,

u.s.Depa ••i,.nt of

TransportatIon

Office of the secretary

of Transportation

July 31, 2013

Mr, John R Mietus, Jr,

Counsel for Orange Air, Inc,

6701 Democracy Blvd" Suite 300

Bethesda, MD 20817-7500

Dear Mr. Mietus:

;~i-'ARTI!.ENT Or-

. ,~j"SPORTATIO~~

~.~,DO?ERATIWS

1m :'I!G- I A 10: 28

1200 New Jersey Avenue, Sf

Wo,h;nglon, DC 20590

This letter references the July 17,2013, request you submitted (0 the Department on behalf

of Orange Air, Inc, (Orange Air), for a waiver from the dormancy provisions of g204,7(a)

of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, That section provides that-

"an air carrier that has not commenced any type of air transportation

operations for which it was found fit, willing, and able within one year of

the date of that finding, or an air carrier that, for any period of one year after

the date of such a finding, has not provided any type of air transportation for

which that kind of finding is required, is deemed no longer to continue to be

fit to provide the air transportation for which it was found fit and,

accordingly, its authority to provide such air transportation shall be

revoked,"

As you are aware, by Order 2011-11-31, issued November 28, 2011, the Department found

Orange Air fit to engage in interstate and foreign charter passenger operations, The

effectiveness of the air carrier's authority was conditioned upon Orange Air fulfilling a

number of conditions, including providing us with a copy of its Air Carrier Certificate and

Operations Specifications issued by the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA")

authorizing such operations, The Department granted Orange Air until November 28,

2012, to make its authority effective, otherwise, the air carrier would be subject to the

revocation for dormancy provisions of g204,7(a). By letter dated November 27,2012, the

Department granted Orange Air additional time, until March 31, 2013, to make its authority

effective, Subsequently, on March 29, 2013, the Department orally granted Orange Air a

second waiver of the dormancy provisions until July 31,2013, which we confirmed in a

letter dated April 17, 2013.

In your July 17,2013, letter, you indicate that Orange Air continues to work closely with

the FAA, and the air carrier is in its final stages of the FAA certification process. However,

you state that the air carrier will not be able to commence operations by July 31, 2013, due
,

2

to FAA delays caused by limited agency resources. Therefore, Orange Air requests that the

Department grant the air carrier a waiver from S204.7(a) until November 30, 2013, to

commence operations. In support of its waiver request, Orange Air submitted updated

fitness information pertaining to the air carrier's ownership, citizenship, finances, and

personnel.

Upon review of this information, we conclude that Orange Air continues to remain a U.S.

citizen, has adequately qualified key personnel, has access to sufficient financial resources,

and remains fit, willing, and able to commence its proposed operations. In addition, the

FAA has advised us that Orange Air is making satisfactory progress toward obtaining its

FAA certificate, and that the agency knows of no reason why we should not grant the

requested waiver. The FAA states that it fully expects that Orange Air will commence its

proposed operations within the time frame indicated by the air carrier. Therefore, under

the cirCutl1stances,we grant Orange Air's request for a waiver from S204.7(a). This waiver

extension will expire on November 30, 2013.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me

at (202)366-9721.

Sincerely,

Vanessa R. Balgobin

Transportation Industry Analyst

Air Carrier Fitness Division

cc: Dockets DOT-OST-2011-0073 and DOT-OST-2011-0074

Mr. Jeffrey Hipps

Mr. Charley Beers

FAA Orlando CMO-29

5950 Hazeltine National Dr.

Orlando, FL 32822