BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHINGTON, D.C.

Motions and Application of

AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. HAWAIIAN AIRLINES, INC.

In the matter of 2010 U.S.

- Haneda Combination Services Allocation Proceeding ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Docket DOT

- OST

- 2010

- 0018

ANSWER OF DELTA AIR LINES, INC. TO OBJECTIONS OF AMERICAN AIRLINES AND HAWAIIAN AIRLINES TO ORDER 2015

- 3

- 17
Communications with respect to this document should be addressed to:

Glen Hauenstein Executive Vice President

& Chief Revenue Officer Robert J. Cortelyou Senior Vice President

– Network Planning DELTA AIR LINES, INC. 1030 Delta Boulevard Atlanta, Georgia 30320 Seth P. Waxman Kelly P. Dunbar WILMER CUTLER PICKERING

HALE AND DOOR LLP 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington D.C. 20006 (202) 663

- 6000 seth.waxman@wilmerhale.com

Alexander Van der Bellen Managing Director and Associate General

Counsel

– Regulatory and International Affairs DELTA AIR LINES, INC. 1212 New York Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 842

- 4184 sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com

April 13 , 2015BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHINGTON, D.C.

Motion and Application of

AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. HAWAIIAN AIRLINES, INC.

In the matter of 2010 U.S.

- Haneda Combination Services Allocation Proceeding ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Docket DOT

- OST

- 2010

- 0018

ANSWER OF DELTA AIR LINES, INC. TO OBJECTIONS OF AMERICAN AIRLINES AND HAWAIIAN AIRLINES TO ORDER 2015

- 3

- 17

As Delta Air Lines I nc. (“Delta”) has explained, it has no choice but to object to the
proposed conditions on its Seattle

- Haneda service as unprecedented mandates that exceed the
Department’s statutory and regulatory authority, are arbitrary and capricious, and reflect
misguided and perhaps unintended policy judgments.
Delta will not repeat those points here. Instead, Delta files this answer to respond to the

stat ement by American Airlines (“American”) that “[t]he more Delta protests these safeguards,
the more skeptical the Department should be of Delta’s willingness to abide by its dail y ear
round service commitment ” for the Haneda

- Seattle route. Answer of American Airlines, Inc. to

Order 2015

- 3

- 17, at 2 (Apr. 6, 2015). That is a non sequitor . Delta’s objections to the
unprecedented, unexpected
, and unjustifi ed 365

- day

- a
- year service mandate in no way diminish

Delta’s commitment and manifest effo rts to make the Haneda

- Seattle route successful

. Delta’s
objections to the mandate arise from the serious operational and commercial difficulties that

such an inflexible mandate would create , not from a lack of commitment.

American assumes for the sake of its argument that Delta committed to uninterrupted

365

- day

- a
- year service in applying for “daily service” for Haneda slot authority . That
assumption is unrealistic and unjustified

. N o carrier seeking to provide “daily service” on a city

pair route has ever committed to provide service 365 day s a year, without exception. NoAnswer of Delta Airlines Page 2

reasonab le airline industry participant could assert otherwise. Indeed, the Department itself has

never believed that to be the case, given its standard 90

- day dormancy co ndi tion. It defies

common sense to conflate the intention to provide “daily service” with an inflexible requirement

of uninterrupted 365

- day

- a
- year service . A ny such commitment would be foolh ardy in light of
the myriad reasons an airline migh t need to cancel or reschedule a flight , as American is well

aware. Indeed, the logic of the position is that American must not be fully committed to any
route for which it would be unwilling to agree to a 365

- day

- a
- year mandate. 1

For those reasons, American ’s contention that Delta’s objections undermine its

commitment to the route are unfounded

. Delta remain s firmly committed to the Haneda route
, so long as it can be flown under conditions consistent with reasonable operational flexibility

. And, a s Delta has explained, the airline stands ready to work with the Department to create slot

condition s that directly a dvance the Department’s public

- interest objectives in a lawful,

reasonable, and even
- handed manner. 2

Respectfully submitted,

_________________________________ Alexander Van der Bellen Managing Director, Regulatory and International Affairs

& Associate General Counsel DELTA AIR LINES, INC.

1 Hawaiian Airlines (“Hawaiian”) also objects to the Order. See Objection of Hawaiian Airlines (Apr. 6, 2015 ri ). The bulk of Hawaiian’s objections are focused on the proposed award of backup authority to American. See id. at 2

- 5. Delta takes no position on that issue , other than to reaffirm its argument that any backup authority award must be subject to the same conditions that govern primary slot authority . I nsofar as Hawaiian repeats its argument that the Haneda

Seattle route is not viable, see id. at 6, the Department has alrea dy considered and rejected that contention , both in initially awarding Delta the Ha neda slot for Seattle service as well is in the Order here (which reexamined that allocation).
2 O ut of an abundance of caution, Delta repeats that its willingness to explore alternative conditions does not waive o r forfeit Delta’ s objection s that the Department lacks the underlying statutory and regulatory authority to rewrite unilaterally the terms and conditions of Delta’s Haneda slot authority. See Delta Objections at 5 n.1; Petition of Delta Air Lines, Inc. for Reconsideration of Order 2 014

- 12

- 9 (Dec. 22, 2014)

.CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
A copy of the foregoing document has been served this 13t h day of April , 2015, upon the following persons via email:

howard.kass@aa.com abigail.donovan@aa.com
robert.wirick@aa.com
charles.hunnicu t t@thompsonhine.com pat.snyder@thompsonhine.com jhill@cooley.com perkmann@cooley.com bberlin@cooley.com dan.weiss@united.com thomas.bolling@united.com steve.morrissey@united.com lhalloway@crowell.com gmurphy@crowell.com

m ike. d onatelli@alpa.org dino.atsalis@alpa.org

m ike. p inho@alpa.org j ohn l

. w hite@alpa.org Ishiwata.K@portseattle.org

s afora. i @portseattle.org
sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com chris.walker@delta.com paul.gretch@dot.gov brian.hedberg@dot.gov brett.kruger@dot.gov todd.homan@dot.gov peter.irvine@dot.gov englets@state.gov cristinasa@state.gov eugene_alford@ita.doc.gov
info@airlineinfo.com