U.S. Department of Transportation Office ofthe Secretary OfTransportation 

### May 16,2012

Mr. RobertE. Cohn Counsel for PeopleExpress Airlines, Inc. Hogan Lovells US LLP 555 Thirteenth St. NW Washington, DC 20004 Re: DocketDOT-OST-2012-0042 ApplicationofPeopleExpress Airlines, Inc., f7 II, 

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### For a Certificate ofPublicConvenience and Necessity DearMr. Cohn: 1200 New JerseyAve., 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, PEXfiled 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 torule onthe 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 treatmentby 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) ifit is (1) 

### commercial or financial, (2) obtained from a person outside of government, and (3) privileged orconfidential (Gulfand Western Industries, Inc. v. UnitedStates, 

### 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 ofthe information is likely to have either ofthe following effects: (1) 

### impair the Government's2 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 (Gulfand Western Industries, Inc. v. United States, 615F.2d 527,530 (D.C. Cir. 1979)). In its motion, PEXrequested thatthe Departmentwithhold thefollowing information: 1. Engagement letterbetweenPEX and WR Hambrecht +Co ("ExhibitPEX-IR-6") 2. Boeing 737-400 LeaseProposal and Acceptance document ("ExhibitPEX-IR-7") 3. PEX Stock SubscriptionAgreement ("Exhibit PEX-IR-8") 4. PEX Stockholders Agreement ("ExhibitPEX-IR-9") 5. PEX StockJournal ("ExhibitPEX-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 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 seekjudicial review ofthis decision. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. If you have any questions regarding this letter, please feel free to contact Katy O'Tooleofmy staffat (202) 366-9998 or via email at Catherine.O'Toole@dot.gov.

L u lynJ. Remo Ch1ef, Air CarrierFitness Division Office ofAviationAnalysis

cc: DocketDOT-OST-2012-0042 Mr. Michael Morisi President PeopleExpress Airlines, Inc.Nicholas Scarpinato, Jr. Manager, WashingtonFSDO Federal AviationAdministration 3