Served: August 15, 2011

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY WASHINGTON, D.C.

NOTICE SHORTENING ANSWER PERIOD DOCKET DOT

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On August 15, 2011, Universal Jet Aviation, Inc. (“Universal Je t”), filed an application for a pendente lite exemption from Part 298 of the Department’s r egulations (14 CFR Part 298) to operate one executive

- configured Boeing 737

, or Boeing Business Jet (“BBJ”)

, 1 along with a Motion to shorten the answer period in this case to August 16, 2011

. Under the Department’s regulations (14 CFR § 302.307), answers to the exemption application would normally be due on August 30, 2011.

In support of its request for a shortened answer period, Universal Jet points out that it holds a Part 135 operating cert ificate issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) and has operated as an on

- demand air taxi under Part 298 for more than 10 years . The air carrier states that until recently, it was granted approval by the FAA to add the BBJ at issue here to i ts Operations Specifications to engage in charter service and at that time registered the BBJ under Part 298 without objection at the time of registration

. 2 Relying on this grant of authority, Universal Jet entered into contracts to provide charter servic e with the BBJ, including the re turn transportation of its long

- term charter contract customer from Saudi Arabia , which is scheduled for August 17, 2011

. We have reviewed Universal Jet’s request and find it appropriate to grant the Motion to shorten the a nswer period in this case to August 16, 2011. Moreover, the air carrier has filed applications requesting certificate authority to engage in interstate and foreign passenger charter air transportation.

We will serve this notice by email or facsimile on all interested parties.

Persons entitled to petition the Department for review of this notice under the Department’s Regulations, 14 CFR 385.30, may file their petitions within 10 days of the service da te of this order.

1 Normally, aircraft with only 16 seats would not require certificate authority since such aircraft generally qualify as “small” aircraft that can be operated under the Part 298 air taxi exemption. However, the BBJ, which is a modified B

- 737, and other similar sized aircraft are “large” aircraft that do not qualify for the air taxi exemption. Thus, Universal Jet has applied for the exemption authority at issue here pending the Department’s action on Universal’s contemporaneously filed applications for certificate authority in Docket DOT

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. 2 By letter dated August 4, 2011, the FAA advised Universal Jet that its request to add the BBJ to its Operations Specifications was approved in error. Subsequently, on August 10, 2011, the FAA removed the BBJ from Universal Jet’s Operations Specificatio ns. U N I T E D S

T A T E S O F A

M E R I C A D E P A R T M E N T O F T R A N S P O R T A T

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This notice is effective immediately and the filing of a petition for reconsideration shall not alter its effectiveness.

By:

TODD M. HOMAN Director Office of Aviation Analysis

An electronic version of this document is available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.regulations. gov