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'•,r,^ I U S Departmen t Assistant Secretary . ;> ;:,ilv, ; l200New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Of Transportation . Washington, DC 20590 

Office of the Secretary 

of Transportation 

JUN 1 0 2010 

The Honorable Chester J. Culver 

Governor of Iowa 

Des Moines, lA 50319 

Dear Governor Culver: 

Thank you for your letter supporting the application for antitrust immunity filed by American 

Airlines and Japan Airlines. I am responding on behalf of the Secretary. 

As you may know, the applicants—members of the oneworld Alliance—are seeking antitrust 

immunity to closely coordinate flights between the United States and Asia. According to the 

application, the alliance partners plan to launch a joint venture for transpacific traffic. 

The application is administered in a public docket, which ensures that interested parties have the 

opportunity to comment. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will evaluate the 

application according to rigorous statutory standards, beginning with a review of the record to 

determine if it is substantially complete. Decisions on the application are made in consultation 

with the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division following a thorough analysis of 

competitive factors. As this matter is now pending, I hope you understand that I cannot 

comment on the merits of the application. I can assure you, however, that DOT will give full 

and fair consideration to the application as well as any comments filed in the docket. 

As is our normal practice, I am placing a copy of your letter and this response in Docket 

DOT-OST-2010-0059 as a contact outside the record in this matter. I appreciate your interest in 

this proceeding. 

Sincerely yours. 

^JJ ^ 

Susan L. Kurland 

Assistant Secretary for 

Aviation and International Affairs 
SI 0-100415-01 1 

CHESTER J. CULVER OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR p^^n-y JUDGE 

GOVERNOR LT. GOVERNOR 

April 07. 2010 

The Honorable Raymond H. LaHood 

Secretary 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Ave, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

Docket DOT-OST-2010-

Dear Mr. Secretary: 

Thank you for the opportunity to express my support for the application for antitrust 

immunity and proposed joint business agreement filed by American Airlines and Japan 

Airlines. The proposed alliance between these two airlines is vital for the oneworld 

alliance to compete effectively with the Star and SkyTeam alliances. This increased 

alliance competition will in turn enhance the benefits of the Department's Open Skies 

policy- first by solidifying U.S. - Japan Open Skies, then by serving as a foundation for 

further liberalization across Asia. 

After a thorough review, I encourage the Department of Transportation to approve this 

application as it would enable these one world alliance airlines to work closely together 

to deliver highly competitive air transportation services. Approval for AA/JAL alliance 

will have a positive impact on air travel by offering customers more service, scheduling 

and pricing options and will help to ensure that customers continue to benefit from the 

competition afforded by three competitive air alliances. 

I urge you to quickly approve this application. 

Chester J. Culver 

Governor of Iowa 

STATE CAPITOL DES MOINES, IOWA 50 3 1 9 515.281.521 1 FAX 5 1 5.2 8 1 .66 1 1 WWW.GOVERNOR.IOWA.GOV 

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