U.S. Department of 

Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

of Transportation 

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 of People Express Airlines, Inc., 

1 

!. 

For a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity 

Dear Mr. Cohn: 

'. 

1200 New Jersey 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. The purpose of this letter is to rule on the motion. 

In its motion, PEX states that "disclosure of the 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 of disclosure found 

in the Freedom of Information 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(f and 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 or confidential--whether"disclosure of the information 

is likely to have either of the 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 Conservation Association v. Morton, 498 F.2d 765,770 (D.C. Cir.l974)). 
2 

Further, to be privileged or confidential, the information must not be of the type that is usually released 

to the public (Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. v. United States, 615F.2d 527,530 (D.C. Cir. 1979)). 

In its motion, PEX provided the following two documents updated with citizenship information pursuant 

to theDepartment's May 30, 2012 information request. The Department had previously ruled that these 

documents be granted confidential treatment. 1 

1. Revised Stock Subscription Agreement ("Exhibit PEX-IR2-1 ") 

2. Updated Stock Journal ("Exhibit PEX-IR2-2") 

The Department views stockholder agreements as being confidential and proprietary information, and 

concludes that their public disclosure will provide no public benefit but result in competitive harm to 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 

of the major shareholders and the capitalization and citizenship of the 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 of the receipt of this 

letter, the applicant files with this office a petition for reconsideration or a written statement in good 

faith of its intent to seek judicial review of this decision. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. 

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please feel free to contact Katy O'Toole of my staff at 

(202) 366-9998 or via email at Catherine.O'Toole@dot.gov. 

Chief, Air Carrier Fitness Division 

Office of Aviation Analysis 

cc: Docket DOT-OST-2012-0042 

Mr. Michael Morisi 

President 

People Express Airlines, Inc. 

Nicholas Scarpinato, Jr. 

Manager, Washington FSDO 

Federal Aviation Administration 

See Docket DOT-OST-2012-0042 Ruling on Motion of People Express Airlines, Inc. for Confidential Treatment of 

Documents, May 16, 2012.