Proposed Opinion on the Transferability of Interim Operating Authority Under the National Parks Air Tour Management Act, 36874-36875 [06-5746]
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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 28, 2006 / Notices
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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
Comments Invited
The FAA invites interested persons to
submit written comments or views. The
most helpful comments reference a
specific portion of the proposal, explain
the reason for any recommended
change, and include supporting data.
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written comments.
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VerDate Aug<31>2005
16:52 Jun 27, 2006
Jkt 208001
Issued in Washington, DC, on June 21,
2006.
John T. Staples,
Director, Flight Service Program Operations.
[FR Doc. 06–5734 Filed 6–27–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–13–M
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Proposed Opinion on the
Transferability of Interim Operating
Authority Under the National Parks Air
Tour Management Act
Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of proposed opinion.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the
FAA’s proposed decision on the
transferability of interim operating
authority under the National Parks Air
Tour Management Act.
DATES: Send your comments on or
before July 28, 2006.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments
[identified as ‘‘Comments on the
Transferability of IOA’’] using any of the
following methods:
• Sending your comments
electronically to james.whitlow@faa.gov.
• Mail: Office of the Chief Counsel;
FAA, 800 Independence Ave., SW.,
Washington, DC 20591.
• Fax: 1–202–267–3227.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
James Whitlow, Deputy Chief Counsel,
Federal Aviation Administration, 800
Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20591; telephone (202)
267–3773.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This
notice sets forth the FAA’s proposed
opinion on the transferability of interim
operating authority.
On April 5, 2000, Congress passed the
National Parks Air Tour Management
Act (Act). The Act set up a process by
which the FAA and the NPS would
work together to establish air tour
management plans for all units of the
national park system and abutting tribal
lands having commercial air tours. On
October 25, 2002, the FAA published a
final rule in 14 CFR part 136, National
Parks Air Tour Management (67 FR
65662), pursuant to a mandate specified
in the Act. This final rule completed the
definition of ‘‘commercial air tour
operation’’ by establishing the altitude
(5,000 feet above ground level) below
which an operator flying over a national
park for the purpose of sightseeing is
classified as a commercial air tour
operator. The rule also codified
PO 00000
Frm 00122
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
provisions of the Act in the FAA’s
regulations at 14 CFR part 136,
Under the Act, the air tour
management plan (ATMP) process is
initiated when a commercial air tour
operator files an application for
operating authority with the FAA to
conduct commercial air tours over a
national park or abutting tribal land (49
U.S.C. 40128(a); 14 CFR 136.7). Once an
application is filed, the FAA, in
cooperation with Director of the
National Park Service, must develop
and implement an ATMP for the park or
abutting tribal land. Operators
conducting commercial air tours over a
unit of the national park system or
abutting tribal land during the 12 month
period prior to adoption of the Act are
classified under the Act as existing
commercial air tour operators (49 U.S.C.
40128(f); 14 CFR 136.3). These existing
operators are eligible to receive interim
operating authority (IOA), under
conditions set forth in the Act. IOA
allows these operators to continue
conducting commercial air tour over the
parks or tribal lands pending
completion of the ATMP. With a few
limited exceptions, no other operators
are permitted to operate pending
completion of the ATMP.
The Act and 14 CFR part 136 limit
commercial air tour operations
conducted under IOA in several ways.
First, IOA provides an operator with an
annual authorization over a particular
park or abutting tribal land for the
greater of: (1) The number of flights
used by the operator to provide the
commercial air tour operations within
the 12-month period prior to the date of
the Act’s enactment; or (2) the average
number of flights per 12-month period
used by the operator to provide such
operations within the 36-month period
prior to the Act’s enactment. For
seasonal operations, the Act calculates
IOA based on the number of air tours
over national parks or abutting tribal
lands during the season or seasons
covered by that 12-month period (49
U.S.C. 40128(c)(2)(A); 14 CFR
136.11(b)(1)).
Second, any increase in the
authorized number of operations under
IOA must be agreed to by the FAA and
the NPS. (49 U.S.C. 40128(c)(2)(B); 14
CFR 136.11(b)(2)).
Third, the Act and part 136 also
provide that IOA: (1) May be revoked by
the Administrator of the FAA for cause;
(2) shall terminate 180 days after the
date on which an ATMP is established
for the park or tribal lands; (3) shall
promote protection of national park
resources, visitor experiences, and tribal
lands; (4) shall promote safe commercial
air tour operations; (5) shall promote the
E:\FR\FM\28JNN1.SGM
28JNN1
jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 124 / Wednesday, June 28, 2006 / Notices
adoption of quiet technology, as
appropriate; and (6) shall allow for
modifications of the IOA based on
experience if the modification improves
protection of national park resources
and values and of tribal lands (49 U.S.C.
40128(c)(2)(D)–(I); 14 CFR 136.11(b)(4)–
(9)).
Since the Act does not directly
address the issue of IOA transferability,
the FAA must determine whether
allowing transferability of IOA from one
operator to another is consistent with
the Act’s provisions and overall goals.
As discussed below, the FAA finds that
permitting the transferability of IOA is
neither consistent with provisions of the
Act nor its overall goals.
Congress required ATMPs to be
established over units of the national
park system and abutting tribal lands to
ensure that the agencies analyze the
environmental impact of commercial air
tours upon such land and ‘‘develop
acceptable and effective measures to
mitigate or prevent the significant
adverse impacts, if any, of commercial
air tour operations upon the natural and
cultural resources, visitor experiences
and tribal lands’’ (49 U.S.C.
40128(b)(1)(B); 14 CFR 136.9(a)). Under
the Act, commercial air tours are not
permitted until an ATMP is completed
for the park, unless the operator is an
existing air tour operator as defined in
the Act and receives IOA, has received
authority to operate under a part 91
letter of authority (49 U.S.C. 40128(a)(3);
14 CFR 136.7(g)), or has received
authority to operate as a new entrant
prior to the completion of the ATMP (49
U.S.C. 40128(c)(3)(C); 14 CFR 136.11(c)).
Congress set up the IOA process as a
way of ensuring that those commercial
air tour operators conducting
commercial air tours over national parks
at the time of Act’s enactment would
not be put out of business while the
FAA, in cooperation with NPS,
analyzed the environmental impact of
the air tours on the national park unit
and developed an ATMP. The IOA then
ends 180 days after the ATMP is
adopted.
IOA is granted to specific operators
over specific parks. Those operators
who conducted commercial air tour
operations in the 12 months preceding
enactment (April 5, 2000) over the
particular units of the park system for
which they are applying for authority
qualify for IOA. Those operators receive
an allocation equal to the number of
operations they conducted in the 12month period preceding enactment, or
an average, based on the three years
preceding enactment. Thus, under the
terms of the Act, only existing operators
initially quality for IOA.
VerDate Aug<31>2005
16:52 Jun 27, 2006
Jkt 208001
Additionally, a particular operator’s
IOA may not exceed the number of
allocations earned by that operator for a
calendar year, unless it was increased
pursuant to the Act’s provisions, which
require concurrence between the FAA
and NPS. The FAA and NPS may grant
such increases under limited
circumstances, and the allocations
involved in the increase are not subject
to sale.
Given the specificity of the IOA
authority and the limitations placed on
that authority, FAA has concluded that
Congress did not intend for the
operators to possess it as a valuable
right to be bought and sold. IOA was
designed as a temporary solution to
allow operators already conducting air
tours at the time of the enactment of the
Act to continue to operate pending
completion of the ATMP. If we allow
IOA to be transferred, however, then
operators may grow an existing business
by adding allocations to their current
allotment without FAA and/or NPS
approval.
Issued in Washington, DC, on June 22,
2006.
James W. Whitlow,
Deputy Chief Counsel.
[FR Doc. 06–5746 Filed 6–23–06; 3:24 pm]
BILLING CODE 4910–13–M
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration
[Docket No. NHTSA–2005–21859; Notice 4]
Toyota Motor North America, Inc.,
Denial of Appeal of Decision on
Inconsequential Noncompliance
Toyota Motor North America, Inc.
(Toyota) has appealed a decision by the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) that denied its
petition for a determination that its
noncompliance with Federal Motor
Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No.
225, ‘‘Child restraint anchorage
systems,’’ is inconsequential to motor
vehicle safety. Toyota had applied to be
exempted from the notification and
remedy requirements of 49 U.S.C.
Chapter 301, ‘‘Motor Vehicle Safety.’’
This notice announces and explains our
denial of Toyota’s appeal.
Background
NHTSA’s notice of receipt of Toyota’s
original petition was published on July
19, 2005 in the Federal Register (70 FR
41476). On September 26, 2005, NHTSA
published a notice in the Federal
Register denying Toyota’s petition (70
FR 56207), stating that the petitioner
PO 00000
Frm 00123
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
36875
had not met its burden of persuasion
that the noncompliance is
inconsequential to motor vehicle safety.
Toyota appealed, and notice of the
agency’s receipt of the appeal was
published in the Federal Register on
November 1, 2005 (70 FR 65970).
NHTSA received two public comments.
One was from Advocates for Highway
and Auto Safety and the second was
from Toyota, the petitioner.
Affected are a total of approximately
156,555 model year (MY) 2003 to 2005
Toyota Tundra access cab vehicles
produced between September 1, 2002
and April 22, 2005, referred to in this
notice as ‘‘the subject vehicles.’’
A child restraint anchorage system
consists of two lower anchorages and a
tether anchorage that can be used to
attach a child restraint system to a
vehicle. These systems are sometimes
referred to as LATCH (Lower
Anchorages and Tethers for Children)
systems and are intended to help ensure
proper installation of child restraint
systems.
NHTSA’s regulations require the
installation of a LATCH system in the
front passenger seats of vehicles that
have an optional on-off switch for the
front passenger air bag and that satisfy
certain other requirements. Specifically,
S4.5.4 of FMVSS No. 208 allows
installation of an air bag on-off switch
under one of two conditions—the
vehicle has no forward-facing rear
seating positions or there is not enough
room in the rear seat (less than 720 mm)
to permit the proper installation of a
rear-facing child seat.
Further, S5(c)(2) of FMVSS No. 225
requires that each vehicle that
(i) Has a rear designated seating position and
meets the conditions in S4.5.4.1(b) of
Standard No. 208 * * * and, (ii) Has an air
bag on-off switch meeting the requirements
of S4.5.4 of Standard 208 * * * shall have
a child restraint anchorage system for a
designated passenger seating position in the
front seat, instead of a child restraint
anchorage system that is required for the rear
seat* * *
The subject vehicles have an air bag onoff switch but do not have the child
restraint lower anchorage in the front
seat as required by S5(c)(2). As Toyota
recognizes, the vehicles are
noncompliant.
Toyota contends that this
noncompliance is inconsequential to
motor vehicle safety and that no
corrective action is warranted. In its
petition, Toyota stated that rear-facing
child restraints could be used in the
noncompliant vehicles, and ‘‘is unaware
of any rear-facing child restraints that
require lower anchorages in the
vehicle.’’ Toyota further stated,
E:\FR\FM\28JNN1.SGM
28JNN1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 124 (Wednesday, June 28, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36874-36875]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-5746]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Proposed Opinion on the Transferability of Interim Operating
Authority Under the National Parks Air Tour Management Act
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of proposed opinion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the FAA's proposed decision on the
transferability of interim operating authority under the National Parks
Air Tour Management Act.
DATES: Send your comments on or before July 28, 2006.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments [identified as ``Comments on the
Transferability of IOA''] using any of the following methods:
Sending your comments electronically to
james.whitlow@faa.gov.
Mail: Office of the Chief Counsel; FAA, 800 Independence
Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20591.
Fax: 1-202-267-3227.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Whitlow, Deputy Chief Counsel,
Federal Aviation Administration, 800 Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20591; telephone (202) 267-3773.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice sets forth the FAA's proposed
opinion on the transferability of interim operating authority.
On April 5, 2000, Congress passed the National Parks Air Tour
Management Act (Act). The Act set up a process by which the FAA and the
NPS would work together to establish air tour management plans for all
units of the national park system and abutting tribal lands having
commercial air tours. On October 25, 2002, the FAA published a final
rule in 14 CFR part 136, National Parks Air Tour Management (67 FR
65662), pursuant to a mandate specified in the Act. This final rule
completed the definition of ``commercial air tour operation'' by
establishing the altitude (5,000 feet above ground level) below which
an operator flying over a national park for the purpose of sightseeing
is classified as a commercial air tour operator. The rule also codified
provisions of the Act in the FAA's regulations at 14 CFR part 136,
Under the Act, the air tour management plan (ATMP) process is
initiated when a commercial air tour operator files an application for
operating authority with the FAA to conduct commercial air tours over a
national park or abutting tribal land (49 U.S.C. 40128(a); 14 CFR
136.7). Once an application is filed, the FAA, in cooperation with
Director of the National Park Service, must develop and implement an
ATMP for the park or abutting tribal land. Operators conducting
commercial air tours over a unit of the national park system or
abutting tribal land during the 12 month period prior to adoption of
the Act are classified under the Act as existing commercial air tour
operators (49 U.S.C. 40128(f); 14 CFR 136.3). These existing operators
are eligible to receive interim operating authority (IOA), under
conditions set forth in the Act. IOA allows these operators to continue
conducting commercial air tour over the parks or tribal lands pending
completion of the ATMP. With a few limited exceptions, no other
operators are permitted to operate pending completion of the ATMP.
The Act and 14 CFR part 136 limit commercial air tour operations
conducted under IOA in several ways. First, IOA provides an operator
with an annual authorization over a particular park or abutting tribal
land for the greater of: (1) The number of flights used by the operator
to provide the commercial air tour operations within the 12-month
period prior to the date of the Act's enactment; or (2) the average
number of flights per 12-month period used by the operator to provide
such operations within the 36-month period prior to the Act's
enactment. For seasonal operations, the Act calculates IOA based on the
number of air tours over national parks or abutting tribal lands during
the season or seasons covered by that 12-month period (49 U.S.C.
40128(c)(2)(A); 14 CFR 136.11(b)(1)).
Second, any increase in the authorized number of operations under
IOA must be agreed to by the FAA and the NPS. (49 U.S.C.
40128(c)(2)(B); 14 CFR 136.11(b)(2)).
Third, the Act and part 136 also provide that IOA: (1) May be
revoked by the Administrator of the FAA for cause; (2) shall terminate
180 days after the date on which an ATMP is established for the park or
tribal lands; (3) shall promote protection of national park resources,
visitor experiences, and tribal lands; (4) shall promote safe
commercial air tour operations; (5) shall promote the
[[Page 36875]]
adoption of quiet technology, as appropriate; and (6) shall allow for
modifications of the IOA based on experience if the modification
improves protection of national park resources and values and of tribal
lands (49 U.S.C. 40128(c)(2)(D)-(I); 14 CFR 136.11(b)(4)-(9)).
Since the Act does not directly address the issue of IOA
transferability, the FAA must determine whether allowing
transferability of IOA from one operator to another is consistent with
the Act's provisions and overall goals. As discussed below, the FAA
finds that permitting the transferability of IOA is neither consistent
with provisions of the Act nor its overall goals.
Congress required ATMPs to be established over units of the
national park system and abutting tribal lands to ensure that the
agencies analyze the environmental impact of commercial air tours upon
such land and ``develop acceptable and effective measures to mitigate
or prevent the significant adverse impacts, if any, of commercial air
tour operations upon the natural and cultural resources, visitor
experiences and tribal lands'' (49 U.S.C. 40128(b)(1)(B); 14 CFR
136.9(a)). Under the Act, commercial air tours are not permitted until
an ATMP is completed for the park, unless the operator is an existing
air tour operator as defined in the Act and receives IOA, has received
authority to operate under a part 91 letter of authority (49 U.S.C.
40128(a)(3); 14 CFR 136.7(g)), or has received authority to operate as
a new entrant prior to the completion of the ATMP (49 U.S.C.
40128(c)(3)(C); 14 CFR 136.11(c)).
Congress set up the IOA process as a way of ensuring that those
commercial air tour operators conducting commercial air tours over
national parks at the time of Act's enactment would not be put out of
business while the FAA, in cooperation with NPS, analyzed the
environmental impact of the air tours on the national park unit and
developed an ATMP. The IOA then ends 180 days after the ATMP is
adopted.
IOA is granted to specific operators over specific parks. Those
operators who conducted commercial air tour operations in the 12 months
preceding enactment (April 5, 2000) over the particular units of the
park system for which they are applying for authority qualify for IOA.
Those operators receive an allocation equal to the number of operations
they conducted in the 12-month period preceding enactment, or an
average, based on the three years preceding enactment. Thus, under the
terms of the Act, only existing operators initially quality for IOA.
Additionally, a particular operator's IOA may not exceed the number
of allocations earned by that operator for a calendar year, unless it
was increased pursuant to the Act's provisions, which require
concurrence between the FAA and NPS. The FAA and NPS may grant such
increases under limited circumstances, and the allocations involved in
the increase are not subject to sale.
Given the specificity of the IOA authority and the limitations
placed on that authority, FAA has concluded that Congress did not
intend for the operators to possess it as a valuable right to be bought
and sold. IOA was designed as a temporary solution to allow operators
already conducting air tours at the time of the enactment of the Act to
continue to operate pending completion of the ATMP. If we allow IOA to
be transferred, however, then operators may grow an existing business
by adding allocations to their current allotment without FAA and/or NPS
approval.
Issued in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2006.
James W. Whitlow,
Deputy Chief Counsel.
[FR Doc. 06-5746 Filed 6-23-06; 3:24 pm]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-M