Bureau of Transportation Statistics June 10, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the Department's regulations, certain air carriers are required to file BTS Schedule B-7 (Airframe and Aircraft Engine Acquisitions and Retirements) and Schedule B-43 (Inventory of Airframes and Aircraft Engines). Under the Department's regulations, the Department can withhold confidential business information if release of the confidential information is likely to cause substantial competitive harm to the entity that submitted the information to the Department. The BTS routinely grants, based on the sensitive nature of this cost data, a ten-year confidentiality period. After receiving notification that, upon the expiration of the ten-year confidentiality period, the BTS intended to release the cost data, Airlines for America (A4A), an industry association representing several air carriers, filed an objection to the pending release. A4A claimed that the cost data, although twenty years old, remained sensitive and its release would result in competitive harm. Bloomberg News requested that the Department release the cost data.