U.S.Departmentof Transportation OfficeoftheSecretary ofTransportation July 26, 2012
Mr. Robert E. Cohn Counsel for People Express Airlines, Inc. Hogan Lovells US LLP 555 Thirteenth St. NW Washington, DC 20004 Re: Docket DOT-OST-2012-0042 Application ofPeople Express Airlines, Inc., 1 !.

For aCertificate ofPublic Convenience and Necessity DearMr. Cohn: 

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1200 NewJersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590

On March 19, 2012, People Express Airlines, Inc. ("PEX"), filed an application in Docket DOT-OST2012-0042 for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to conduct interstate scheduled air transportation. PEX supplemented its application with additional information on April 27, 2012 and June 20, 2012. In connection with its latest filing, PEX filed a motion for confidential treatment under 14 CFR 302.12 (Rule 12) of our Procedural Regulations for certain information the company was providing. Thepurpose ofthis letter is to rule on the motion. In its motion, PEX states that "disclosure ofthe information for which it seeks confidential treatment would not only impair the Department's ability to obtain such information in the future, but would also cause substantial harm to People Express' competitive position." And, "the type of detailed business, financial, and commercially sensitive information at issue here is not otherwise required to be publicly disclosed." Rule 12 instructs us to evaluate requests for confidential treatment by the standards ofdisclosure found in the Freedom ofInformation Act (5 U.S.C. section 552). Information may be withheld from disclosure under 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4) if it is (1) commercial or financial, (2) obtained from a person outside of government, and (3) privileged or confidential (Gu(fand Western Industries, Inc. v. United States, 615F.2d 527, 529 (D.C. Cir. 1979)). There is no question that the information for which PEX seeks confidential treatment is financial or commercial in nature and that it was obtained from a person outside the government. The remaining question is whether the information is privileged orconfidential--whether"disclosure ofthe information is likely to have either ofthe following effects: (1) impair the Government's ability to obtain necessary information; or (2) cause substantial harm to the competitive position from whom the information was obtained" (National Parks and ConservationAssociation v. Morton, 498 F.2d 765,770 (D.C. Cir.l974)).2 Further, to be privileged or confidential, the information must not be ofthe type that is usually released to the public (Gulfand Western Industries, Inc. v. United States, 615F.2d 527,530 (D.C. Cir. 1979)). In its motion, PEXprovided the following two documents updated with citizenship information pursuant to theDepartment's May 30, 2012 informationrequest. The Departmenthad previouslyruled that these documents be granted confidential treatment. 1 1. Revised Stock SubscriptionAgreement ("ExhibitPEX-IR2-1") 2. Updated StockJournal ("ExhibitPEX-IR2-2") The Department views stockholder agreements as being confidential and proprietary information, and concludes that theirpublic disclosure will provide no publicbenefitbutresult in competitiveharmto the company and its existing and prospective stockholders. Additionally, this information had previously been granted confidential treatment. Therefore, we grant confidential treatment to Exhibits PEX-IR2-1 and PEX-IR2-2 except that we will withhold the stockholder information in PEX-IR2-2 only to the extent thatthe information has not been disclosed in the application or is not pertinent to our discussion ofthe major shareholders and the capitalization and citizenship ofthe applicant. Under Rule 12, the information identified above for which confidential treatment is not granted, will be released to any person requesting it unless, within 5 (business) days from the date ofthe receipt ofthis letter, the applicant files with this office a petition for reconsideration or a written statement in good faith ofits intent to seekjudicialreview ofthis decision. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Ifyou have any questions regarding this letter, please feel free to contact Katy O'Toole ofmy staff at (202) 366-9998 orvia email at Catherine.O'Toole@dot.gov.

Chief, Air CarrierFitness Division Office ofAviationAnalysis

cc: DocketDOT-OST-2012-0042 Mr. Michael Morisi President People Express Airlines, Inc. Nicholas Scarpinato, Jr. Manager, WashingtonFSDO Federal AviationAdministration

See DocketDOT-OST-2012-0042 Ruling onMotionofPeopleExpress Airlines, Inc. for Confidential Treatmentof Documents, May 16, 2012.