U.S. Department of 

Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

Of Transportation 

May 16,2012 

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., 

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For a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity 

Dear Mr. Cohn: 

1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E. 

Washington, DC 20590 

On March 19, 2012, People Express Airlines, Inc. ("PEX"), filed an application in Docket DOTOST-2012-0042 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. In connection with this 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 ... access 

by competitors, aircraft suppliers, or other third-parties to the information contained in these 

confidential exhibits would adversely impact PEX's commercial negotiation position, future 

plans, relationships with current and future stockholders, and competitive posture as a start-up 

airline." -

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 (Gulf 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 outsi~e 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 
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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.1974)). 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 requested that the Department withhold the following information: 

1. Engagement letter between PEX and WR Hambrecht +Co ("Exhibit PEX-IR-6") 

2. Boeing 737-400 Lease Proposal and Acceptance document ("Exhibit PEX-IR-7") 

3. PEX Stock Subscription Agreement ("Exhibit PEX-IR-8") 

4. PEX Stockholders Agreement ("Exhibit PEX-IR-9") 

5. PEX Stock Journal ("Exhibit PEX-IR-10") 

We have decided to grant confidential treatment to Exhibits PEX-IR -6 and PEX IR -7. The 

Department generally grants confidential treatment to contractual agreements and we see no 

reason not to do so here. Additionally, 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. Therefore, we grant confidential treatment to Exhibits PEX-IR-8,-9 and -10 except 

that we will withhold the stockholder information in PEX-IR-10 only to the extent that the 

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. 

L u lyn J. Remo 

Ch1ef, 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 

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