BEFORE THE

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

WASHINGTON, DC

_____

)

Motion of )

)

AIRLINES for AMERICA (A4A) ) 

REGIONAL AIRLINES ASSOCIATION (RAA) ) Docket DOT-OST-2013-____

)

for a temporary exemption from )

14 C.F.R. § 259.4 )

)

MOTION OF AIRLINES FOR AMERICA (A4A)

AND REGIONAL AIRLINES ASSOCIATION 

FOR A TEMPORARY EXEMPTION FROM 14 C.F.R. § 259.4 

Communications with respect to this document should be addressed to:

DATED: April 19, 2013

NOTICE: Answers to this motion are due on or before April 26, 2013. 

Copies of such answers should be served upon the undersigned.

DAVID A. BERG

Senior Vice President, General 

Counsel and Secretary

AIRLINES FOR AMERICA

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20004

Telephone: (202) 626-4234

Fax: (202) 626-4139

dberg@airlines.org

ROGER COHEN

President

REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION

2025 M Street, NW

Washington, DC 20036

Telephone: (202) 367-1250

Fax: (202) 367-2170

cohen@raa.org
BEFORE THE

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

WASHINGTON, DC

_____

)

Motion of )

)

AIRLINES for AMERICA (A4A) ) 

REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION (RAA) )

 ) Docket DOT-OST-2013-_______

for a temporary exemption from )

14 C.F.R. § 259.4 )

)

DATED: April 19, 2013

MOTION OF AIRLINES FOR AMERICA (A4A)

AND REGIONAL AIRLINES ASSOCIATION 

FOR A TEMPORARY EXEMPTION FROM 14 C.F.R. § 259.4

Airlines for America (“A4A”) and Regional Airline Association (“RAA”), 

pursuant to 14 C.F.R. § 302.11 and 49 U.S.C. § 40109(c), hereby requests that the 

Department grant a temporary exemption from its tarmac-delay regulations under 

14 C.F.R. § 259.4 for a period of at least 90 days or until the Federal Aviation 

Administration (“FAA”) sequestration furloughs end, whichever is longer, due to the 

substantial delay and disruption to air travel that will occur at U.S. airports from the 

FAA decision to implement daily ground delays and reduce air traffic control 

personnel as part of its sequestration implementation plan adopted in response to 

the Budget Control Act of 2011. Granting this exemption is in the public interest as 

it will provide airlines with some operational flexibility to help address delays and 

disruptions caused by the FAA’s sequestration plan.

In support of its motion for a temporary exemption from the tarmac-delay 

regulations, A4A states the following:
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 2

1. Just this week, the FAA informed A4A and RAA and its member 

airlines that, as part of its sequestration implementation plan, effective April 21, 

2013, the FAA will implement daily ground delays at seven major U.S. airports that 

will result in the delay of approximately 3,800 flights daily. These seven airports are 

among the busiest in the United States, and include Newark Liberty International 

Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, La Guardia Airport, Fort 

Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, 

San Diego International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport. The FAA

has also determined that an additional six major U.S. airports will require daily traffic 

management initiatives resulting in approximately 2,900 additional daily flights being 

delayed. These six airports also are among the busiest in the United States, and 

include Philadelphia International Airport, Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, 

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Miami International Airport, Chicago 

Midway International Airport, and San Francisco International Airport. Most of these 

13 airports are major hubs for U.S. airlines, and the projected flight delays threaten 

to wreak havoc on the carriers’ networks, impacting hundreds of cities across the 

United States from which traffic is routed through these hub airports by delaying

other flights and forcing passengers to miss connections. Combined, these 13 

airports are expected to experience delays to approximately 6,700 daily flights, even 

assuming good weather, no additional FAA staffing issues, or any other issues that 

could affect daily operations. The potential amount of daily flight delays projected 

by the FAA is alarming, especially considering that, in all of 2012, the most flight 

delays experienced on a single day in the United States was less than half this 
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 3

amount (2,994 flights). These flight delays will continue at least until the end of the 

current fiscal year (September 30, 2013).

2. A4A, RAA and their members were notified on Tuesday, April 16, 

2013 of the FAA’s plans to impose these drastic delays have had no time or 

opportunity to identify and plan for all of the system-wide impacts of these delays. 

The projected flight delays are expected to impact airlines and their passengers just 

as the heavy peak summer traffic season begins. Flights have already been sold 

months in advance, planes will be full, and delays and flight cancellations will result 

in turmoil for the traveling public. Airlines’ existing flight schedules were devised

and implemented in good faith based on the airlines’ (and the traveling public’s) 

reasonable expectation that the FAA would be able to accommodate certain flight 

volumes at the affected airports. The FAA’s delay plan, however, may make it 

impossible for airlines to operate these set flight schedules that passengers are 

relying upon without substantial delays and last-minute cancellations. 

3. The Department’s tarmac-delay regulations under 14 C.F.R. § 259.4

prohibit an air carrier from allowing aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than 

three hours in the case of domestic flights, and for more than four hours in the case 

of international flights, before allowing passengers to deplane, except in certain 

limited situations where safety or security prevent the aircraft from leaving its 

position on the tarmac or when air traffic control advises that returning to the gate or 

other disembarkation point would “significantly disrupt airport operations.”

4. Concerns about compliance with DOT’s tarmac-delay regulations 

threaten to make this critical situation caused by the FAA’s flight-delay plan even 
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 4

worse. In order to avoid violating DOT’s tarmac-delay rules and being subjected to 

substantial civil penalties, airlines may be forced to cancel flights and significantly 

disrupt the travel plans of their passengers. During this period of FAA-imposed 

daily ground delays, airlines will be forced to operate in unprecedented and highly 

unpredictable circumstances where the only certainty seems to be that there will be 

substantial delays even if no one can predict how extensive those delays may be at 

a particular airport on a particular day or for a particular flight. In these 

circumstances, airlines may feel compelled to return aircraft to the gate in order to 

avoid violating Part 259, thereby further complicating an already bad traffic situation 

at these impacted airports. This in turn could create excessive ground congestion 

as the demand for access to gates exceeds the supply, and airlines and airport 

operators struggle to ensure an adequate supply of jet stairs and passenger holding 

areas within airport terminals.

5. In order to avoid exacerbating the scale and effect of projected flight 

delays and resulting flight cancellations on airline operations and to avoid even 

worse disruption to passenger travel plans due to flight delays and cancellations, 

A4A and RAA requests that the Department grant a temporary exemption from § 

259.4 of the tarmac-delay regulations for a period of at least 90 days or until the 

Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) sequestration furloughs end, whichever is 

longer. Such a temporary exemption will provide airlines with the operating 

flexibility necessary to focus on responding to the FAA’s projected delays in ways 

that minimize disruptions for the traveling public. 
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 5

6. To be clear, A4A and RAA are not proposing that DOT suspend the 

effectiveness of the tarmac regulations in general. On the contrary, our requested 

exemption is narrowly tailored and would only apply for a temporary period at all 

U.S. airports. The exemption request includes only the rules prohibiting air carriers 

from allowing aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than three hours in the case 

of domestic flights, and for more than four hours in the case of international flights, 

before allowing passengers to deplane, and is intended to provide airlines with the 

operating flexibility to respond to the expected flight delays resulting from the FAA’s 

delay plans. An exemption from § 259.4 will assist the airlines in reducing the 

number of potential flight cancellations that could result from the FAA’s plans and 

alleviate the expected disruption to operations on the ground caused by the large 

number of aircraft that would be forced to return to the gate to avoid violating Part 

259.

7. Strict application and enforcement of the tarmac-delay regulations in § 

259.4 would be particularly inappropriate and harmful in the context of the FAA’s 

impending flight-delay program because the types of delays that the FAA’s program 

is likely to create are fundamentally different from the types of incidents that 

prompted DOT to implement the tarmac-delay regulations. DOT, in adopting the 

tarmac-delay regulations, took the position that the airlines have a responsibility to 

be prepared to manage service and operational disruptions caused by ad hoc, 

extraordinary, relatively rare but predictable events such as large snowstorms. 

Accordingly, DOT issued final regulations, but afforded the airlines 120 days in 
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 6

which to prepare to comply with the regulations’ detailed requirements.1/ By 

contrast, the full effects and implications of the FAA’s abrupt and all-but-immediate 

implementation of severe restrictions on flight operations at many of the busiest 

U.S. airports during this summer travel season are extremely difficult to predict. 

Airlines have been afforded no opportunity for advance planning for the widespread 

effects of FAA’s flight-delay plan: they have no way of knowing in advance how 

severe the delays may be at a particular airport on a particular day, so there is no 

way to plan accordingly and to do so at such short notice when the airlines are 

already committed to operating a schedule of flights for which consumers have 

purchased tickets. Airlines will need to make (potentially system-wide) schedule 

adjustments, but that process will take time, particularly when the schedules at 

issue involve flights that the airlines have already sold to the public. Airlines also 

will need time to develop experience about how to manage these FAA-imposed 

ground stops in ways that limit the impact on operations and minimize tarmac 

delays. As noted above, the airlines have no experience with a program such as 

the FAA’s flight-delay plan, which will impose severe delays on thousands of flights 

at key airports on a daily basis. From a tarmac-delay planning perspective, this 

poses completely different and as yet largely unknown challenges from those posed 

by the relatively rare and localized types of largely weather-related events that 

prompted adoption of the tarmac-delay regulations. Unquestionably, however, the 

effects of the FAA’s flight-delay plan will be felt at many more airports and with 

 

1/ Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections, 74 Fed. Reg. 68983, 68999 (Dec. 30, 2009), 76 Fed. Reg. 

23110, 23156-57 (Apr. 25, 2011). 
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 7

respect to many more flights than is typically the case with the sort of weatherrelated incident with which tarmac delays (until now) were generally associated. 

These uncertainties – and the airlines’ need for time to develop plans to manage the 

effect of the FAA’s flight program – underscore the need for a temporary exemption 

from the strictures of the tarmac-delay regulations in § 259.4.

8. In these circumstances, strict application and enforcement of the 

tarmac delay regulations in § 259.4 would serve no purpose other than to punish 

the airlines for the effects of extraordinary and unpredictable delays that are wholly 

attributable to the FAA, not the airlines. Moreover, as noted above, strict application 

of the tarmac-delay rules could make a bad situation worse for passengers because 

airlines, rather than focusing on minimizing delays and disruptions due to the FAA’s 

flight-delay program, would be forced to prioritize compliance with the tarmac-delay 

rule requiring the return of an aircraft to the terminal when a flight is at risk of 

exceeding the 3- or 4-hour tarmac-delay deadline. Given the unpredictability of the 

effects of the FAA’s flight-delay plan, it would be far better to allow the airlines some 

discretion to respond to the consequences of the FAA’s action by making 

operational decisions at a given airport on a given day in ways that they believe will 

best serve their customers rather than tethering the airlines to strict compliance with 

the tarmac-delay regulations. In short, the tarmac-delay regulations were not 

intended to address the type of widespread, unpredictable, government-imposed 

delays that are likely to be the result of the FAA’s flight-delay plan; therefore, DOT

should exercise its authority to provide airlines some temporary relief from these 
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 8

regulations while the airlines work through an extraordinarily difficult set of 

circumstances that are not of their making.

9. The requested exemption would clearly serve the public interest. The 

FAA has not provided detailed information about the specific impacts of its delay 

plan at each of the affected airports. Instead, the FAA has only advised the airlines 

that substantial delays are inevitable at affected airports. It is in the common 

interest of the airlines, the traveling public, the FAA and DOT that airline operations 

continue at the affected airports in as orderly a manner as possible. In light of the 

unprecedented circumstances created by the FAA’s delay plan – which after all is a 

government-created problem that is beyond the airlines’ control – the Department 

should grant the requested temporary exemption. 

10. A4A and RAA’s members take seriously their responsibility to their 

customers and intend to do everything in their power to minimize the adverse 

effects of the FAA’s flight-delay plan on those customers. Although the airlines are 

not responsible for creating this problem, the airlines and their employees will do 

their best to manage the service delays and disruptions that the FAA’s actions will 

cause. We are seeking this temporary exemption because it (and its members) 

strongly believe that strict application of the tarmac delay regulations in § 259.4 will 

exacerbate delays and cause greater inconvenience for passengers.

WHEREFORE, for the reasons set forth above, A4A and RAA respectfully 

request that the Department grant a temporary exemption from the requirements of 

14 C.F.R. § 259.4 for a period of at least 90 days or until the Federal Aviation 

Administration (“FAA”) sequestration furloughs end, whichever is longer, to provide 
Motion of Airlines for America (A4A) and 

Regional Airline Association (RAA)

Page 9

the airlines the flexibility to address the unprecedented flight delays resulting from 

the FAA’s implementation of daily ground delays at some of the nation’s largest 

airports.

Respectfully submitted,

________________________ ____________________________

DATED: April 19, 2013

DAVID A. BERG

Senior Vice President, General Counsel 

and Secretary

AIRLINES FOR AMERICA

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20004

Telephone: (202) 626-4234

Fax: (202) 626-4139

dberg@airlines.org

ROGER COHEN

President

REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION

2025 M Street, NW

Washington, DC 20036

Telephone: (202) 367-1250

Fax: (202) 367-2170

cohen@raa.org