UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Served: March 28 , 20 1 3

NOTICE TO EXTEND COMMENT PERIOD

On March 11, 2013, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) filed for

approval under Part 303 of our Economic Regulations new IATA Resolution 787

(Enhanced Ai rline Distribution) that was adopted by the 34 th IATA Passenger Services

Conference during its October 18

- 19, 2012 meeting. 1 IATA states that Resolution 787

establishes a process for developing a new electronic data interchange standard for airline

distri bution communications using Extensible Markup Language (XML). IATA states

further that Resolution 787 also refers to a New Distribution Capability, or NDC, that

would address various distribution improvements, which, if adopted in the market, the

new XML standard would be capable of supporting.

Under our regulations, answers to IATA’s application would be due on April 1, 2013.

On March 18, we received a motion from the Open Allies for Airfare Transparency

(Open Allies) to require IATA to produce additi onal documents or, in the alternative, to

extend the comment period. 2 Open Allies asks us to require IATA to produce all

documents in its possession, whether authored by IATA or not, relating to Resolution 787

or NDC. 3 Open Allies states that in light of the “critically important and complex issues

raised here,” even if no additional documents are produced, it will still require at least 30

days beyond the current comment deadline to prepare and submit appropriate comments. 4

On March 26, IATA responded t o Open Allies’ Motion. IATA states that it recognizes

that Resolution 787 has engendered a great deal of interest and that a number of parties,

including parties outside the United States, might wish to comment. Accordingly, it

1 IATA specifies that it is not seeking antitrust immunity.

2 According to its motion “Open Allies is a coalition of nearly 400 independent distributors and sellers of

air travel, corporate travel departments, travel trade associations and consumer organizations that believe

that air travelers should be able to see, compare and buy the total price of their airfare.” Motion, at 1.

3 Open Allies’ Motion includes an itemized list of those documents that, at a minimum, Open Allies

believe s IATA should be required to produce.

4 Motion, at 10, n. 7. Agreement Adopted by the of the International Air Transport Associ ation as

Resolution 787

Docket DOT

- OST

- 201 3

- 00 4 82 states that it does not op pose a reasonable extension of the comment period, and it

specifically proposes April 25, 2013. 5

In the circumstances presented, we have decided to extend the answer date on IATA’s

application for approval of Resolution 787 from April 1 to May 1, 2013. 6 We will defer

our decision on that portion of the Open Allies’ Motion seeking production of documents.

IATA itself recognizes the benefit of giving interested persons additional time to

c omment on its application, and we do not regard according Open Allies the full 30

- day

extension they have requested, which is just under one week more than IATA is in fact

proposing, as prejudicial to IATA or detrimental to the public interest.

Accordingly,

We extend the answer date on IATA’s application in the captioned docket for approval of

Resolution 787 until May 1, 2013. We will serve this notice on all parties on the service

lists attached to IATA’s application and to Open Allies’ Motion, as well as on all parties

that have already filed comments in the captioned d ocket.

By:

PAUL L. GRETCH

Director, Office of International Aviation

(SEAL)

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

http:// www.regulations.gov

5 IATA takes no position at this time on the request for document production, believing that this issue is

more properly considered as part of the comment process on its application.

6 Interested persons are reminded that they are required to serve any comments intended for inclusion in the

record on the applicant and on the persons on the service list s attached to the application and to the Motion,

as well as on other persons who have already for mally commented o n the record of the proceeding.