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- Alexander Van der Bellen Managing Director and

Associate General Counsel

Delta Air Lines, Inc.

1212 New York Avenue NW Washington, DC 20005

202.842.4184

Sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com

via electronic mail

May 31, 2011

Mr. Marc Warren Acting Chief Counsel, AGC-1

Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20591

Dear Mr. Warren:

Delta Air Lines (“Delta”) requests a waiver of the minimum slot usage requirements for LaGuardia Airport (“LGA”) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (“DCA”) during January and February 2011. While Delta experi enced cancellations and operational issues at the other New York airports also, the longer re porting period at Newark Liberty International Airport (“EWR”) and John F. Kennedy Intern ational Airport (“JFK”) provided a greater opportunity to recover slot utilization. Specific ally, Delta requests a limited waiver at LGA and DCA only for the three severe winter snowstorms concentrated in the Northeast on January 11 and 12, January 26 and 27, and February 1 and 2 for the slots listed on the attached sheet.

Delta’s planned utilization for the majority of these slots was between 90-100%. This utilization allowed room for a reasonable amount of unexpected cancellations during the day to day operation of Delta’s network. However, the record snowfalls in the New York area during January and February 2011 (three back to back snow storms lasting two days each) caused significant cancellations that made it impossible to reach 80% utilization.

The effects of these snow events during these six days were extraordinary and lingering. They severely disrupted operations at LGA and DCA causing nearly 850 cancellations for Delta during these impacted slot periods. Delta’s operations were further impacted due to related severe weather events including icing in Atlanta which caused cancellations in LGA and DCA. With each episode, Delta implemented network recovery plans by canceling flights in advance of the storms to avoid stranding passenger s. We also repositioned aircra ft and flight crews to resume scheduled operations after th e storms passed causing further disorder to our regular operations. Due to the severity and repetitive ness of the January and February storms, this process was very time consuming and severely impacted regular scheduled services.

These severe and frequent snowstorms were hi ghly unusual, unpredictable, and beyond our

control. Delta scheduled these slots between 90-100% utilization and would have far exceeded the 80% utilization requirement but for the repeated and unusual weather conditions which restricted operations for extended periods of time.Mr. Marc Warren May 31, 2011 Page 2

Due to the reasons stated above, Delta respectfully requests a waiver of the slot usage rules at LGA and DCA for January 11, 12, 26 and 27 and February 1 and 2.

Sincerely,

Alexander Van der Bellen

cc: Jennifer Sayre

Rob Hawks

Brian Meehan

AttachmentTotal Planned Planned Total Actual Actual Cancels on 6 UtilizationAirport Time Slot ID Holdings Schedule Utilization Cancels Operated Utilization Waiver Dates with Waiver DatesLGA 0600D 3741 199 197 98.99% 41 156 78.39% 21 88.94%LGA 0630A 2223 41 37 90.24% 8 29 70.73% 4 80.49%LGA 0700A 2663 82 81 98.78% 19 62 75.61% 7 84.15%LGA 0730A 3722 246 239 97.15% 49 190 77.24% 24 86.99%LGA 0800D 3704 163 161 98.77% 33 128 78.53% 14 87.12%LGA 0830A 3695 129 119 92.25% 19 100 77.52% 13 87.60%LGA 0830D 35034 259 242 93.44% 46 196 75.68% 25 85.33%LGA 0900A 35129 118 102 86.44% 17 85 72.03% 12 82.20%LGA 0900D 3875 287 277 96.52% 51 226 78.75% 31 89.55%LGA 0930A 4306 442 425 96.15% 81 344 77.83% 42 87.33%LGA 1000A 3313 165 151 91.52% 28 123 74.55% 20 86.67%LGA 1000D 3942 325 310 95.38% 54 256 78.77% 35 89.54%LGA 1100A 2840 157 154 98.09% 33 121 77.07% 18 88.54%LGA 1130A 35148 205 201 98.05% 46 155 75.61% 23 86.83%LGA 1200A 35092 340 301 88.53% 46 255 75.00% 33 84.71%LGA 1300A 35023 116 104 89.66% 12 92 79.31% 12 89.66%LGA 1400A 35135 272 253 93.01% 39 214 78.68% 24 87.50%LGA 2030D 35161 194 168 86.60% 16 152 78.35% 18 87.63%DCA 1900N 11010 699 618 88.41% 69 549 78.54% 33 83.26%