July 18 , 2013

U.S. Department of Transportation

Docket Operations

West Building Ground Floor, Room W12

- 140

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20590

Subject: Petition for Exemption

Reference: Flightcrew Member Duty and Rest Requirements

Dear Sir or Madam:

In accordance with the provisions of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) §11.63 and §11.81,

Airlines for America and the Regional Airline Association, on behalf of their members that carry

passengers (See enclosure 1) and similarly

- situated air carriers, petition for a limited exemption from 14

CFR 121 subparts Q, R and S (part 121 FDT)

, which prescribe flight time limits and rest requirements for

U.S. carriers

, to operate under pending 14 CFR part 117 flightcrew member duty a nd rest requirements.

Specifically, we request that FAA permit U.S. airlines that carry passengers the option to implement 14

CFR part 117 early, between December 9 , 2013 and January 4, 2014 to reduce the potential impact on

the flying public and reduce the regulatory burden of implementing a significant new regulation

.

B ackground

On January 4, 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a final rule adopting new

flightcrew duty and rest rules applicable to U.S . passenger carrying airlines. 1 The FAA provided a two

year implementation period, with an effective date of January 4, 2014. U.S. passenger airlines have been

working diligently to implement part 117 over the past 18 months and will continue to do so un til the

effective date of the regulation.

Implementation Flexibility

The part 117 effective date falls during an extremely busy time period for passengers and airlines and

flexibility is needed to provide carri ers options to avoid potential disruptions to the national airspace

system (NAS) . Major system changes over the p ast several years have disrupted passenger travel, a

scenario this exemption will help avoid. For example, a Customs and Border Protection computer glitch

at Los Angeles ai rport resulted in delaying thousands of passengers for several hours. 2 In addition, the

holiday season is one of the highest load factor time periods during the year, so glitches in the NAS

, should they occur, would impact more travelers and will make recover y efforts more difficult . Finally, most

1 77 Fed. Reg. 330.

2 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007

- 08

- 12

- lax

- glitch_N.htm ; See also FAA system delays

http://abc news.go.com/Travel/BusinessTraveler/faa

- computer

- glitch

- delays

- flights

- nationwide/story?id=9124958#.UcivUOXD_Gg ; United and Continental merger system delays http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/major

- computer

- failures

- delay

- united

airlines

- passengers

- country

- article

- 1.1146600Petition for Exemption

– Part 117 Implementation

Page 2

July 1 8 , 2013

air carrier s run flightcrew member schedules on a monthly or multi

- week basis

. This exemption will

alleviate the programming burden of b uilding one flightcrew schedule under part 121 FDT rules for the

first four days of J anuary 2014 and building another schedule to meet part 117 for the remaining 27 days

of January 2014

.

The Applicable Regulations and Relief Sought

U.S. airlines that carry passengers currently operate under part 121 FDT regulations. We seek

exemption from 14 CFR subparts Q, R and S , which p rescribe the flight time limits and rest requirements

for U.S. carriers

.

Reasons for seeking the relief include:

1) The exemption is narrowly focused seeking a short window for carriers to implement part

117

. 2) Permitting carriers to implement on different days will reduce the impact and system

vulnerability of an entire industry switching crew planning software and algorithms the same

day

. 3) The exemption time period will assist carriers in avoiding the heaviest holiday travel days

. 4) It will ease the burden of building two different crew schedules to accommodate two different

regulations in the same month.

5) FAA support and resources needed during the implementation will also be spread out

.

Without the requested relief all carriers will implement new scheduling protocols on the same day,

increasing the risk of software or operational issues

.

Therefore, for those carriers who wish to begin implementing part 117 FDT rules before January 4, 2014,

we request relief from the requirement to operate under existing part 121 FDT regulations starting as

early as December 9 , 2013 and to instead operate under part 117.

Granting the Exemption Would be in the Public Interest

Absent this relief, every U.S. airline that carrier s passengers will implement part 117 on January 4, 2014.

If any one or several carriers have glitches in the reprogrammed crew scheduling software, the traveling

public will be impacted because scheduling detailed and extensive flightcrew duty and rest requirements

and matching those schedules with aircraft that operate around the world is an extremely complex

process. While carriers will make every effort to prevent and recover from anomolies, solutions will be

complex and time co nsuming that could result in significant impacts to the traveling public. In addition,

l oad factors on aircraft are high; therefore, abundant capacity is not available to recover when there are

cancellations or delays.

Granting the Exemption Would Not Adversely Affect Safety

Operating under part 117 early will not adverse ly impact safety ; airlines will apply what the FAA has

determined to be an improved regulation

.

A Summary of this Petition that FAA Could Publish in the Federal Register

Petitioners: Airlines for America and the Regional Airline Association

Affected Regulations: 14 CFR 121 subparts Q, R and S

.

Summary of Relief Sought: The relief would provide U.S. airlines that carry passengers the option to

implement new pilot duty and rest requirements up to one week early.Petition for Exemption

– Part 117 Implementation

Page 3

July 1 8 , 2013

Granting this exemption is in the public interest as it avoids potentia l, unpredictable disruptions in

passenger airline service

.

Reasons for Exercising the Privileges of the Requested Ex emption Outside the United States.

Application of this exemption outside the U.S. is required because new FAA pilot duty time and rest

regulations that apply to U.S. a irline s that carry passengers do not distinguish between domestic and

international opera tions. Part 117 applies to scheduling of flightcrew members worldwide.

Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, we respectfully request an exemption from the requirements of 14 CFR 121

subparts Q, R, and S for the period of December 9 , 2013 to January 4, 2014 for those carriers who elect

to implement part 117 early

.

Respectfully submitted July 1 8 , 2013 by:

Dan iel K. Elwell Scott Foose

Senior Vice President, Safety, Senior Vice President, Operations and Safety

Security and Operations Regional Airline Association

Airlines for America 2025 M Street, NW

1301 Pennsylvania Ave nue, NW Suite 800

Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20036

Washington, DC 20004

Enclosures/

cc:

Mr. John Allen

Federal Aviation Administration

Director, Flight Standards Service, AFS

- 1

800 Independence Ave., SW

Washington, DC 20591

Mr. John Duncan

Federal Aviation Administration

Deputy Director for Policy, Flight Standards, AFS

- 2P

800 Independence Ave., SW

Washington, DC 20591Petition for Exemption

– Part 117 Implementation

Page 4

July 1 8 , 2013

Mr. Les Smith

Federal Aviation Administration

Flight Standards Service

Air Transport Division, AFS

- 200

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.,

Washington, DC 20591

Mr. Dale Roberts

Federal Aviation Administration

Flight Standards Service

Air Transport Division, AFS

- 200

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.,

Washington, DC 20591Enclosure 1

Passenger Airline Association Members

Airlines for America Regional Airline Association

Alaska Airlines Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp.

American Airlines AirNet Systems

Atlas Air, Inc. American Eagle Airlines

Delta Air Lines, Inc. Chautauqua Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. Champlain Enterprises

JetBlue Airways Corp. Compass Airlines

Southwest Airlines Co. Empire Airlines

United Air l ines, Inc. Era Aviation

US Airways, Inc. ExpressJet Airlines

Air Canada (Associate Member) GoJet Airlines

Grand Canyon Airlines

Great Lakes Aviation

Hawaii Island Air

Horizon Air Industries

Hyannis Air Service (Cape Air)

Jazz A viation

Mesa Air lines

New England Airlines

Piedmont Airlines

Pinnacle Airlines

PSA Airlines

Republic Airlines

Seaborne Airlines

Shuttle America Corp.

Silver Airways Corp.

SkyWest Airlines

Trans States Airlines