generally used to address short-term, unpredictable shocks to demand or capacity that are beyond carriers control. After 19 months of experience, the DOT believes it is becoming apparent that COVID19 is causing structural and operational changes to the airline industry; the industry is adapting; and the issuance of waivers should not hinder that adaptation. As 32 The FAA notes that for purposes of the relief proposed in this proceeding, Canadian carriers would be treated as foreign carriers.

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previously stated, at some point in time, repeated waivers to preserve pre-COVID
slot holdings will impede the ability of airports and airlines to provide services that benefit the overall national economy and make appropriate use of scarce public assets. Therefore, the FAA
emphasizes that operators should not assume further relief on the basis of COVID19 will be forthcoming beyond the end of the Winter 2021/22
scheduling season.
IATA reports that international flights globally are operating around 88%
below 2019 levels, with only slight recovery in international traffic forecast by the end of 2021 to about 66% below 2019 levels. As indicated by IATA, the situation remains critically desperate and recovery slow with low advance bookings and many more lastminute bookings and cancellations on most routes projected for the foreseeable future. Uncertainty around the need for booster vaccinations this fall, the impact of variants and government management of restrictions related to these outbreaks, lack of significant corporate demand until at least 2022, significant new outbreaks in Asia and Latin America and the related government retraction from reopening, as well as the disparity between countries approaches to managing the risk justifies continued slot relief at this time. Without any stability and planning still at a 68 week horizon, airlines will continue to need maximum flexibility.
FAA agrees with these petitioners and believes, based on global vaccination rates, changing infection rates and the threat of new virus strains, continued unpredictability of international travel restrictions, and the disparity between demand for domestic air travel and demand for international air travel, that extending the current limited, conditional waiver for international operations by all carriers, is reasonable.
The FAA believes that extending the limited, conditional slot usage waiver, for international operations only, through the Winter 2021/2022 season would provide carriers with flexibility to operate in the unpredictable international market and would support long term viability of carrier operations at slot-controlled and IATA Level 2
airports in the United States.
The FAA recognizes that domestic carriers have a mix of both domestic and international operations and therefore the agency intends to make this relief available for international operations that would have been operated in the Winter 2021/2022 season, but for COVID19 impacts. In other words, the FAA intends to provide this conditional relief to domestic carriers on a scale that
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