Originally Posted by
SPN Lifer
When are we expecting this to be decided?
Quote:
Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, the Secretary shall grant, by order, 10 exemptions . . . .
H.R. 3935, Sec. 502(a), adding 49 U.S.C. § 41718(i)(1) et seq. The countdown will start when the President signs it into law.
I wonder how soon the airlines will make their submissions, and whether they would announce them publicly. Doing so might help the competing carriers tactically, so I doubt it. Maybe only the fact that they have applied.
I bet as soon as the law is passed and signed, the DOT will issue an application in short order. However, the actual process will depend on the number of comments received and may stretch beyond the 60 day limit.
You can look back at the 2012 proceeding. The 2012 FAA law set a 90-day deadline.
The law was signed in Feb 14, 2012 - the FAA posted notice on Feb. 24, with applications due by March 12 and comments due by March 27; after all the back and forth, the order was issued on May 14. So the initial timeline met the requirement of the law, but once you get into the back and forth of applications, comments, replies, etc. it can drag on. The award required airlines to start service no later than September, 2012.
Still, if it's not 60 days on the nose, it should be relatively quick.
It's also interesting to see what airlines applied for but did not get:
Alaska asked for (ranked order) PDX and SAN, and got PDX
JetBlue asked for SJU and AUS, and got SJU
Southwest asked for AUS and got AUS
Virgin America asked for SFO x2, and got SFO x1.
Air Canada asked for YVR
Frontier asked for COS
Sun Country asked for LAS
Nobody asked for SAT.