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The Transportation Department has mostly granted requests by Hawaiian, Alaska and Delta for exemptions to a rule requiring airlines that accept Cares Act grants to continue serving all of their destinations through Sept. 30.
However, the DOT mostly said no to exemption requests by Spirit and JetBlue.
Hawaiian had asked permission to continue with service suspensions to eight mainland destinations, while Alaska had sought suspension of its service to Kauai, Maui and the Island of Hawaii. The DOT approved each of those requests, noting that the state of Hawaii has instituted a quarantine of 14 days on arriving passengers and also supported the airline’s requests.
The DOT also looked favorably on six of seven requests Delta made related to seasonal service. Under the terms of the DOT rule, airlines must operate to every winter destination or to every summer destination. Airlines that chose to use their summer schedule had to begin service to destinations by April 16.
Delta, however, requested permission to begin and end summer service to seven summer markets on the same dates as last year. That meant launches as late as June 26 for Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The DOT said yes to those and four of Delta’s five other requests related to seasonal service.
The department, however, has looked less favorably on requests by airlines to suspend service to year-round destinations within the continental U.S.
Spirit, for example, sought DOT validation for its April 8 suspension of service to 25 continental U.S. destinations. The department rejected all of those requests, meaning Spirit will be required to relaunch flights to those locales within seven days of receiving Cares Act assistance.
The DOT did allow Spirit to continue its suspension of service to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, noting that Puerto Rico is allowing inbound flights to the island to arrive only in San Juan.
Similarly, regulators denied a request by JetBlue to discontinue service to 10 continental U.S. destinations. The DOT approved two JetBlue service suspension requests — both to Puerto Rico (Aguadilla and Ponce).
The DOT has yet to weigh in on exemption requests by United, American, Frontier and Allegiant as well as regional carriers SkyWest, Silver and Southern Airways Express.
Source: travelweekly.com
