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Key Personnel
Todd M. Homan, Director
Todd M. Homan, Acting Deputy Director
James R. Dann, Associate Director
Regis Milan, Associate Director and Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary
Aloha Ley,Small Community Air Service Development Pilot Program, Chief
Todd M. Homan, Acting Competition and Policy Analysis Division, Chief
Dennis Devany, Essential Air Service and Domestic Analysis Division, Chief
Laura Remo, Air Carrier Fitness Division, Chief
OFFICE
FUNCTION
OFFICE
MISSION:
The Office of Aviation Analysis, through the Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs, initiates and
supports the development of the Department of Transportation’s
public policies regarding the airline industry in both domestic
and international markets. The Office has the responsibility to
analyze and support the Department’s decision makers on major
airline issues, including airline mergers and acquisitions, domestic
and international code-share alliances and other joint venture agreements,
immunized international alliances between U.S. and foreign carriers,
airline distribution practices, airline strike and bankruptcy issues,
and airline service at small communities. In addition, the Office
administers several important aviation regulatory programs, including
the initial and continuing fitness of commercial airlines to serve
the public, subsidy and grant programs for air service to small
communities, access to slot-controlled airports, and the setting
of mail rates within Alaska and in international markets.
a.
Serves as an independent source of analytical input to the Department’s
aviation and international affairs policy-making function.
b.
Develops analytically based, medium-to-long-term views of the airline
industry’s operating and competitive structures based on analysis
of air carriers costs, fares, service, traffic, capacity, and financial
information.
c.
Develops an analytical agenda designed to address significant emerging
airline industry issues, such as airline distribution practices,
conducts internal studies of those issues, and designs and oversees
studies by outside contractors.
d.
Monitors industry developments and ensures that Department policies
address those developments.
e.
Reviews non-immunized marketing and alliance agreements between
and among domestic air carriers, and where appropriate recommends
disposition on competition grounds.
f. Reviews and recommends procedures and disposition for all airline
merger, acquisition applications and applications for antitrust
immunity for domestic and international alliances.
g. Provides economic analyses for international route cases.
h. Investigates the economic components of allegations of unfair
methods of competition and deceptive practices in the airline industry
and recommends action where appropriate.
i. Analyzes the public and competitive impact of airline strikes
and bankruptcies.
j. Regularly provides quick-turn, analytically-based reviews of
a variety of aviation economic issues for senior Department officials.
k. Provides leadership for large special projects that support Secretarial
and other policy initiatives that are national in scope.
l. Provides a leadership role in the development and implementation
of modernization of data systems and collection at the Department
to facilitate all domestic and international analytical functions.
m. Develops and publishes recurrent reports on airline fares, costs,
revenues, profitability, and operations for use by senior department
officials and the public.
n. Participates in preparing rulemaking and departmental positions
on legislative proposals concerning a variety of economic issues
affecting the airline industry, including small community air service,
air carrier fitness, access at slot-controlled airports, and airline
industry structural issues.
o. Administers the Essential Air Service Program:
(i)
determines levels of essential air service; reviews and updates
such determinations; processes carrier selection cases and subsidy
need issues; conducts rate negotiations with applicants, reviewing
forecast expenses and revenues.
(ii) evaluates continuing reliability of carriers; monitors performance;
and conducts periodic on-site operational examinations of carriers.
(iii) sets interim and final subsidy rates where necessary to
maintain service and renews subsidy rates where appropriate at
one- or two-year intervals.
(iv) processes and participates in community appeals and conducts
on-site informal hearings relating to appeals on essential air
service levels and eligibility.
(v) processes suspension notices and carrier essential air service
hold-ins--determines allowable service reductions, and evaluates
proposed replacement service.
(vi) processes claims for subsidies and compensation authorized
to support essential air service.
p.
Administers the Small Community Air Service Development Program,
including (1) soliciting of community proposals; (2) selection of
the grant recipients; (3) management of the grant process, including
reimbursements; (4) the development of all procedures and analytical
paradigms for administration of the program; and (5) additional
requirements related to exercise of these responsibilities.
q.
Reviews, processes, disposes of or recommends disposition of: (1)
applications for initial U.S. air carrier certificates under 49
U.S.C. 41102 and 41103, and for commuter air carrier authority under
49 U.S.C. 42378, including a determination that the applicant is
fit, willing, and able to conduct the proposed operations; (2) continuing
fitness reviews under 49 U.S.C. 41110(e), including the modification,
suspension, or revocation of authority, where appropriate; (3) applications
for exemptions under 49 U.S.C. 40109; and (4) additional requirements
related to the exercise these responsibilities, including participation
in formal hearings involving air carrier fitness.
r.
Develops policies, analyzes policy issues, and administers certain
regulatory issues with respect to access at slot-controlled airports.
s. Reviews international and intra-Alaska mail rates for adequacy
and appropriateness; reviews contractual arrangements between the
United States Postal Service and certificated air carriers for the
transportation of mail; reviews Postal Service rules and regulations
relating to the carriage of mail by aircraft; conducts non-hearing
investigations through show-cause procedures to establish individual
and/or class rates.
The
Essential Air Service and Domestic Analysis Division has a number
of regulatory and advisory responsibilities. The Division administers
the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, which guarantees that
hundreds of small communities throughout the country receive air
service to connect them to the National air transportation system.
This involves a determination as to how many flights should be
provided at the community, the type aircraft to be used, the carrier
that should provide the service, and the level of subsidy that
the Federal Government will pay the air carrier providing the
community's air service. Division analysts negotiate the subsidy
need for each applicant carrier before recommending to Department
decision makers which carrier should be selected for the EAS subsidized
service. The Division works with a budget of over $100 million
for this program.
The
Division also administers the Department's responsibility
for air carrier access to certain airports where airline operations
are limited. Certain airports in the United States are so
congested that the U.S. Government controls not only the number
of take-offs and landings (slots) that can operated each day,
but also the number of flights that can be operated each hour
at the airport. For the most, part the Federal Aviation Administration
is responsible for distribution of the available slots at
these airports. Exemptions from the slot restrictions to provide
additional access to the slot-controlled airports are the
responsibility of the Department of Transportation.
The Essential Air Service and slot allocation responsibilities
involve considerable contact with Capitol Hill and the Federal
Aviation Administration, as well as numerous industry organizations.
In addition,
the Division is responsible for establishing the rates that
the U.S. Postal Service pays airlines to carry mail within
the State of Alaska and in international markets. This function
requires analysis of detailed revenue, costing, and traffic
data and close coordination and interaction with the U.S.
Postal Service.
Small
Community Air Service Development Program
The
Small Community Air Service Development Program, a $20 million
grant program designed to help small communities address air service
and airfare issues, is managed by the one of the Office's Associate
Directors. Unlike the EAS program, the financial assistance available
under the program is not limited to air carrier subsidy. It
can involve, among others, financial assistance for marketing programs,
additional personnel, studies, and aircraft acquisitions. Administration
of the program draws upon the Chief and analysts from the EAS and
Domestic Analysis Division for analysis of the air carrier operating
arrangements proposed in the grant requests. These responsibilities
involve considerable contact with Capitol Hill and industry organizations.
Competition
Policy and Analysis Division
The Competition
and Policy Analysis Division, through its advisory and statutory
responsibilities, enables the Office of the Secretary to meet its
responsibilities to exercise independent competition authority over
the airline industry. It is responsible for providing short-,
medium, and long-term views of the U.S. aviation industry's
operating and competitive structures as well as taking action under
its statutory authorities.
The Division
monitors fundamental changes in the industry, analyzes industry
trends, and evaluates policy options on a wide range of issues. It
provides short-, medium, and long-term views of the U.S. aviation
industry's operating and competitive structures, including
assessments of airline traffic, fares, costs, capacity, and
financial conditions. These studies involve the analysis of
historical data as well as the development and use of forecasting
models to project the competitive
and structural effects of changes on airline services and fares from
mergers, alliances, code sharing and other cooperative arrangements
among airlines, as well as bankruptcies. Since 9/11, the Division
has assumed an active role in the monitoring and assessment of
aviation security measures and system recovery planning.
In addition,
the Division conducts studies of industry trends and developments
relevant to the Department's industry oversight responsibilities.
These reports, studies, and analyses are the bases on which the
Office develops its recommendations to the Assistant Secretary and
the Secretary on airline domestic and international economic issues
as well as speeches and congressional testimony by Department
officials. The Division also provides extensive analytical support
and advice to Department decision makers with respect to specific
cases and matters before the Department, including airline mergers
and alliances, selection of U.S. carriers in international route
authority selection cases, and antitrust immunity cases.
The analytical
and advisory functions of the Division frequently involve
interaction with Capitol Hill, other U.S. Government agencies,
including the Departments of Justice, State, and Commerce, and the
transportation and competition authorities of foreign governments.
In particular, the Division has entered cooperative agreements with
the Directorate General for Competition in the European Union and
the General Civil Aviation Administration of China.
The Air Carrier
Fitness Division analyzes and evaluates all applications for new
economic authority to determine if the airline applicant is "fit,
willing, and able" to conduct commercial airline operations
and that the applicants are U.S. citizens as defined by the transportation
statute. This involves analysis of the applicant's managerial capabilities
and experience, the financial resources available for the proposed
operations, its service plan, and the ability of the management
personnel to comply with U.S. laws, as well as the ownership of
the applicant. The Division also monitors on a regular basis the
operations and financial conditions of all licensed U.S. airlines
to ensure that they continue to be fit to hold their operating authority
and to serve the U.S. public. Division analysts work closely with
the Department's Office of Consumer Affairs and the Federal Aviation
Administration, which is responsible for the safety oversight and
licensing of U.S. airlines.
Revised
on
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
(202) 366-5903
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