Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 203 / Monday, October 22, 2007 / Notices 59579 

11 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(75). 

1Newark has not been impacted by the HDR since 

the early days of its inception. 

2Since the expiration of the HDR, the FAA 

reinstituted caps at O’Hare, by rule, and at 

LaGuardia, by FAA order. 

For the Commission, by the Division of 

Market Regulation, pursuant to delegated 

authority.11

Florence E. Harmon, 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E7–20784 Filed 10–19–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

[Docket No. FAA–2007–29320] 

Operating Limitations at New York’s 

John F. Kennedy International Airport, 

Notice of Meeting and Request for 

Information 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of scheduling reduction 

meeting and request for information. 

SUMMARY: The FAA will conduct a 

meeting to discuss flight restrictions at 

New York’s John F. Kennedy 

International Airport (JFK) to reduce 

overscheduling and flight delays during 

peak hours of operation at that airport. 

This meeting is open to all scheduled 

air carriers, regardless of whether they 

currently provide scheduled service to 

JFK, and to the Port Authority of New 

York and New Jersey, which is the 

airport operator of JFK. Registration in 

advance of the meeting is requested. In 

addition, the FAA invites interested 

persons to submit written information 

on such schedule reductions. The FAA 

plans to issue its decision on scheduling 

limitations in a final order. 

DATES: Scheduling reduction meeting. 

The FAA will hold the scheduling 

reduction meeting on October 23–24, 

2007, beginning at 9 a.m., and the 

meeting may continue, if necessary, 

until adjourned by the Administrator. 

Written information: Any written 

information on the subject of schedule 

reductions at JFK, including data and 

views, must be submitted by November 

6, 2007. To the extent possible, the FAA 

will consider late-filled submissions in 

making its determination in its final 

order. 

ADDRESSES: Scheduling reduction 

meeting. The meeting will be held in the 

Bessie Coleman Room at the Orville 

Wright Building of the FAA, 800 

Independence Ave., SW., Washington, 

DC. 

Written information. You may submit 

written information, identified by 

docket number FAA–2007–29320, by 

any of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov and follow 

the instructions for submitting your 

information or comments electronically. 

• Fax: Fax comments to the Docket 

Management Facility at 1–202–493–

2251. 

• Mail: Send information or 

comments to the Docket Management 

Facility, U.S. Department of 

Transportation, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue, SE., West Building Ground 

Floor, Room W12–140, Washington, DC 

20590. 

• Hand Delivery: Bring information or 

comments to the Docket Management 

Facility in Room W12–140 of the West 

Building Ground Floor at the 

Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 

DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday 

through Friday, except Federal holidays. 

• Instructions: You must include the 

agency name and docket number FAA–

2007–29320 for this notice at the 

beginning of the information that you 

submit. Note that the information 

received will be posted without change 

to http://www.regulations.gov, including 

any personal information provided. 

Submissions to the docket that include 

trade secrets, confidential, commercial, 

or financial information, or sensitive 

security information will not be posted 

in the public docket. Such information 

will be placed in a separate file to which 

the public does not have access, and a 

note will be placed in the public docket 

to state that the agency has received 

such materials from the submitter. 

Privacy: We will post all comments 

we receive, without change, including 

any personal information you provide. 

Using the search function of the docket 

Web site, anyone can find and read the 

electronic form of all comments 

received into any of our dockets, 

including the name of the individual 

sending or signing the comment. You 

may review DOT’s complete Privacy Act 

Statement in the Federal Register 

published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 

19477–78). 

Docket: To read background 

documents or comments received, go to 

http://www.regulations.gov at any time 

and follow the online instructions for 

accessing the docket. Alternatively, you 

may visit the Docket Management 

Facility in Room W12–140 of the West 

Building Ground Floor of the 

Department of Transportation at 1200 

New Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, 

DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday 

through Friday, except Federal holidays. 

Registration: To register for 

attendance, contact Gerry Shakley at the 

numbers provided in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

notice. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Gerry Shakley, System Operations 

Services, Air Traffic Organization; 

telephone—(202) 267–9424; facsimile—

(202) 267–7277; e-mail—

gerry.shakly@faa.gov. Registration must 

occur on or before October 19, 2007. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Federal Aviation Act (the Act) at 49 

U.S.C. 41722, authorizes the Secretary 

of Transportation to request air carriers 

to attend a meeting with the FAA 

Administrator to discuss flight schedule 

reductions at any severely congested 

airport during peak operating hours. 

Until relatively recently, the FAA 

managed congestion at JFK through the 

High Density Rule (HDR), 14 CFR part 

93, subpart K, which limited aircraft 

operations at JFK during the five hours 

of peak transatlantic demands—3 p.m. 

through 7:59 p.m. local time. 

The HDR is an air traffic rule that 

establishes limited on the number of 

arrivals and departures that can occur 

from certain airports during specific, 

identified hours. The HDR limits flights 

in order to manage congestion and 

delays. Currently, only Washington’s 

Reagan National Airport is regulated 

under the HDR. The HDR was formerly 

effective at Chicago O’Hare International 

Airport (O’Hare), New York’s JFK New 

York’s LaGuardia airport (LaGuardia), 

and Newark’s Liberty International 

Airport (Newark). 

In 2000, Congress, under the aviation 

Investment and Reform Act for the 21st 

Century (AIR–21), called for the phase 

out of the HDR program at O’Hare, 

LaGuardia and JFK.1

The HDR was phased out at JFK as of 

January 1, 2007, permitting increased 

scheduling at JFK during the afternoon 

hours.2 In addition, since the spring of 

2006, JFK has evolved from its 

traditionally international role, as U.S. 

air carriers have significantly increased 

their domestic scheduled operations 

throughout the day. Most of the increase 

has come from the two largest operators 

at the airport, Delta airlines and JetBlue 

Airways. 

As a result of the increase in 

scheduled operations at JFK, demand 

exceeds the airport’s capacity during 

some periods of the day. During the 

morning hours, JFK routinely incurs 

volume-related delays during the 7 a.m. 

through 9 a.m. hours. The afternoon and 

evening demand at JFK now exceeds the 


ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES
59580 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 203 / Monday, October 22, 2007 / Notices 

airport’s optimal capacity until nearly 

10 p.m., denying the airport a late-day 

period to recover from congestionrelated delays. Traffic management 

initiates to accommodate the traffic are 

now routinely in use, even under the 

best operating conditions. 

In addition, the relatively pronounced 

arrival and departure banks that 

historically characterized JFK’s 

operations are now supplanted by 

mixed arrivals and departures during 

peak hours. Although JFK has four 

runways, it is limited, at most, to a 

three-runway configuration due to the 

shared airspace in the New York area. 

JFK’s maximum efficiency is achieved 

using either two arrival runways and 

one departure runway or two departure 

runways and one arrival runway. The 

recent mixing of arrivals and departures 

throughout the day reduces the benefit 

of optimizing the configuration of active 

runways to favor arrivals or departures, 

as appropriate, which is a practice that 

air traffic control personnel previously 

employed to tailor JFK’s runway 

configuration to the historical 

transatlantic traffic flows. 

The increase in scheduled operations 

at JFK has had a profound effect on the 

delays that travelers have experienced 

there. During the first nine months of 

fiscal year 2007, the average daily 

operations at JFK increased 23% over 

the same period in the previous year. 

Travelers experienced an average 

twenty-six minutes of gate arrival delay 

per flight, which is an increase from the 

average eighteen-minute delay during 

the same period in fiscal year 2006. The 

number of arrival delays exceeding one 

hour has increased by 114%. The ontime arrival performance at JFK, which 

is defined as arrival at the gate within 

fifteen minutes of the scheduled time, 

declined from 70% in the first ten 

months of fiscal year 2006 to 61% over 

the same period in fiscal year 2007. 

During June and July 2007, JFK’s ontime arrival performance averaged 59%. 

At the same time, air carriers continued 

to announce new flights for JFK during 

peak and off-peak hours. 

The increased congestion and delays 

at JFK have had impacts on other 

airports in the region and on the 

National Airspace System. Newark, 

LaGuardia and JFK have consistently 

been among the most delay-prone 

airports. While operations at LaGuardia 

and Newark have been relatively stable 

over the past year, JFK’s operations have 

increased significantly, creating new 

challenges to accommodate demand 

safely and with minimal delay. The 

recently approved airspace redesign 

plan for the New York/New Jersey/ 

Philadelphia metropolitan area 

documents well the costs and farreaching impacts of delays that originate 

from this area. Although airspace 

redesign will provide efficiency gains 

and congestion relief, it is neither an 

immediate nor complete solution. 

The FAA, working with the airport 

operator, carriers and other customer 

representatives, has begun to implement 

a number of short-term initiatives to 

improve the efficiency of airport 

operations and the air traffic control 

system, especially during periods of 

adverse weather when the effects of 

overscheduling are more pronounced. 

Moreover, airspace redesign will open 

additional arrival and departure routes 

in the New York area to reduce delays 

and congestion. These measures alone, 

however, are not expected to provide 

sufficient near-term gains to 

accommodate the peak hour schedules 

at JFK’s current or forecast levels of 

demand. 

Several air carriers have indicated to 

the FAA their willingness to adjust their 

schedules during peak hours to improve 

on-time performance, reduce 

congestion, and reduce delay-related 

operational costs. These carriers cite the 

experience at O’Hare in 2004 when the 

FAA had a voluntary agreement to twice 

reduce schedules by American Airlines 

and United Airlines, the largest 

operators at that airport, but ultimately 

convened a scheduling reduction 

meeting under 49 U.S.C. 41722 so that 

other carriers did not simply backfill 

schedule reductions and negate 

congestion relief. The FAA finds merit 

in these arguments as we did in the case 

of O’Hare. 

Based on these and other factors, the 

Administrator has determined, pursuant 

to the Act, that JFK is a severely 

congested airport and that a scheduling 

reduction meeting is necessary in order 

to discuss flight reductions in an effort 

to reduce overscheduling and flight 

delays at JFK during peak operating 

hours. The Secretary of Transportation 

has also determined, pursuant to the 

Act, that a scheduling reduction 

meeting regarding flight reductions at 

JFK is necessary to meet a serious 

transportation need or to achieve an 

important public benefit. In light of 

these determinations, the FAA will 

conduct a scheduling reduction meeting 

pursuant to the Act. 

As dictated by statute, the scheduling 

reduction meeting will only address 

planned operations by domestic air 

carriers. With the exception of Canadian 

air carriers, which are treated as 

domestic air carriers by virtue of an 

agreement with Canada, the scheduled 

operations of foreign air carriers are 

managed under a process defined by the 

International Air Transport Association 

(IATA). The FAA has already initiated 

steps under the IATA process to manage 

the scheduled operations of foreign air 

carriers at JFK that are complementary 

to the scheduling reduction meeting. 

The FAA will convene the scheduling 

reduction meeting on October 23, 2007, 

beginning at 9 a.m., and will continue 

at least through the following day. The 

meeting may continue, if necessary, 

until adjourned by the Administrator. 

As provided in the Act, no later than 

forty-eight hours before convening the 

meeting, the FAA will identify on the 

FAA’s Web site, http://www.faa.gov, the 

peak period of operation at JFK and the 

FAA’s targets for flight operations 

during those periods. 

The FAA will transcribe the 

scheduling reduction meeting, 

including those sessions in which air 

carriers offer flight reductions to the 

FAA, as provided for by the procedures 

outlined below. The transcript and other 

documents related to the meeting will 

be available for inspection in 

Department of Transportation Docket 

FAA–2007–29320. In addition, any 

interested person may submit written 

information to the public docket no later 

than November 6, 2007. The docket may 

be accessed via the Internet at http:// 

www.regulations.gov or at the Docket 

Management Facility for the Department 

of Transportation. 

After conducting the scheduling 

reduction meeting and considering all 

submitted information, the FAA will 

publish its final order on delay 

reductions at JFK in the Federal 

Register. The order is expected to be 

effective through at least the summer 

2008 scheduling season and may restrict 

service during peak hours by all 

carriers, including carriers that are not 

currently operating at JFK. 

Additionally, the FAA is considering 

appropriate measures to address 

charters and other unscheduled flights 

at JFK. Under the HDR, unscheduled 

operations were severely constrained 

during the afternoon hours at JFK. 

Specifically, only two unscheduled 

operations were permitted in each 

afternoon hour other than the 1700 hour 

(5 p.m.), when no unscheduled 

operations were permitted. Likewise, 

unscheduled operations at O’Hare have 

been restricted to four per hour since 

the imposition of Arrival Authorizations 

at that airport in 2004. 

To ensure that proper 

accommodations are afforded at the 

meeting, all scheduled carriers that wish 

to attend the scheduling reduction 

meeting should register for the meeting 

on or before October 19, 2007. 

Registration may be accomplished by 


ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 203 / Monday, October 22, 2007 / Notices 59581 

3 [The text of a footnote quoting 49 U.S.C. 41722 

is omitted her.] 

contacting Gerry Shakley, System 

Operations Services, Air Traffic 

Organization; telephone—(202) 267–

9424; facsimile—(202) 267–7277; 

e-mail—gerry.shakley@faa.gov, 

identifying the air carrier and its 

intention to attend the meeting, and 

identifying who will represent the air 

carrier at the meeting. 

The FAA is currently conducting 

modeling based on the August 30, 2007 

published schedule information from 

the Official Airline Guide. We will 

review the planned schedules for 

summer 2008, which carriers were to 

provide by October 11, 2007 (72 FR 

54317, September 24, 2007). The FAA’s 

Air Traffic Organization will work with 

individual carriers to validate the 

schedule information to be used by the 

FAA during the course of the 

scheduling reduction meeting. 

Because the scheduling reduction 

meeting and all preparations for it are 

subject to the U.S. antitrust laws, the 

FAA has worked closely with the 

Department of Justice, Antitrust 

Division, on procedures for conducting 

the meeting in a way that should 

facilitate legal compliance. As noted in 

this correspondence, communications 

among carriers regarding competitively 

sensitive information could result in a 

violation of the antitrust laws and lead 

to civil or criminal liability. Thus, the 

procedures outlined in the notice 

provide for a series of scheduling 

reduction sessions to be conducted 

separately by FAA staff with each air 

carrier attending the meeting. We may 

also meet with representatives of the 

airport operator. During those sessions 

any scheduled air carrier or the airport 

operator in attendance may provide 

other supplemental information to the 

FAA regarding the targeted schedule 

reductions at JFK. The FAA requests the 

cooperation of all participants at the 

meeting in adhering to the procedures 

outlined in the notice. 

The text of the FAA letter describing 

the planned procedures and the text of 

the Department of Justice letter 

assessing those procedures are as 

follows: 

September 21, 2007 

Thomas O. Barnett, Esq., Assistant 

Attorney General, Antitrust Division, 

Room 3109, U.S. Department of 

Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, 

NW., Washington, DC 20530-0001. 

Dear Mr. Barnett: 

We anticipate that the Secretary of 

Transportation will soon determine, 

pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 41722,3 that it is 

necessary to convene a meeting of air 

carriers with the Administrator of the 

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 

to discuss flight reductions at New 

York’s John F. Kennedy International 

Airport (JFK) in an effort to reduce 

overscheduling and flight delays during 

peak hours of operation. Because of 

severe congestion at that airport and the 

resulting delays and inconveniences to 

the traveling public, the Administrator 

intends to convene such a meeting in 

the immediate future. The purpose of 

this letter is to describe the format and 

procedures for the meeting and to 

ensure that, provided the meeting is 

conducted in accordance with this 

letter, the Department of Justice would 

not seek to challenge as a violation of 

the U.S. Antitrust laws any air carrier’s 

attendance at or participation in the 

meeting or an air carrier’s unilateral 

actions taken to comply with an Order 

of the Administrator issued as a result 

of the meeting. 

Meeting Procedures 

1. Notice to Air Carriers and Other 

Interested Parties 

To assist the Administrator in 

formulating flight reduction targets, as 

contemplated by 49 U.S.C. 41722, and 

to identify the air carriers that will 

attend the meeting, the Administrator 

will send a letter notifying the JFK 

airport operator and each scheduled air 

carrier serving JFK of the meeting. The 

letter will describe the necessity for the 

meeting and will identify the periods 

during a representative business day 

that the Administrator considers 

severely congested. The letter also will 

establish either the date and time for the 

meeting or a period during which the 

meeting is expected to take place. It will 

designate a location in the Washington, 

DC area as the meeting’s location. The 

letter will advise that the meeting and 

all preparations for it are subject to the 

antitrust laws and that communication 

among air carriers regarding 

competitively sensitive information, 

such as markets served, prices charged, 

and marketing plans, could result in a 

violation of the antitrust laws. Copies of 

the letter will be sent to the Antitrust 

Division, as well as to the Air Transport 

Association, Regional Airline 

Association, and Air Carrier Association 

of America. 

The FAA Air Traffic Organization 

(ATO) will separately provide the JFK 

airport operator and each air carrier 

serving JFK with a summary showing 

the FAA’s current information as to 

scheduled arrivals and departures at JFK 

(including code-share flights) for each 

air carrier during each 15 minute period 

from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on a 

representative business day. The FAA’s 

focus on these hours is for overall 

planning purposes only, and it does not 

necessarily reflect the peak hours of 

operation at JFK. A letter enclosed with 

this summary will request that each air 

carrier confirm the FAA’s current 

information as to that air carrier’s 

scheduled operations at JFK, respond as 

to whether the air carrier will attend the 

scheduling reduction meeting, and, if 

the air carrier will attend, identify its 

representative. 

The FAA also will publish in the 

Federal Register a notice of the meeting 

that identifies the basis for the meeting, 

when and where the meeting will take 

place, and the manner in which the 

meeting will be conducted. The Federal 

Register notice will invite all scheduled 

air carriers to attend and will specify 

that a transcript of the meeting will be 

available for inspection in a public 

docket opened within three business 

days after the Administrator formally 

adjourns the scheduling reduction 

meeting. 

2. Establishment and Notice of Flight 

Reduction Targets 

The Administrator shall establish 

flight reduction targets, based on the 

number of flight operations scheduled 

for a representative business day. As 

required by the statute, at least 48 hours 

prior to the meeting, the Administrator 

will publish notice of these targets on 

the FAA’s Web site. The notice will 

specify the total number of reductions 

sought from the total number of flight 

operations conducted. The notice will 

not include carrier-specific limitations, 

targets, or suggested reductions. 

3. Conduct of the Meeting 

The meeting will be conducted under 

the following procedures: 

a. The meeting will be chaired by the 

Administrator or by a delegate of the 

Administrator. 

b. The meeting will be open to 

attendance by the JFK airport operator 

and all scheduled air carriers, and the 

FAA will transcribe the meeting. 

c. Representatives of the Department 

of Justice will be invited to attend. 

d. At the beginning of the meeting, the 

FAA will announce that, pursuant to 

advice from the Department of Justice, 

no communication will be permitted by 

any air carrier representative in the 

presence of any representative of 

another air carrier regarding the subject 

of flight reductions at JFK or regarding 

any other competitively sensitive 

information, including but not limited 

to markets served, prices charged, and 

marketing plans. 


ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES
59582 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 203 / Monday, October 22, 2007 / Notices 

e. The Administrator will then 

distribute to the meeting’s attendees a 

list of the number of flights, not specific 

as to air carrier, during each 15-minute 

period from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. on a 

representative business day, and he will 

identify any periods that he considers 

severely congested, as well as general 

targets for flight reductions during those 

periods. This list will not include 

carrier-specific limitations, targets, or 

suggested reductions. 

f. Each air carrier serving JFK and 

attending the meeting will then be 

invited into a separate and confidential 

session with representatives of the ATO, 

at which the air carrier will be asked to 

offer flight reductions or schedule 

modifications. Only representatives of 

that air carrier and the U.S. government 

will be permitted to attend the offer 

sessions; however, the sessions will be 

transcribed. 

g. Any offer of flights reductions 

should specify the precise number of 

arrivals and departures, if any, the 

submitting air carrier is willing to 

remove from each of the severely 

congested periods identified by the 

Administrator, indicating whether the 

flight operation(s) would be cancelled or 

moved to another time period. The offer 

may not be explicitly contingent on 

specific flight reductions by other air 

carriers but may be conditioned on the 

Administrator’s implementation of an 

overall reduction of specified numbers 

of flight operations toward the target 

during the periods in question. The offer 

may not contain information from the 

air carrier on markets served, prices 

charged, marketing plans or other 

competitively sensitive matters. 

h. After the completion of all such 

sessions, the ATO will: (1) Review the 

offers made; (2) revise, in light of the 

offers made, the list of the number of 

flights, not specific as to air carrier, 

during each 15-minute period from 6 

a.m. until 11 p.m. on a representative 

business day; and (3) consult with the 

Administrator. The Administrator will 

distribute to the meeting’s attendees the 

carrier non-specific list of the number of 

flights on a representative business day, 

and he will identify any periods that he 

continues to consider severely 

congested and identify targets for flight 

reductions during those periods. 

i. At his discretion, the Administrator 

or his delegate may repeat steps (f) 

through (h), and he may continue the 

schedule reduction meeting as he deems 

necessary. 

j. If the Administrator determines that 

identifying carrier-specific targets 

would facilitate voluntary flight 

reductions and schedule modifications, 

the Administrator may advise each air 

carrier separately and confidentially of 

flight reduction targets specific to that 

air carrier. No carrier-specific 

information will be provided to any air 

carrier other than information regarding 

that air carrier; however, the 

Administrator may make general 

assurances with respect to the overall 

proportionality of the flight reductions 

among the air carriers serving JFK. 

k. Following the Administrator’s 

identification of further flight reduction 

targets, each air carrier attending the 

meeting that serves JFK will be invited 

to a separate and confidential session 

with representatives of the ATO, at 

which the air carrier will be given the 

opportunity to submit a new or revised 

offer of flight reductions or schedule 

modifications. 

l. At his discretion, the Administrator 

or his delegate may repeat steps (j) and 

(k), and he may continue the schedule 

reduction meeting as he deems 

necessary. 

m. The Administrator may terminate 

the schedule reduction meeting at his 

discretion. 

4. Order of the Administrator 

Concerning Delays at JFK 

The ATO will review the final offers 

of each air carrier attendee of the 

meeting and recommend a proposed 

flight reduction plan to the 

Administrator. After the Administrator’s 

review and approval of the plan, the 

resulting schedule reductions, including 

carrier-specific limitations, will be 

published in the Federal Register as a 

final order of the Administrator. The 

final order of the Administrator will 

specify a method by which air carriers 

adversely affected by the order may be 

relieved of its effect. The order will also 

be subject to modification by the 

Administrator. 

Please advise if the procedures are 

acceptable to you. 

Sincerely, 

Kerry B. Long, Chief Counsel 

September 24, 2007 

Kerry B. Long, Esq., Chief Counsel, U.S. 

Department of Transportation, Federal 

Aviation Administration, 800 

Independence Ave, SW., Washington, 

DC 20591. 

Re: Proposed JFK Airport Delay 

Reduction Meeting 

Dear Mr. Long: 

This letter is written in response to 

your September 21, 2007 letter 

describing the planned format of a 

meeting of air carriers with the 

Administrator of the Federal Aviation 

Administration (‘‘FAA’’) to discuss 

flight reductions at New York’s John F. 

Kennedy International Airport (‘‘JFK’’). 

The meeting is being called because the 

Secretary of Transportation has 

determined, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 

41722, that the meeting is necessary to 

reduce flight delays during peak hours 

of operation. You seek assurances that, 

provided the meeting and related 

activities are conducted as described in 

your letter, the Department of Justice 

would not seek to challenge as a 

violation of the antitrust laws any air 

carrier’s attendance at or participation 

in the meeting or any carrier’s unilateral 

actions taken to comply with an Order 

of the Administrator issued as a result 

of the meeting. 

According to your letter, all carriers 

participating in the meeting will be 

advised that the meeting and all 

preparations for it are subject to the 

antitrust laws and that communications 

among carriers regarding competitively 

sensitive information, such as markets 

served, prices charged, and marketing 

plans, could result in a violation of the 

antitrust laws and lead to civil or 

criminal liability. At the beginning of 

the meeting, the Administrator (or his 

delegee) will announce that, pursuant to 

advice from the Department of Justice, 

no communication will be permitted by 

any air carrier representative in the 

presence of any representative of 

another air carrier regarding flight 

reductions at JFK or any other 

competitively sensitive subject, 

including but not limited to markets 

served, prices charged, and marketing 

plans. 

Prior to the meeting, the 

Administrator will establish flight 

reduction targets, based on the number 

of flight operations scheduled on a 

representative business day. The 

Administrator will publish notice of 

these targets on the FAA Web site at 

least 48 hours prior to the meeting, as 

required by statute. The notice will 

specify the total number of reductions to 

be sought from the total number of flight 

operations conducted. The notice will 

not include carrier-specific limitations, 

targets or suggested reductions. 

At the meeting, the Administrator will 

distribute a list of flights currently 

scheduled each 15-minute period from 

6 a.m. to 11 p.m., indicate any periods 

that he considers to be severely 

congested, and provide general targets 

for flight reductions during those 

periods, which will not identify which 

carriers flights are targeted to be moved 

or eliminated. Each carrier will then be 

invited into a separate, confidential 

discussion with the Administrator 

during which the carrier will be asked 

to offer specific flight reductions or 

scheduled, changes, which shall not be 


ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 203 / Monday, October 22, 2007 / Notices 59583 

contingent on reductions offered by 

another carrier or carriers. 

After completion of the individual 

carrier sessions, the Administrator will 

revise the list of flights to reflect the 

individual discussions with the carriers. 

The carriers will again be given this list 

which will not identify flights by 

carrier. If the Administrator believes 

that severely congested time periods 

still exist, he may set revised targets and 

repeat the individual sessions with 

carriers. 

If the Administrator determines that 

identifying carrier-specific targets is 

necessary to facilitate voluntary flight 

reductions and schedule modifications, 

he may advise each carrier separately 

and confidentially of flight reduction 

targets specific to that carrier, which 

information will not be given to any 

other carrier or carriers. The 

Administrator may also make a general 

assurance with respect to the overall 

proportionality of the flight reductions 

being sought by the FAA from carriers 

serving JFK. 

The Administrator will develop and 

approve a proposed flight reduction 

plan and schedule reduction, which 

will be published in the Federal 

Register as a final order. 

Importantly, the procedures do not 

provide for any meetings among the 

carriers without the FAA present. The 

procedures will not allow any 

discussion or negotiation among carriers 

about flight reductions, prices charged, 

or markets served. During the course of 

the meetings, carriers will not be told 

schedule reductions or modifications 

other carriers are offering or being asked 

to offer. 

For these reasons, the Department is 

not presently inclined to initiate 

antitrust enforcement action against any 

carrier that participates in the FAA’s 

flight reduction meeting and conducts 

itself in the manner described in your 

September 21 letter. This expresses the 

Department’s current enforcement 

intention regarding the carriers’

participation in the flight reductions 

meeting. The Department reserves the 

right to bring an enforcement action 

against any conduct that violated the 

antitrust laws. 

Yours sincerely, 

Thomas O. Barnett 

Issued in Washington, DC, on October 16, 

2007. 

Kerry B. Long, 

Chief Counsel. 

[FR Doc. 07–5177 Filed 10–16–07; 4:31 pm] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–M 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Highway Administration 

Environmental Impact Statement: 

Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties, 

Maryland 

AGENCY: Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of intent. 

SUMMARY: The FHWA is issuing this 

notice to advise the public that an 

Environmental Impact Statement will be 

prepared for a proposed roadway 

widening and bridge replacement 

project in Calvert and St. Mary’s 

Counties, Maryland. The purpose of the 

EIS is to provide information and 

analyses for decisions on the project in 

accordance with the policies and 

purposes of the National Environmental 

Policy Act. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Daniel W. Johnson, Environmental 

Program Manager, Federal Highway 

Administration, City Crescent Building, 

10 South Howard Street, Suite 2450, 

Telephone (410) 779–7154. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

FHWA, in cooperation with the 

Maryland State Highway 

Administration, U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, 

and Maryland Department of the 

Environment will prepare an 

environmental impact statement (EIS) to 

improve MD 4 from MD 2 to MD 235 in 

Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties, a 

distance of approximately 2.91 miles. 

Improvements to the corridor are 

necessary to improve existing capacity 

and traffic operations, and to increase 

vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle safety 

along MD 4, while supporting existing 

and planned development in the area. 

Improvements to the bridge are 

necessary due to inadequate shoulder 

widths, major traffic delays and/or 

closures currently occur along the 

Thomas Johnson Memorial Bridge 

during crashes and maintenance 

activities. In addition, the crash rate on 

MD 4 from FDR Boulevard to MD 235, 

as well as the rear end collision rate 

across the Thomas Johnson Memorial 

Bridge, is greater than the statewide 

average. 

Alternatives under consideration 

include taking no action and widening 

existing MD 4 to a four lane divided 

highway, with various options for 

bridge improvements and/or 

reconstruction. 

Letters describing the proposed action 

and soliciting comments will be sent to 

appropriate Federal, State, and local 

agencies, and to private organizations 

and citizens and citizen groups who 

have previously expressed or are known 

to have an interest in this proposal. It is 

anticipated that a Public Hearing will be 

held in the Fall of 2009. The draft EIS 

will be available for public and agency 

review and comment prior to a Public 

Hearing. Public notice will be given of 

the availability of the Draft EIS for 

review and of the time and place of this 

hearing. A Scoping Meeting was held in 

May of 2007, and two Open House 

Workshops will be held in October 2007 

to solicit opinions and ideas on 

proposed improvements from local 

citizens. 

To ensure that the full range of issues 

related to this proposed action are 

addressed and all significant issues 

identified, comments and suggestions 

are invited from all interested parties. 

Comments or questions concerning 

these proposed actions and EIS should 

be directed to the FHWA at the address 

provided above. 

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program Number 20.205, Highway Research, 

Planning and Construction. The regulation 

implementing Executive Order 12372 

regarding intergovernmental consultation of 

Federal programs and activities apply to this 

program) 

Issued on: October 10, 2007. 

Daniel W. Johnson, 

Environmental Program Leader, Baltimore, 

Maryland. 

[FR Doc. 07–5190 Filed 10–19–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–M 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Highway Administration 

Notice of Final Federal Agency Actions 

on Proposed Highways in Washington 

AGENCY: Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of limitation on claims 

for judicial review of actions by FHWA 

and other federal agencies. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces actions 

taken by the FHWA and other Federal 

agencies that are final within the 

meaning of 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1). The 

actions relate to a proposed highway 

project, SR 167 Extension Project 

Puyallup to SR 509 in Pierce County, 

Washington. Those actions grant 

licenses, permits, and approvals for the 

project. 

DATES: By this notice, the FHWA is 

advising the public of final agency 

actions subject to 23 U.S.C. 139(l)(1). A 

claim seeking judicial review of the 

Federal agency actions on the highway 


ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES