US Department of Transportation (DoT) issued (21-Feb-2019) an order tentatively acknowledging it is in the public interest for the DoT to terminate the effectiveness of certain wet lease statements of authorisation issued to foreign air carriers of the EU, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The wet lease statements permit the foreign carriers to engage as wet lessors in lease operations to other affected carriers. The DoT proposes to undertake the following actions regarding EU-EU carrier statements of authorisation, effective immediately:
- Terminate all applicable statements of authorisation held by certain carriers that have exceeded 14 months and remain in effect due to a pending renewal application citing APA rights. Carriers have until 30-Mar-2019 to end these operations;
- Terminate all applicable statements of authorisation held by affected carriers exceeding 14 months and granted for an indefinite period. Carriers have until 30-Mar-2019 to end these operations;
- All authorisations for applicable wet lease operations by affected carriers will be limited to 14 months. The limitation applies to past operations for which the DoT has granted authorisation effective 03-Oct-2012 or later, all ongoing applicable operations for which the DoT has granted authorisations and all future operations from affected carriers for applicable operations. [more - original PR]