U.S. Department of

Transportation

Office of the Secretary

of Transportation

DEPARTMENT ACTION ON APPLICATION IN DOCKET DOT-OST-2005-22464

(Filed October 13, 2011)

Application of Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. (Swiss) for an amended blanket 

statement of authorization to display the “CO” designator code of Continental Airlines, 

Inc. (Continental) on flights operated by Swiss (a) between any point in Switzerland and 

any point in the United States (either nonstop or via third country intermediate points);

(b) between any points within Switzerland in conjunction with services held out by 

Continental between the United States and Switzerland (either nonstop or via third 

country intermediate points); and (c) between any points in the United States or 

Switzerland and any points in any third country.

1 2

* Approved under assigned authority (14 CFR §385.13).

 Date of Action: October 18, 20113

This action is subject to the conditions attached. Persons entitled to petition the Department for review of this action 

under the Department’s regulations, 14 CFR §385.30, should file their petitions within seven days of the date of this 

action. This action is effective immediately, and the filing of a petition for review will not alter its effectiveness.

An electronic version of this document is available on the World Wide Web at

http://www.regulations.gov

 1 Swiss’ current blanket statement of authorization permits is to display the “UA” designator code of United Air 

Lines, Inc. (United) on flights operated by Swiss (a) between any point in Switzerland and any point in the United 

States (either nonstop or via third country intermediate points); (b) between any points within Switzerland in 

conjunction with services held out by United between the United States and Switzerland (either nonstop or via third 

country intermediate points); and (c) between any point in Switzerland or the United States and any point in any third 

country (see Department action dated .October 19, 2005, in this Docket). Swiss seeks to amend that authority here 

to also include parallel code-share services by Swiss with Continental. 2 Pursuant to the Department’s Notice In the Matter of Blanket Notification of Code-Share Service to Open Skies 

Partners and Points dated February 9, 2009, the applicant provided blanket notification of its intent to engage in 

code-share services between any point or points in the United States and any point or points in Switzerland (on a 

nonstop basis and via open-skies points); between U.S. points; between points in Switzerland; beyond Switzerland to 

any open-skies point or points; and beyond the United States to any open-skies point or points. The applicant states

that it will provide the Department 30-day notice before commencing code-share services to or from non-open skies 

points.

3 We acted on this application without awaiting expiration of the answer period with the consent of all parties served 

with the application.
APPENDIX A

The code-share operations authorized here are subject to the following conditions:

(a) The statement of authorization will remain in effect only as long as (i) Swiss and Continental

continue to hold the necessary underlying authority to operate the code-share services at issue, and (ii) 

the code-share agreement providing for the code-share operations remains in effect.

(b) Swiss and/or Continental, as appropriate, must notify the Department no later than 30 days before 

they begin any new code-share service under the code-share services authorized here. Such notice shall 

identify the market(s) to be served, which carrier will be operating the aircraft in the code-share market 

added, and the date on which the service will begin. Such notice should be filed in Docket DOT-OST2005-22464.

(c) Swiss and/or Continental, as appropriate, must promptly notify the Department if the code-share 

agreement providing for the code-share operations is no longer effective or if the carriers decide to cease 

operating all or a portion of the approved code-share services. Such notice should be filed in Docket 

DOT-OST-2005-22464.

4

(d) The code-sharing operations conducted under this authority must comply with 14 CFR 257 and with 

any amendments to the Department’s regulations concerning code-share arrangements that may be 

adopted. Notwithstanding any provisions in the contract between the carriers, our approval here is 

expressly conditioned upon the requirements that the subject foreign air transportation be sold in the 

name of the carrier holding out such service in the computer reservation systems and elsewhere; that the 

carrier selling such transportation (i.e., the carrier shown on the ticket) accept responsibility for the 

entirety of the code-share journey for all obligations established in its contract of carriage with the 

passenger; that the passenger liability of the operating carrier be unaffected; and that the operating carrier 

shall not permit the code of its U.S. code-sharing partner to be carried on any flight that enters, departs, 

or transits the airspace of any area for whose airspace the Federal Aviation Administration has issued a 

flight prohibition.

(e) The authority to operate to third countries is subject to the condition that any service provided under 

the statement of authorization shall be consistent with all applicable agreements between the United 

States and the foreign countries involved. Furthermore, (i) nothing in the award of this blanket statement 

of authorization should be construed as conferring upon Continental rights (including code-share, fifth 

freedom intermediate and/or beyond rights) to serve markets where U.S. carrier entry is limited unless 

Continental notifies the Department of its intent to serve such a market and unless and until the 

Department has completed any necessary carrier selection procedures to determine which carrier(s) 

should be authorized to exercise such rights; and (ii) should there be a request by any carrier to use the 

limited-entry route rights that are included in the authority of Continental by virtue of the blanket 

statement of authorization granted here, but that are not then being used by Continental, the holding of 

such authority will not be considered as providing any preference for Continental in a competitive carrier 

selection proceeding to determine which carrier(s) should be entitled to use the authority at issue.5

(f) The authority granted here is specifically conditioned so that neither Swiss nor Continental shall give 

any force or effect to any contractual provisions between themselves that are contrary to these conditions.

We may amend, modify, or revoke the authority granted at any time without hearing at our discretion.

 4 We expect this notification to be received within ten (10) days after such non-effectiveness or of such decision. 5 The notice in paragraph (b) above can be used for this notification.