Federal Aviation Administration July 28, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action withdraws a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that proposed an airworthiness directive (AD) supersedure, applicable to Honeywell International Inc. TPE331-10 and TPE331-11 series turboprop engines. That action would have required adding 360 first stage turbine disk serial numbers (S/Ns) to the applicability. Since we issued that NPRM, we decided not to supersede AD 2009-17-05, but instead to issue a new NPRM for those additional 360 parts. Accordingly, we withdraw the proposed rule.

This action modifies Class E airspace at Alturas Municipal Airport, Alturas, CA. Controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate aircraft using Area Navigation (RNAV) Global Positioning System (GPS) standard instrument approach procedures at Alturas Municipal Airport. This improves the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations at the airport.

This action modifies Class E airspace at Wokal Field/Glasgow International Airport, Glasgow, MT. Controlled airspace is necessary to accommodate aircraft using Area Navigation (RNAV) Global Positioning System (GPS) standard instrument approach procedures at the airport. This improves the safety and management of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations at the airport. This action also updates the airport name.

On May 23, 2011, Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta) and US Airways, Inc. (US Airways) (together, the Joint Applicants or the carriers) submitted a joint request for the Department of Transportation (the Department) to waive a prohibition on purchasing operating authorizations (slots) at LaGuardia Airport (LGA). The carriers requested the waiver to allow them to consummate a transaction in which US Airways would transfer to Delta 132 slot pairs (265 slots) at LGA. In exchange, Delta would transfer to US Airways 42 slot pairs (84 slots) at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), convey route authority to operate certain flights to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and make a cash payment to US Airways. The Department (the Office of the Secretary and the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA) has evaluated the proposed transaction and tentatively determined that it affords significant benefits to the public. At the same time, we recognize that the transaction will result in an increase in market concentration that could negatively impact consumers. As a result, we have tentatively determined that the divestiture of a number of slots by the carriers is necessary for us to allow the transaction to proceed. We have tentatively concluded that the divestiture of 32 slots at LGA and 16 slots at DCA will reduce adverse impacts on consumers at DCA and LGA to a degree sufficient for us to conclude that the requested waiver is in the public interest. This Notice prescribes rules and procedures for the divestiture of those slots by the carriers to new entrant and limited incumbent carriers.