U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Secretary of Transportation
DEPARTMENT ACTION ON APPLICATION IN DOCKET DOT - OST - 200 1 - 10417 (Filed March 8 , 201 1 ) Joint a pplication of Pinnacle Airlines, Inc. ( Pinnacle ), C.A.I. Compagnia Aerea

Italiana S.p.A. (Alitalia), and Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta), for a statement of authorization permitting Pinnacle to display the “AZ” designator code of Alitalia on Delta Connection flights operated by Pinnacle on behalf of Delta (i) within the United

States (in conjunction with Alitalia’s services in foreign air transportation); and (ii) between the United States and third countries. The J oint A pplicants also request a waiver of the 45 - day advance filing requi rement under 14 CFR Part 212. 1

* Approved under assigned authority (14 CFR §385.13). Date of Action: March 9 , 201 1 2

This action is subject to the conditions attached. Persons entitled to petition the Department for review of this action under the Department’s regulations, 14 CFR §385.30, should file their petitions within seven days of the date of this action. This ac tion is effective immediately, and the filing of a petition for review will not alter its effectiveness. An electronic version of this document is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.regulations.gov

1 The Joint Applicants also request that the code

- share authority granted here be administered jointly with the existing Delta/Alitalia blanket statements of authorization in this docket and that a non - Mexico, non

- open skies point code

- share notice given by Delta, Alitalia, or any of the regional partners or code

- share affiliates authorized in this docket be deemed notice given by all the carriers , and incorporate by reference all such prior notices
. T he Joint Applicants further note that 30

- day notice for all U.S.

- EU and open

- skies markets was given on March 2, 2009, in this Docket , and incorporate that notice by reference as well
. 2 The Department is acting on the Joint Applicants’ request prior to the expiration of the answer period with the consent of al l parties served.The code - share operations authorized here are subject to the following conditions: (a) The statement of authorization will remain in effect only as long as (i) Delta, Pinnacle , and Alitalia continue to hold the necessary underlying authority to operate the co de

- share services at issue, and (ii) the code

- share agreement providing for the code

- share operations remains in effect. (b) Delta, Pinnacle , and/or Alitalia , as appropriate, must notify the Department no later than 30 days before they begin any new code

- share service under the code

- share services authorized here. Such notice shall identify the market(s) to be served, which carrier will be operating the aircraft in the code

- share market added, and the date on which the service will begin. Such notice sho uld be filed in Docket DOT

OST

- 200 1

- 10417
. 3 (c) Delta, Pinnacle , and/or Alitalia , as appropriate, must promptly notify the Department if the code

- share agreement providing for the code

- share operations is no longer effective or if the carriers decide to cease operating all or a portion of the approved code

- share services. Such notice should be filed in Docket DOT

- OST

- 200 1

- 10417
. 4 (d) The code

- sharing operations conducted under this authority must comply with 14 CFR 257 and with any amendments to the Department’s regulations concerning code

- share arrangements that may be adopted. Not withstanding any provisions in the contract between the carriers, our approval here is expressly conditioned upon the requirements that the subject foreign air transportation be sold in the name of the carrier holding out such service in the computer reser vation systems and elsewhere; that the carrier selling such transportation ( i.e., the carrier shown on the ticket) accept responsibility for the entirety of the code

- share journey for all obligations established in its contract of carriage with the passeng er; that the passenger liability of the operating carrier be unaffected; and that the operating carrier shall not permit the code of its U.S. code

- sharing partner to be carried on any flight that enters, departs, or transits the airspace of any area for wh ose airspace the Federal Aviation Administration has issued a flight prohibition. (e) The authority to operate to third countries is subject to the condition that any service provided under the statement of authorization shall be consistent with all appli cable agreements between the United States and the foreign countries involved. Furthermore, (i) nothing in the award of this blanket statement of authorization should be construed as conferring upon Delta or Pinnacle rights (including code

- share, fifth fr eedom intermediate and/or beyond rights) to serve markets where U.S. carrier entry is limited unless Delta or Pinnacle notifies the Department of their intent to serve such a market and unless and until the Department has completed any necessary carrier se lection procedures to determine which carrier(s) should be authorized to exercise such rights; and (ii) should there be a request by any carrier to use the limited

- entry route rights that are included in the authority of Delta or Pinnacle by virtue of the blanket statement of authorization granted here, but that are not then being used by Delta or Pinnacle , the holding of such authority will not be considered as providing any preference for Delta or Pinnacle in a competitive carrier selection proceeding to determine which carrier(s) should be entitled to use the authority at issue. 5 (f) The authority granted here is specifically conditioned so that neither Delta, Pinnacle , nor Alitalia shall give any force or effect to any contractual provisions between the mselves that are contrary to these conditions. We may amend, modify, or revoke the authority granted at any time without hearing at our discretion.

3 We have granted the Joint Applicants’ request that a non - Mexico, non

- open skies point code

- share notice given by Delta, Alitalia, or any of the regional partners or code

- share affiliates authorized in this docket be deemed notice given by all the carriers. In this regard, the Joint Applicants note that 30

- day notice for all U.S.

- EU and open

- skies markets was given on March 2, 2009, in this Docket. 4 We expect this notification to be received within ten (10) days after such non

- effective ness or of such decision. 5 The notice in paragraph (b) above can be used for this notification.