BEFORE THE

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, DC

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Motion of :

:

AIRLINES FOR AMERICA :

AND :

REGIONAL AIRLINES ASSOCIATION : Docket DOT-OST-2013-0084

:

for a temporary exemption from :

14 C.F.R § 259.4 :

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COMMENTS OF

AIRLINES FOR AMERICA

AND

REGIONAL AIRLINES ASSOCIATION

Airlines for America (“A4A”) and the Regional Airlines Association (“RAA”) submitted on April 19th

a joint motion for a temporary exemption from the Department’s tarmac-delay regulation for 90 days or 

until the Federal Aviation Administration sequestration furloughs end (the “Motion”). We sought that 

motion to obtain flexibility to respond to delays and operational disruptions that the FAA’s sequestration 

implementation plan would cause. As we noted in the Motion, the tarmac-delay regulations were not 

intended to address the type of widespread, unpredictable government-imposed delays that the FAA 

forecast from its capacity reduction plan.

We submit these comments because the harm that we forecast in the motion has emerged, 

underscoring the need for the Department to provide the relief sought in it.

We stated in our motion that

 The FAA has informed us that it will implement ground delay programs at seven U.S. 

airports (JFK, LGA, EWR, ORD, LAX, SAN and FLL) and it advised that daily traffic 

management initiatives would also be required at six other airports (ATL, CLT, MIA, 

MDW, SFO and PHL).

 Given the magnitude of the capacity reductions that the FAA had sketched out, 

maintaining the integrity of existing flight schedules would be unworkable because of the 

substantial delays and last-minute cancellations that those reductions would cause.
2

 Airlines will be operating in unprecedented circumstances at a number of major airports 

that are likely to become choke points, with repercussions at the affected airport and 

other airports.

 Aircraft will be forced, if the Department does not grant relief from the current tarmacdelay requirements, to return to gates during periods of irregular operations at airports in 

which both gate access and ramp space are limited and at which accommodating such 

returns could become physically infeasible.

 The tarmac-delay regulation was designed to respond to rare and localized types of 

largely weather-related events, not the wholesale operating cuts that the air traffic control 

system provider has imposed.

During the first several days of the FAA’s capacity reduction plan, airlines have experienced 

significant delays well above the norm. According to FAA statements, more than 2400 total delays were 

experienced on each of three of the five days beginning April 21, with more than 5000 of the delays 

during those five days attributable to staffing shortages. As the FAA has noted, on the worst day in 2012, 

2994 flights experienced delays largely due to severe weather. The delays experienced under the FAA 

capacity reduction plan to date have not been associated with severe weather. 

The impact of these delays on operations has been considerable. For example, masFlight 

reports that at LAX on April 22, the average on-time arrival delay jumped from 20 minutes to 120 minutes 

between approximately 5:00 pm and 10:00 pm local time. Taxi-out times at hub airports also suffered. 

The four large network airlines, in the aggregate, experienced taxi out time of more than 30 minutes for 

892 flights at 12 hub airports (3 hubs each) and 179 of those were greater than 60 minutes.1 At LGA, the 

average taxi-out time jumped from 18 minutes on April 20, to 25 minutes on April 21, 53 minutes on April 

22, and back down to 43 minutes on April 23. By way of comparison, the worst average taxi-out time 

prior to the implementation of the capacity reduction plan was 39 minutes on April 10.2 

This data makes it clear that airlines are experiencing extensive capacity reductions at the major 

nodes of their systems. Exacerbating that is the fact that the FAA typically announces delays on short 

 

1 masFlight Daily Report for Monday, April 22, 2013

2

Source: masFlight
3

notice, which robs the airlines of the ability to make efficient and timely schedule adjustments. The FAA 

normally cannot identify sufficiently beforehand where and when delays will occur. We thus are not 

dealing with a common pattern of capacity reductions. This puts a premium on tactical decision-making 

for the airline. That, however, is not what the tarmac-delay regulation permits. It mandates automatic 

returns to the gate. In the extraordinary circumstances that the FAA’s sequester-based staffing reductions 

have generated, airlines should have the flexibility to focus on responding to delays imposed. This will 

enable airlines to do their best to minimize the effects of the delays and ameliorate the inconvenience that 

their customers will suffer.

For the reasons set forth in the initial motion and in light of the actual system experience for the 

first several days of the FAA’s furlough-induced capacity reduction plan, as illustrated by these 

supplemental comments, A4A and RAA respectfully request the Department to grant a temporary 

exemption from the requirements of 14 C.F.R. § 259.4 for a period of at least 90 days or until the FAA 

sequestration furloughs end, whichever is longer. 

Respectfully submitted,

David A. Berg Roger Cohen

Senior Vice President, General Counsel President

& Secretary REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION

AIRLINES FOR AMERICA 2025 M Street, NW

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036

Suite 1100 202-367-1250

Washington, DC 20004 cohen@raa.org

202-626-4234

dberg@airlines.org

April 26, 2013