Order 2012-3-17

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Issued by the Department of Transportation

on the 29th day of March, 2012

 Served: March 29, 2012

In the matter of the foreign air carrier permit issued to 

ORBEST, S.A. Docket DOT-OST-2008-0301

under 49 U.S.C. §41301

ORDER CANCELLING FOREIGN AIR CARRER PERMIT

Summary

By this Order, we cancel the foreign air carrier permit held by Orbest, S.A. (Orbest) that 

authorizes it to engage in certain services in foreign air transportation. We take this action at the 

request of the carrier.

Background

By Order 2009-5-5, served May 5, 2009, the Department granted a foreign air carrier permit to 

Orbest, a foreign air carrier of Portugal, to permit it to engage in:

• Foreign scheduled and charter air transportation of persons, property and mail 

between any point or points behind any Member State of the European Union, via any 

point or points in any Member State and via intermediate points, to any point or 

points in the United States or beyond;

• Foreign scheduled and charter air transportation of persons, property and mail 

between any point or points in the United States and any point or points in any 

member of the European Common Aviation Area;

• Other charters pursuant to the prior approval requirements set forth in 14 CFR 

Part 212 of the Department’s regulations; and

• Transportation authorized by any additional route rights made available to European 

Union carriers in the future; provided, that the holder shall, before it commences any 

new service under such additional route rights, provide the Department with evidence 
2

that it holds a homeland license for that new service (unless it has already provided 

such evidence to the Department). 

By letter filed in this Docket on January 23, 2012, Orbest requested that the Department cancel 

its foreign air carrier permit for the reasons set forth in its letter.

1

 Orbest also asked that the 

Department grant its request without prejudice to Orbest’s ability to apply for authority from the 

Department to serve the United States in the future, in accordance with Department 

requirements. 

Decision

We grant the request of Orbest and cancel its foreign air carrier permit effective upon the 

issuance of this Order. Our action is without prejudice to Orbest filing a new application with 

the Department for economic authority to serve the United States in the future.

ACCORDINGLY,

1. We cancel the foreign air carrier permit granted to Orbest, S.A. by Order 2009-5-5;

2. This action is effective upon the issuance of this Order; and

3. We will serve a copy of this order on Orbest, S.A., the Embassy of Portugal in Washington, 

D.C., the Department of State, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

By:

SUSAN L. KURLAND

Assistant Secretary for Aviation 

and International Affairs

(SEAL)

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

http://www.regulations.gov

 1 We note that the referenced letter also includes a request by Iberworld Airlines, S.A., a foreign air carrier of Spain, 

to register the “Orbest” trade name under 14 CFR Part 215 of the Department’s regulations. We will address that 

request concurrently in a separate action.