BEFORE THE

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

WASHINGTON, D.C.

____________________________ _____ _________ )

Application of )

)

S OUTHWEST A IRLINES C O

. )

) Docket DOT

- OST

- 2000

- 7182

under 49 U.S.C. § 41718 for pendente lite )

authority to operate slot exemptions between )

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport )

a nd Kansas City International Airport (DCA

- MCI) )

______ ____________________________________ )

REPLY OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

AND MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE

Communication with respect to this

document should be addressed to:

Ron Ricks Robert W. Kneisley

Executive Vice President & Associate General Counsel

C hief Legal & Regulatory Officer Leslie C. Abbott

Mark Shaw Senior Attorney

Vice President General Counsel SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

and Corporate Secretary 1901 L Street, NW , Suite 6 40

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO. Washington, DC 20036

2702 Love Field Drive bob.kneisley@wnco.com

Dallas, TX 75235

- 1611 (202) 263

- 6284

August 12

, 2013BEFORE THE

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

WASHINGTON, D.C.

__________________________________________ )

Application of )

)

S OUTHWEST A IRLINES C O

. )

) Docket DOT

- OST

- 2000

- 7182

under 49 U.S.C. § 41718 for pendente lite )

authority to operate slot exemptions between )

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport )

and Kansas City International Airport (DCA

- MCI) )

__________________________________________ )

REPLY OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

AND MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE

Southwest Airlines Co. (“Southwest”) submits this Reply to the Answer of

Republic Airline Inc. (“Republic”) filed on August 6, 2013 in this docket opposing

Southwest’s application for pendente lite authority to serve DCA

- MCI beginning January

6, 2014 , after Republic ’s subsidiary Frontier Airlines was scheduled to terminate service

in that market

.

MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE

To the extent necessary, Southwest seeks leave from the Department to file this

Reply under Rule 6 of the Rules of Practice (14 CFR § 302.6) for goo d cause shown.

This Reply responds to incomplete statements in Republic’s Answer and will thereby

contribute to a more accurate and complete record for the Department

.

REPLY OF SOUTHWEST

Republic’s Answer is most notable for what it does not say :Reply of Southwest Airlines Co.

August 12, 2013

Page 2

Republic does not even acknowledge that (much less explain why ) Frontier

withdrew all of its previously filed DCA

- MCI schedules for flights after January 5.

Republic does not explain why , if Frontier sincerely intended to continue serving

DCA

- MCI, Frontier explicitly told the MCI airport director that it would leave DCA

MCI after January 5.

Republic also does not disclose its plans for the slot exemptions that Frontier

currently use s to serve the DCA

- M CI market after Frontier is sold to a third party

.

Such sale is widely rumored to occur before the end of 2013. See

, e.g.

,

Outgoing Spirit Airlines Chairman in Talks to Buy Frontier Airlines

, Wall Street

Journal , July 30, 2013. 1

Instead of providing any of the information above, which would inform the

Department and the public about Republic/Frontier’s true intentions regarding the slot

exemptions that are used for the DCA

- MCI market, Republic simply asserts that

Southwest’s application is based on th e “erroneous assumption” that Frontier would

cease service in this market on January 5 (Answer at p. 1).

Southwest’s Application for pendente lite authority to serve DCA

- MCI was not

filed in a vacuum. It was filed directly in response to Frontier’s withd rawal of all DCA

MCI flights after January 5 from published schedule s and the fact that Frontier explicitly

informed the MCI airport director that it would terminate service after January 5.

Desiring to avoid an interruption in that service and the inconvenie n ce for DCA

- MCI

1 Available at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324354704578638130697023770.htmlReply of Southwest Airlines Co.

August 12, 2013

Page 3

travelers that would result , Southwest sought authority to continue DCA

- MCI service

beginning January 6 until the Department concluded a re

- allocation proceeding for the

affected slot exemptions

. 2 Kansas City Mayor Sylvester James wrote the Department in

strong support of Southwest’s application, as did Mark Van Loh , Director of Aviation for

the Kansas City International Airport.

It was only a fter the filing of Southwest’s application ( and no doubt in response to

it )

, that Frontier reinstated flights in published schedules for serving DCA

- MCI post

January 5. This raises obvious questions about the future of Republic / Frontier’s

commitment to this market, none of which Republic has answered. After all, Frontier

previous ly pulled down two of its three daily DCA

- MCI flights, moving all of its

transferable DCA slots away from MCI. It would hardly be surprising if Republic/ Frontier

terminated its last remaining DCA

- MCI flight, operated with slot exemptions that cannot

be mo ved to other markets.

For that reason, as well as the impending sale of Frontier, we urge the

Department to closely monitor Frontier’s service in the DCA

- MCI market. Southwest is

committed to serving MCI and stands ready to serve DCA

- MCI if given the op portunity.

While Repu blic/Frontier drastically cut MCI service in recent years , Southwest has

expanded MCI service. Since 2009 Republic/Frontier dropped nonstop service to six

MCI destinations altogether, and now serves only two such destinations from MCI with

2 Southwest’s pendente lite service would also have prevented the undesirable result of a US Airways

nonstop monopoly in DCA

- MCI

.Reply of Southwest Airlines Co.

August 12, 2013

Page 4

six daily departures

. Southwest serves 23 MCI nonstop destinations with 67 daily

departures. 3

In sum, there is considerable doubt that Republic/Frontier will continue DCA

- MCI

service over the long term

- and perhaps even the short term, once Frontier is sold.

Nevertheless, because the factual predicate for Southwest’s July 29 application has, for

now, ceased to exist, Southwest has no obj ection to the Department either taking no

action on its application or dismissing it without prejudice to re

- filing if circumstances

warrant. In either case the Department’s overriding goal should be to ensure that the

valuable DCA slot exemptions current ly being operated in DCA

- MCI do not go unused.

Respectfully submitted

,

__________________________ Robert W. Kneis le y

August 12 , 2013

Washington DC

3 Source: Innovata Schedule data for August 12, 2013.C E RTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that on August 12 , 2013 , a copy of the foregoing document was

served via e

- mail on the following persons:

msinick@ssd.com (Alaska Airlines)

francis.heil@aa.com (American Airlines)

sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com (Delta Air Lines)

robert.cohn@hoganlovells.com (Frontier Airlines & Republic Airline )

patrick.rizzi@hoganlovells.com (Frontier Airlines & Republic Airline

robert.land@jetblue.co m (JetBlue Airways)

jhill@dowlohnes.com (JetBlue Airways)

dkirstein@yklaw.com (Spirit Airlines)

jyoung@yklaw.com (Spirit Airlines)

John.Fredericksen@suncountry.com (Sun Country Airlines)

dan.weiss@united.com (United Air Lines)

howard_kass@usairways.com (US Airways)

Benjamin.slocum@usairways.com (US Airways)

pmurphy@lopmurphy.com (USA3000)

barbara.russell@virginamerica.com (Virgin America)

jegillick@zsrlaw.com (Virgin America)

susan.kurland@dot.gov

todd.homan@dot.gov

peter.irvine@dot.gov

bob.goldner@dot.gov

james.Dann@dot.gov

brian.ctr.meehan@faa.gov

Mark D. VanLoh, A.A.E.

Director of Aviation

Kansas City International Airport

601 Brasilia Avenue

Kansas City, MO 64153

- 2054

Mark.VanLoh@kcmo.org

John Potter

President and CEO

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

1 Aviation Circle

Washington, DC 20001

info@airlineinfo.com

___ _____________________ Leslie C. Abbott