- 1 - 

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 

October 18, 2010 

Commissioner Joaquín Almunia 

Vice-President of the European Commission, Responsible for Competition Policy 

European Commission 

B-1049 Brussels 

 

The Honorable Ray LaHood, Secretary 

United States Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

Re: Application of Delta Air Lines for London Heathrow Slots 

 

Dear Mr. Vice-President and Mr. Secretary: 

Attached please find a letter from the Governor of Massachusetts supporting Delta’s application 

for Heathrow slots for Boston-Heathrow services. 

 

Respectfully submitted, 

Alexander Van der Bellen 

 

cc: Service List 

 DOT-OST-2008-0252 
DEVAL L. PATRICK 

GOVERNOR 

TIMOTHY P. MURRAY 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR 

October 14,201 0 

Commissioner Joaquin Almunia 

Vice-President of the European Commission, 

Responsible for Competition Policy 

El- ropea an Commission 

B-1049 Brussels 

'The Honorable Ray LaHood, Secretary 

United States Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

Re: Application of Delta Air Lines for Boston-London Heathrow Slots 

Dear Mr. Vice-President and Mr. Secretary: 

On behalf of the Massachusetts Port Authority and Boston Logan 

International Airport, I am writing to support Delta Air Lines' application to 

begin operating two daily, year-round Boston-London Heath row roundtrips, 

starting in the spring of 201 1. 

London is Boston's largest and most important international market, 

with approximately 490,000 origin-destination passengers annually. 

Together, Anierican Airlines and British Airways operate six of the seven 

daily roundtrips on the Boston-London Heathrow route, with Virgin Atlantic 

operating a single daily roundtrip. As a condition of antitrust immunity for 

the alliance between American Airlines and British Airways, the European 

Commission and U.S. Department of Transportation have each required 

that two of these London Heathrow slots be divested to facilitate new 

nonstop entry and competition on this route. 
Commissioner Joaquin Almunia 

The Honorable Ray LaHood 

October 14, 201 0 

Page Two 

We believe that Delta Air Lines, by operating two daily, year-round 

Boston-London Heathrow roundtrips, would provide the greatest 

con-~petitive balance to an antitrust-immurrized American AirlinesIBritish 

Airways alliance on the Boston-London Heathrow route. With over 75 daily 

departures to 17 destinations, Delta Air Lines is the largest network carrier, 

and second largest carrier overall, at Boston Logan International Airport. 

Delta provides daily international flights from Boston to Amsterdam, and we 

believe that it has the skill and professional ability to expand its 

international service witliout missing a step. With two daily, year-rou~id 

Boston-London Heathrow roundtrips, rather than just one, Delta will be 

better able to serve this large business market, which values schedule 

frequency and choice. 

For these reasons, we offer our support of Delta Air Lines' application 

for two roundtrip Boston-London Heathrow slots, to provide the necessary 

competition in our largest international market. 
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

A copy of the foregoing document has been served this 18th day of October, 2010, 

upon the following persons via email: 

BAAAIB.trustee@competitionrx.com 

matthew.gaved@competitionrx.com 

stephen.wainright@sdgworld.net 

linsey.mc-callum@ec.europa.eu 

todd.homan@dot.gov 

peter.irvine@dot.gov 

grady.stone@dot.gov 

esta.rosenberg@dot.gov 

byerlyjr@state.gov 

rob.hawks@faa.gov 

7-AWA-Slotadmin@faa.gov 

john.allen@faa.gov 

anita.mosner@hklaw.com 

carl.nelson@aa.com 

jeff.ogar@aa.com 

paul.jasinski@ba.com 

libowd@sullcrom.com 

dhainbach@ggh-airlaw.com 

wkaras@steptoe.com 

sami.sarelius@finnair.fi 

mholland@condonlaw.com 

dan.weiss@coair.com 

hkamen@coair.com 

steve.morrissey@united.com 

jeffrey.manley@united.com 

howard.kass@usairways.com 

benjamin.slocum@usairways.com 

info@airlineinfo.com