Sea Air attempts to establish an actionable link between the government's conduct and its own adversity by pointing to the FAA's grant to it of an air carrier certificate to operate in the Caribbean, including between the ramps at issue. It claims that this authorization, following Sea Air's fulfillment of numerous prerequisites, imposed a duty on the FAA to ensure its access to the approved routes. We think not. Sea Air points to nothing in the FA Act suggesting that the FAA's permission for it to operate in a given location is more than a green light to fly, if and when the arrangements are made with the necessary air facilities. Although federal rules govern the availability of such facilities to interested parties, Sea Air has acknowledged that the statutorily prescribed recourse for VIPA's failure to abide by the non-exclusive lease rules is for the FAA to cut off its federal funding.
Further sanctions are discretionary.
Sea Air, therefore, cannot reasonably have relied on the FAA's securing it access to the two ramps, and there consequently is no basis for finding a duty under state law that would support an FTCA claim. Our holding does not mean that a potential beneficiary of a federal law is helpless in the face of serious violations and agency inaction. As the district court noted, appellant could have pursued a writ of mandamus from the court of appeals. As we have explained, the statutory penalty for violating the exclusive lease prohibition is loss of federal funds. See supra at 10-11.