The Transportation Department (DOT) 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 (FAA) 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