Action
Request for Public Comments.
Summary
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, the United Parcel Service Co. (UPS) and United Air Lines, Inc. (United) filed objections to the pending release. Both UPS and United claimed that the cost data, although ten years old, remained sensitive and its release would result in competitive harm. The cost data is now 20 years old. BTS is seeking public comments on the merits of the UPS and United positions and views on whether the BTS should increase the confidentiality period for certain airframe and aircraft engine cost data.