Served: June 10, 2011

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Joint Application of

AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. AND QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED

under 49 U.S.C. § 41309 

for approval of Joint Business Agreement

Docket DOT-OST-2011-0111

NOTICE

On June 8, 2011, American Airlines and Qantas Airways (collectively, the “Joint Applicants”) 

sought approval from the Department to launch a Joint Business Agreement. 

Access to Documents

Along with their application, the Joint Applicants filed a motion under 14 C.F.R. § 302.12 

(Rule 12) of the Department’s regulations seeking confidential treatment for supporting 

documents and information. They state that this material is confidential, proprietary, and 

commercially sensitive, which qualifies it for being withheld from public disclosure. They ask 

that access to this material be limited to counsel and outside experts who have filed valid 

confidentiality affidavits.1 

To afford interested parties prompt access to the documents in the record, we will grant 

immediate interim access to all documents covered by the Rule 12 motion to counsel and outside 

experts for interested parties who file appropriate affidavits with the Department in advance.2 

Moreover, Parties will be permitted to make copies of the documents, at the Dockets facility, for 

use by persons who have filed confidentiality affidavits. We also find it appropriate to grant 

interim access to any subsequent materials that may be filed in this case under a Rule 12 motion 

under the same terms, unless the party filing the motion objects. 

We expect all affidavits to state, at a minimum, that (1) the affiant is counsel for an interested 

party or an outside independent expert providing services to such a party; (2) the affiant will use 

the information only for the purpose of participating in this proceeding; and (3) the affiant will 

disclose such information only to other persons who have filed a valid affidavit in the appropriate 

 

1 See Motion of the Joint Applicants for Confidential Treatment.

2 See, e.g., Delta/Northwest/Air France/KLM/Alitalia/Czech, OST-2007-28644 (Notice providing 

access to documents (July 3, 2007)).
2

docket for this case. Affiants and interested parties must understand and agree that any pleading 

or other filing that includes or discusses information contained in the covered documents must 

itself be accompanied by a Rule 12 motion requesting confidential treatment. Affidavits must be 

filed in Docket OST-2011-0111 with the Department of Transportation, Dockets, Room W12-

140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, D.C. 20590. 

Affiants may examine the documents at the Department of Transportation at the Dockets 

location. Affiants must present a stamped copy of the affidavit filed with the Department of 

Transportation before examination of the documents. Immediately after the completion of any 

judicial review of our final decision in this docket or the expiration of the 60-day period within 

which a person may petition for judicial review, all persons who have filed confidentiality 

affidavits in this proceeding are hereby directed to file a further affidavit stating that all copies of 

the applicants’ confidential materials have been destroyed or returned to the applicants. 

Procedural Schedule

Upon review of the documents provided, we determine that the record is substantially complete 

and establish the following procedural schedule: answers must be filed no later than 21 calendar 

days from the issuance of this Notice, and replies must be filed no later than 7 business days after 

the last day for filing an answer.

We will serve this notice on all persons on the service list for this docket. 

By: 

SUSAN L. KURLAND

Assistant Secretary 

for Aviation and International Affairs 

Date: June 10, 2011

(SEAL) 

An electronic version of this document is available at http://www.regulations.gov