Asociación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Transporte Aéreo | Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Associ ation

______________ __ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Aerolíneas Argentinas | Aeroméxico | Aeroméxico Connect | AeroRepublica | Aerosur | Air Canada | Air Jamaica | Avianca | Bahamas Air | Caribbean

Airline s | Cayman Airways | Continental Airlines | Copa Airlines | Cubana de Aviacion | Delta Air Lines | GOL | Iberia | LAN | LAN E cuador | LAN Perú |
LIAT | Mexicana | Mexicana Click | Pluna | TACA | TACA Perú | TAM | TAM Mercosur | TAME | UPS | Volaris | VRG L inhas Aéreas

- Grupo GOL

6355 NW 36 Street, Suite 601 | Miami , Florida 33166

– USA | Tel . +1 786 388 0222

- Fax +1 786 522 7315 | www.alta.aero In the matter of: Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections

Docket No.:

DOT

- OST

- 2010

- 0140

Request by the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA )

for a 60 day extension of the comment period

T he Department of Transportation ( hereinafter “ DOT ” ) issued the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), “Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections,” (hereinafter “Proposal”) which seeks to expand upon the published Final Rule under the same title (DOT

- OST

- 2007

- 0022).

Latin American and Caribb ean airlines are committed to provid e exemplary service to its passengers and

are convinced that cooperation between carriers and governments can result in valuable improvements in the global aviation system , but an excess in regulations in this area can l ead to extensive unintended consequences, which could reduce service to passengers and adversely impact an industry pivotal to the global economy.

The Proposal provides only until August 9, 2010, 60 days from publication, for the public to comment on

this Proposal. ALTA respectfully requests an additional 60 days to submit comments regarding this NPRM, citing the following factors:

i) The Proposal seeks to impose on ALTA airline members’, among other foreign carriers

, significant and new regulatory burden s, which the industry must adequately analyze in order to provide comprehensive

and useful comments to the DOT. Since the regulation would touch almost all aspect s of an airline’s
business, our members need to consult with multiple offices on the cost, tim ing, feasibility and potential unintended consequences of the proposal

, this s ixty days lapse is not enough to collect the extensive amounts of data and information from all affected parties neces sary to evaluate the Proposal in full ;

ii) In particular, the Proposal specifically requests detailed information on the impacts, costs, and benefits on carriers of proposed time intervals for deplanement, contingency plans, customer service plans, communication strategies, covered operations, data collection and publication, denied boarding compensation, pricing, fees and oversale regulations, and other provisions. Much of this data is not readily

accessible and our airline members need considerable time to collect and provide meanin gful comments

o n these subjects;

iii) T he D OT has published an extensive cost benefit analysis of the proposed regulation which ALTA and

its member airlines will need analyse further to to provide a meani ngful response; andAsociación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Transporte Aéreo | Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Associ ation

______________ __ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Aerolíneas Argentinas | Aeroméxico | Aeroméxico Connect | AeroRepublica | Aerosur | Air Canada | Air Jamaica | Avianca | Bahamas Air |

Caribbean Airline s | Cayman Airways | Continental Airlines | Copa Airlines | Cubana de Aviacion | Delta Air Lines | GOL | Iberia | LAN | LAN E cuador
| LAN Perú | LIAT | Mexicana | Mexicana Click | Pluna | TACA | TACA Perú | TAM | TAM Mercosur | TAME | UPS | Volaris | VRG L inhas Aéreas

Grupo GOL

6355 NW 36 Street, Suite 601 | Miami , Florida 33166

– USA | Tel . +1 786 388 0222

- Fax +1 786 522 7315 | www.alta.aero iv) Moreover , the Proposal could raise implications in international law which will need to be precisely addressed by foreign carriers

.

In order for ALTA and its member airlines to provide valuable comments on all aspects of the proposal, the comment period must be extended into the fall.

For these reasons, ALTA requests an additional 60 days to collect the aforementioned essential information to provide valuable comments on the Proposal.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.

Alex de Gunten

Executive Director

ALTA