**BEFORE THE**

**DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION**

**WASHINGTON, D. C.**

--------------------------------------------- Application of : : DELTA AIR LINES, INC. : DOT-OST-2010- : 0162 for a frequency allocation : (U.S.-Brazil) :

---------------------------------------------

**ANSWER OF AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC.**

Communications with respect to this document should be sent to:

VIRASB VAHIDI WILLIAM K. RIS, JR. Senior Vice President - Senior Vice President - Planning Government Affairs American Airlines, Inc. American Airlines, Inc. P.O. Box 619616, MD 5634 1101 17 th Street, N.W. DFW Airport, Texas 75161 Washington, D.C. 20036

KENJI C. HASHIMOTO CARL B. NELSON, JR. Vice President – Strategic Associate General Counsel Alliances American Airlines, Inc. American Airlines, Inc. 1101 17 th Street, N.W. P.O. Box 619616, MD 5635 Washington, D.C. 20036 DFW Airport, Texas 75261 (202) 496-5647 carl.nelson@aa.com ROBERT A. WIRICK Director, Regulatory American Airlines, Inc. P.O. Box 619616, MD 5635 DFW Airport, Texas 75261 (817) 963-0394 robert.wirick@aa.com

July 8, 2010**BEFORE THE**

**DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION**

**WASHINGTON, D. C.**

--------------------------------------------- Application of : : DELTA AIR LINES, INC. : DOT-OST-2010- : 0162 for a frequency allocation : (U.S.-Brazil) :

---------------------------------------------

**ANSWER OF AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC.**

American Airlines, Inc. hereby answers in opposition to the application filed on June 23, 2010 by Delta Air Lines, Inc. In that application, Delta is once again seeking to swap threeof its regional U.S.-Brazil frequencies for unrestricted frequencies currently in the unallocated pool. Delta does not propose to use the unrestricted frequencies to serve Rio de Janeiro, or indeed to operate any new Brazil service at all. Instead, Delta would continue to operate its existing regional Brazil service from Atlanta to Brasilia and Manaus, using theunrestricted frequencies to do so, thereby emptying the unallocated pool of unrestricted frequencies, and preventing another carrier from providing new service to Rio de Janeiro.- 2 -

In a separate docket, American is this day applying for the three unrestricted frequencies in the unallocated pool in order to operate nonstop service between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Rio de Janeiro three days a week starting November 18, 2010. The unrestricted frequencies should be awarded to American without delay, and Delta’s anticompetitive bid to swap three of its regional frequencies for the three unrestricted frequencies in the unallocated pool should be rejected.Delta’s application is disingenuous and highly misleading in describing what it seeks. Delta states that it “will” use the frequencies to operate regional service to Brazil“effective October 1, 2010”; that it “plans” to use the frequencies “effective October 1, 2010”; that “for the upcoming winter season” it ”plans to operate service” from Atlanta to Brasilia and Manaus; and that it ”will” operate the “proposed” flights with B757s. In fact, Delta serves Brasilia and Manaus from Atlanta today, and is holding out and selling these flights for the rest of the summer, into the winter season, and beyond through the 330-day advance booking period allowed by GDSs. These are not “planned” or “proposed” flights; they are existing flights. The only thing Delta is “proposing” is to swap frequencies;its existing service to regional points in Brazil will continue without interruption.- 3 –

Delta recently made virtually the same frequency swap proposal which the Department denied by Notice of Action Taken, DOT-OST-2010-0090 on June 16, 2010. Just a week later, on June 23, Delta was at it again in this docket. The Department should deny Delta’s latest gambit for the same reason it denied Delta’s earlier one; “[we do not] believe it is in the public interest to swap the frequencies as Delta has proposed . . . . [T]o award restricted frequencies is not consistent with the use of the more liberal rights received by the United States in the bilateral agreement” (p. 3). Here, American is seeking to use “the more liberal rights” to operate new service from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Rio de Janeiro. Delta, by contrast, would warehouse the frequencies on its existing regional routes and thereby block new flights to Rio de Janeiro. 1 There is no precedent that comes to mind that would support Delta’s tactic, and indeed the Department’s stated policy clearly precludes the anticompetitive result Delta wants to accomplish. See America West/Mesa , Notice of Action Taken, OST-2003-16444, February 13, 2004, p. 4 (we do not “allow

1 Delta’s June 23 application, seeking virtually the same relief the Department denied on June 16, is akin to a successive petition for rehearing, re-argument, or reconsideration barred by 14 CFR 302.14(c). See Order 2009-1-13, January 29, 2009, dismissing a successive petition by Wings Air; Order 2004-8-27, August 25, 2004, rejecting an Air Tran notice as failing to comply with an order ”issued just two weeks ago” (p. 2).- 4 -

valuable operating rights to go unused, particularly when another carrier is interested in serving the routes and has firm plans to do so”); Continental (Newark-Buenos Aires ), Order 2001-7-12, July 10, 2001, p. 4 (denying a dormancy waiver where “such a delay would waste valuable operating rights when othercarriers have firm plans to use them”); U.S.-Russia Frequencies , Order 97-9-12, September 10, 1997, pp. 2-3 (granting Delta’s allocation request in order to “ensur[e] that these valuable rights are not wasted”); U.S.-Lima Combination Service Proceeding , Order 96-1-41, January 29, 1996, p. 4 (“the traffic rights involved constitute a valuable resource” and “the public interest clearly calls for the use of those rights”). For the foregoing reasons, the Department should deny Delta’s application, and should promptly allocate three weekly unrestricted U.S.-Brazil combination frequencies to American from the unallocated pool. American will use this authority to operate the first nonstop service between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Rio de Janeiro, effective November 18, 2010. Respectfully submitted,

___________________________ CARL B. NELSON, JR. Associate General Counsel American Airlines, Inc. July 8, 2010**CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE**

I hereby certify that I have this day served the foregoing document by email on the following persons:

sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com jhill@dlalaw.com scott.mcclain@delta.com bill@mietuslaw.com sametta.c.barnett@delta.com mgoldman@sgbdc.com kquinn@pillsburywinthrop.com rsilverberg@sgbdc.com bkeiner@crowell.com dhainbach@ggh-airlaw.com mrosia@crowell.com mcmillin@woa.com bruce.rabinovitz@wilmerhale.com eskraft@jamhoff.com jeffrey.manley@united.com dpdean@jamhoff.com bob.kneisley@wnco.com dkirstein@yklaw.com robert.land@jetblue.com jyoung@yklaw.com msinick@ssd.com donna.kooperstein@usdoj.gov cdonley@ssd.com dwight.moore@ustranscom.mil gbleopard@fedex.com john.allen@faa.gov dvaughan@kelleydrye.com byerlyjr@state.gov kevin.montgomery@polaraircargo.com recohn@hhlaw.com jrichardson@johnlrichardson.com cjsimpson@zsrlaw.com lhalloway@crowell.com pmurphy@lopmurphy.com efaberman@wileyrein.com lachter@starpower.net mroller@rollerbauer.com anita.mosner@hklaw.com howard.kass@usairways.com rpommer@atlasair.com benjamin.slocum@usairways.com gmurphy@crowell.com sophy.chen@hklaw.com russell.bailey@alpa.org david.heffernan@wilmerhale.com

_______________________________ CARL B. NELSON, JR.

July 8, 2010