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

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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, 2015
BEFORE 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

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)

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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 Inc. (“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 

statement 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 daily earround 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 unjustified 365-day-a-year service mandate in no way diminish 

Delta’s commitment and manifest efforts 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. No carrier seeking to provide “daily service” on a citypair route has ever committed to provide service 365 days a year, without exception. No 
Answer of Delta Airlines

Page 2

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

never believed that to be the case, given its standard 90-day dormancy condition. It defies 

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

of uninterrupted 365-day-a-year service. Any such commitment would be foolhardy in light of 

the myriad reasons an airline might 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 remains firmly committed to the Haneda route, 

so long as it can be flown under conditions consistent with reasonable operational flexibility. 

And, as Delta has explained, the airline stands ready to work with the Department to create slot

conditions that directly advance 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, 2015ri). 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. Insofar as Hawaiian repeats its argument that the HanedaSeattle route is not viable, see id. at 6, the Department has already considered and rejected that 

contention, both in initially awarding Delta the Haneda slot for Seattle service as well is in the 

Order here (which reexamined that allocation).

2 Out of an abundance of caution, Delta repeats that its willingness to explore alternative 

conditions does not waive or forfeit Delta’s objections 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 2014-12-9 (Dec. 22, 2014).

 
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

A copy of the foregoing document has been served this 13th day of April, 2015, upon the 

following persons via email:

howard.kass@aa.com

abigail.donovan@aa.com

robert.wirick@aa.com

charles.hunnicutt@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

mike.donatelli@alpa.org

dino.atsalis@alpa.org

mike.pinho@alpa.org

johnl.white@alpa.org

Ishiwata.K@portseattle.org

safora.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