Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 5, 2000 / Notices 553

Form No.: None.

Type of Review: Extension of a

currently approved recordkeeping

requirement:

Respondents: Certificated air carriers

and public charter operators.

Number of Respondents: 130

certificated air carriers 350 public

charter operators.

Total Annual Burden: 688 hours.

Needs and Uses: Part 249 requires the

retention of such records as general and

subsidiary ledgers, journals and journal

vouchers, voucher distribution registers,

accounts receivable and payable

journals and ledgers, subsidy records

documenting underlying financial and

statistical reports to the Department,

funds reports, consumer records, sales

reports, auditors’ and flight coupons, air

waybills, etc. Depending on the nature

of the document, it may be retained for

a period of 30 days to 3 years. Public

charter operators and overseas military

personnel charter operators must retain

documents which evidence or reflect

deposits made by each charter

participant and commissions received

by, paid to, or deducted by travel agents,

and all statements, invoices, bills and

receipts from suppliers or furnishers of

goods and services in connection with

the tour or charter. These records are

retained for 6 months after completion

of the charter program.

Not only is it imperative that carriers

and charter operators retain source

documentation, but it is critical that we

ensure that DOT has access to these

records. Given DOT’s established

information needs for such reports, the

underlying support documentation must

be retained for a reasonable period of

time. Absent the retention requirements,

the documentary support for such

reports may or may not exist for audit/

validation purposes and the relevance

and usefulness of carrier submissions

would be impaired, since the data could

not be verified to the source on a test

basis.

Donald W. Bright,

Acting Director, Office of Airline Information,

Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

[FR Doc. 00–161 Filed 1–4–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–FE–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Agency Information Collection;

Activity Under OMB Review; Report of

Financial and Operating Statistics for

Small Aircraft Operators—Form 298–C

AGENCY: Bureau of Transportation

Statistics (BTS), DOT.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: In compliance with the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,

Public Law 104–13, the Bureau of

Transportation Statistics (BTS) invites

the general public, industry and other

Federal Agencies to comment on the

continuing need for and usefulness of

BTS collecting financial, traffic and

operating statistics from small

certificated and commuter air carriers.

Small certificated air carriers (operate

aircraft with 60 seats or less or with

18,000 pounds of payload capacity or

less) must file the five quarterly

schedules listed below:

A–1 Report of Flight and Traffic

Statistics in Scheduled Passenger

Operations,

E–1 Report of Nonscheduled

Passenger Enplanements by Small

Certificated Air Carriers,

F–1 Report of Financial Data,

F–2 Report of Aircraft Operating

Expenses and Related Statistics, and

T–1 Report of Revenue Traffic by OnLine Origin and Destination.

Commuter air carriers must file the

three quarterly schedules listed below:

A–1 Report of Flight and Traffic

Statistics in Scheduled Passenger

Operations,

F–1 Report of Financial Data, and

T–1 Report of Revenue Traffic by OnLine Origin and Destination.

Commenters should address whether

BTS accurately estimated the reporting

burden and if there are other ways to

enhance the quality, utility and clarity

of the information collected.

DATES: Written comments should be

submitted by March 6, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be

directed to: Office of Airline

Information, K–25, Room 4125, Bureau

of Transportation Statistics, Department

of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street,

SW., Washington, DC 20590–0001, fax #

(202) 366–3383, or email

bernard.stankus@bts.gov.

COMMENTS: Comments should identify

the OMB # 2138–0009 and submit a

duplicate copy to the address listed

above. Commenters wishing the

Department to acknowledge receipt of

their comments must submit with those

comments a self-addressed stamped

postcard on which the following

statement is made: Comments on OMB

# 2138–0009. The postcard will be date/

time stamped and returned to the

commenter.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Bernie Stankus, Office of Airline

Information, K–25, Bureau of

Transportation Statistics, 400 Seventh

Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590–

0001, (202) 366–4387.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

OMB Approval No. 2138–0009

Title: Report of Financial and

Operating Statistics for Small Aircraft

Operators—Form 298–C.

Form No.: 298–C.

Type of Review: Extension of a

currently approved collection.

Respondents: Small certificated and

commuter air carriers.

Number of Respondents: 100.

Estimated Time Per Response: 16

hours for small certificated, 7 hours for

commuters.

Total Annual Burden: 5,000 hours.

Needs and Uses: Program Uses of

Form 298–C Data.

Mail Rates

The Department of Transportation

(DOT) sets and updates the Intra-Alaska

Bush mail rates based on carrier

expense, traffic, and operational data.

Form 298–C cost data, especially fuel

costs, terminal expenses, and line haul

expenses are used in arriving at rate

levels. DOT revises the established rates

based on the percentage of unit cost

changes in the carriers’ operations.

These updating procedures have

resulted in the carriers receiving rates of

compensation that more closely parallel

their costs of providing mail service and

contribute to the carriers’ economic

well-being.

Essential Air Service

DOT also must determine a

community’s eligibility as an essential

air service (EAS) point. If the

community qualifies as an EAS point, a

determination is made as to what level

of service the community is entitled and

how much, if any, compensation must

be paid to air carriers that provide the

service.

After DOT has determined that a

community is eligible to receive EAS,

DOT often has to select a carrier to

provide the service. Some of the carrier

selection criteria are historic presence in

the community, reliability of carrier

service, financial stability of the carrier,

and carrier cost structure.

Carrier Fitness

Fitness determinations are made for

both new entrants and established U.S.

domestic carriers proposing a

substantial change in operations. A

portion of these applications consists of

an operating plan for the first year (14

CFR Part 204) and an associated

projection of revenues and expenses.

The carrier’s operating costs, included

in these projections, are compared

against the cost data in the Form 298–

554 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 5, 2000 / Notices

C file for a carrier or carriers with the

same aircraft type and similar operating

characteristics. Such a review validates

the reasonableness of the carrier’s

operating plan.

The quarterly financial submissions

by commuter and small certificated air

carriers are used in determining each

carrier’s continuing fitness to operate.

Section 41738 of Title 49 of the United

States Code requires DOT to find all

commuter and small certificated air

carriers fit, willing and able to conduct

passenger service as a prerequisite to

providing such service to an eligible

essential air service point. In making a

fitness determination, DOT reviews

three areas of a carrier’s operation: (1)

The qualifications of its management

team, (2) its disposition to comply with

laws and regulations, and (3) its

financial posture. DOT must determine

whether or not a carrier has sufficient

financial resources to conduct its

operations without imposing undue risk

on the traveling public. Moreover, once

a carrier is operating as a commuter,

DOT is required to monitor its

continuing fitness.

Industry Analysis

The Secretary, Deputy Secretary and

other senior DOT officials must be kept

fully informed and advised of all

current and developing economic issues

affecting the airline industry. This is

accomplished through the preparation

of testimony given before Congressional

committees, briefing and status papers,

speech preparation, and memoranda

recommending decisions or listing

available options.

The analytical methodologies

employed under this program are as

varied as the nature of the particular

aviation policy issues that confront

senior DOT officials. In preparing

financial condition reports or status

reports on a particular airline, financial

and traffic data are analyzed. Briefing

papers may use the same information as

well as airport activity data and market

data. In summary, the nature of a

particular aviation issue determines the

particular methodology used to prepare

the analysis.

Safety Analysis

The FAA evaluates the adequacy of

aviation safety regulations, standards,

policies and procedures. Problem areas

are identified and recommendations are

developed for appropriate solutions.

Enplanement data are used in

evaluating the safety status of carriers.

Passenger-miles are used to calculate

fatality and injury rates, while aircraftmiles are used in performing risk

analysis and comparative analyses with

other traffic modes. Departure data are

used to calculate accident/incident

rates, developing rates of near misses,

and assessing the significance of the

incident of operational errors.

Forecasting

Traffic schedules are used to derive

air carrier operations at non-tower

airports. Historical aircraft departure

data are used to supplement and

validate other sources of Terminal Area

Forecasts (TAF). The aircraft operations

data in the TAF are needed by the

National Plan of Integrated Airports

System (NPIAS) to prepare airport

master plans. In addition, aircraft

operations forecast data in TAF are used

in developing benefit/cost ratios for

tower establishment and tower

discontinuance criteria, for supporting

decisions on the purchase of safetyrelated avionics equipment, and for the

allocation of scarce resources for the

construction or expansion of runways

and other airport facilities.

Historical enplanement data are

required to produce short, medium, and

long range passenger demand forecasts

for all airports with passenger service.

These forecasts are presented in the

TAF data base, which contains

approximately 4,000 airports, including

all airports in the NPIAS. TAF

enplanement data are used in the

preparation of various airport master

plans and in response to requests for

specific airport information from

Congress, states, and the general public.

Historical passenger enplanement

data, aircraft departure data, and freight

and mail tons enplaned by airport are

all used to project air carrier traffic and

cargo activity levels for hub airports.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Safety rules proposed by the FAA

operating units are submitted for

economic analysis. Under established

costing methodologies, which use

various cost and traffic data, accident

data, and risk analysis, the proposed

rules are evaluated on (1) a cost/benefit

basis, (2) regulatory flexibility basis and,

(3) an international trade impact basis.

Allocation of Airport and Airways

Improvement Funds

A revenue passenger enplanement

formula prescribed in the Airport and

Airway Improvement Act is used to

determine the amount of funds to be

allocated to each airport. Form 298–C

schedules that identify revenue

passengers enplaned at individual

airports in the United States and Trust

Territories, are used for the formula.

Since several airports in the national

system are heavily involved in air

freight, all-cargo data, such as revenue

tons enplaned and aircraft departures,

are used to plan for future needs of

those airports. Scheduled aircraft

departures by aircraft type by airport are

used in determining the practical

annual capacity (PANCAP) at airports,

as prescribed in FAA Advisory Circular

‘‘Airport Capacity Criteria Used in

Preparing the National Airport Plan.’’

PANCAP is a safety-related benchmark

measure which indicates when airport

management should be concerned about

capacity problems, delays and possible

needed airport expansion or runway

construction.

Noise Abatement

Air carrier traffic data by airport are

used in assessing the level and

frequency of service at individual

airports in order to determine the

environmental noise impact of carrier

operations. Also, aircraft operating data

are used to assess carrier compliance

with noise abatement agreements.

Donald W. Bright,

Acting Director, Office of Airline Information,

Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

[FR Doc. 00–162 Filed 1–4–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–FE–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Agency Information Collection;

Activity Under OMB Review; Report of

Extension of Credit to Political

Candidates: Form 183

AGENCY: Bureau of Transportation

Statistics (BTS), DOT.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: In compliance with the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,

Public Law 104–13, the Bureau of

Transportation Statistics (BTS) invites

the general public, industry and other

Federal Agencies to comment on the

continuing need for and usefulness of

BTS collecting reports from air carriers

on the aggregated indebtedness balance

of a political candidate or party for

Federal office. The reports are required

when the aggregated indebtedness is

over $5,000 on the last day of a month.

DATES: Written comments should be

submitted by March 6, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be

directed to: Office of Airline

Information, K–25, Room 4125, Bureau

of Transportation Statistics, Department

of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street,

SW., Washington, DC 20590–0001, FAX

NO. (202) 366–3383 or EMAIL

bernard.stankus@bts.gov.