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WHO WE ARE |
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International
Affairs carries a broad portfolio of responsibilities covering domestic and international aviation, international trade, and a range of other international cooperation and facilitation issues. The Office of Aviation and International Affairs includes two principal jurisdictions:
domestic and
international aviation. The Office contributes directly to accomplishing DOT's strategic
goal of economic growth and trade, and advances America's economic growth
and competitiveness domestically and internationally through efficient
and flexible transportation. Led by the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs,
the Office develops and coordinates Departmental policies in a wide
spectrum of domestic and international aviation issues.
The Office of Aviation and International Affairs has three primary goals:
1. liberalizing international air services by seeking market liberalization;
2. ensuring the benefits of a deregulated, competitive domestic airline industry; and
3. developing policies to improve air service and/or access to the commercial aviation system for small and rural communities.
The Office of Aviation and International Affairs, a branch of the Office
of the Secretary, was formally chartered in 1993, when the Department
of Transportation separated aviation and international trade from other
transportation policy issues.
How We Are Organized
As a policy advisor to the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary for Aviation works in
close coordination with the Deputy Secretary, the Undersecretary for Policy,
secretarial officers, heads of operating administrations, and
Director of RITA. The responsibilities assigned by statute to the operating
administrations and RITA are unaffected by the mission of this office.
The Assistant Secretary for Aviation is responsible to the Secretary
for analysis, development, articulation, and review of policies and
plans for economic issues in domestic and international transportation.
The Assistant Secretary exercises executive direction over the following Offices:
OFFICE FUNCTIONS INCLUDE:
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Provides Departmental leadership for and develops, coordinates, and carries
out public policy related to the airline industry.
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Formulates, coordinates, and carries out departmental international civil aviation
transportation policy, and works with the Department of State in
negotiating bilateral and multilateral international aviation matters.
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Administers the laws and regulations governing U. S. and foreign carrier economic
authority to engage in air transportation. Renders decisions in
all aviation economic regulatory matters that are instituted by
the Department.
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Conducts special projects and analyses as requested by the Secretary, Deputy
Secretary, or Undersecretary for Policy.
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Administers regulatory programs for small community transportation, including
the Essential Air Service Program and the Small Community Air Service
Development Pilot Program.
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Develops, coordinates, and carries out public policy and regulatory actions
with respect to the establishment of mail rates within Alaska and
in international market.
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Develops, coordinates, and carries out public policy and certain regulatory
actions with respect to access at U.S. airports.
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The Office plays a key role in providing Departmental leadership, direction,
and coordination on international surface and intermodal transportation
and trade policies and programs, including trade facilitation, technical
assistance and cooperation programs, trade promotion and advocacy,
multimodal transportation issues, and international diplomatic and
protocol activities; to lead and coordinate Departmental representation
in global transportation and trade organization.
Roles and Responsibilities:
The Office of International Transportation
and Trade is responsible for providing the Secretary with the
best information available to develop international transportation
policy and carry out the Department’s international responsibilities
in a timely manner. The Office promotes international cooperation and trade by facilitating
open and liberalized global transportation markets through the conduct
of in-depth analysis and by providing policy recommendations to address
emerging and ongoing international transportation issues. It initiates
and manages international technical assistance and cooperative programs
and coordinates with other Federal agencies and the private sector,
as appropriate, to achieve broad international transport policy objectives
while promoting public/private partnerships.
The Office develops the Department’s positions on transport
aspects of international trade agreements in consultation with modal
administrations and leads Departmental representation in key international
organizations and facilitates the success of the Secretary’s international travel agenda and
meetings with foreign visitors.
The Office plays a lead role in international aviation negotiations, originating aviation-negotiating
positions with respect to foreign countries and coordinating negotiating
policy, strategy and positions with the Department
of State and other agencies and with the U.S. aviation industry.
Office of International Aviation negotiators
and their State Department colleagues meet with foreign counterparts
to forge new agreements and resolve problems that occasionally may
arise under existing relationships. The Office also has complementary
economic regulatory authority, licensing U.S. air carrier services
to foreign markets and foreign air carrier services to the United
States. The Office also exercises regulatory oversight of aviation
pricing issues.
Roles and Responsibilities
The Office of International Aviation is
responsible for formulating, coordinating and executing the international
aviation policy of United States and for administering the economic
regulatory functions related to foreign air transportation. These activities are required by U.S. aviation statutes.* and by the roughly 100 bilateral and multilateral aviation agreements
to which the United States is a party. The Office of International Aviation originates
U.S. aviation negotiating positions with respect to foreign countries;
coordinates negotiating policy, strategy and positions with the Department
of State and other agencies and with the U.S. air transportation industry
as required by law; and conducts or participates in those negotiations. The Office also receives both formal and informal complaints from U.S. carriers experiencing difficulties in foreign markets and
intervenes to resolve those problems.
On the regulatory side, the Office receives, processes, and decides or
recommends the disposition of all U.S. and foreign air carrier requests
for economic authority to operate between the United States and foreign
points. It also determines the disposition of all tariff filings and pricing agreements by U.S.
and foreign airlines. The Office administers (and is responsible for reviewing and revising
as needed) some twenty Parts of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Where unfair foreign practices harm U.S. aviation interests, and negotiated solutions cannot be achieved, the Office's
regulatory staff applies economic sanctions. The Department’s effectiveness in resolving disputes and achieving other U.S. aviation objectives depends on close, continuous coordination
of the negotiating and regulatory activities of the Office of International
Aviation.
Because airlines may not operate internationally without economic rights from
the foreign countries served and economic authority from the U.S.
government as well, these essential facilitative activities are among
the most prominent and consequential in the Department
of Transportation, with individual negotiations and licensing
decisions worth millions of dollars both to the airlines and to the
U.S. balance of payments. As a result, the Department's discharge of these responsibilities is
closely watched and tested, by Congress and the courts as well as
in the marketplace. This accounts for the extraordinary press coverage
of international aviation (nearly half of all DOT press releases relate
to this program) and the high number of speaking invitations and Congressional
hearings on the subject.
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*In July 1994, The Federal Aviation Act and the International Air Transportation Fair Competitive Practices Act (IATFCPA) were superseded by a unified, recodified transportation statute, Title 49 of the U.S.
Code, Subtitle VII ("Aviation Programs")
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The Office of Aviation Analysis initiates and supports the development of the Department of Transportation's public policies regarding economic
oversight of the airline industry in both domestic and international
markets. The Office also 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, and airline distribution
practices. In addition, the Office administers important aviation
regulatory programs for the fitness of commercial airlines, air service
to small communities, access to slot-controlled airports, and the
setting of mail rates within Alaska and in international markets.
Roles and Responsibilities
The Office of Aviation Analysis has three
major interrelated roles and responsibilities--analytical, advisory, and regulatory.
The Office of Aviation Analysis serves as an independent source of analytical
input to the Department's aviation and international affairs policy-making
function. On a continuing basis, the Office analyzes air carrier costs,
fares, service, traffic, capacity, and financial information from sources
within the department as well as other outside sources to develop analytically
based medium-to-long-term views of the U.S. airline industry's operating
and competitive structures. The Office also develops short-term analyses
on domestic and international issues affecting the industry; airline
mergers and alliances; antitrust immunity cases involving U.S. and foreign
airlines; anticompetitive behavior; airline distribution practices;
public impact of airline strikes; and route analyses of U.S. carrier
applications for international route authority. These analyses serve
as the basis for developing Department policies with respect to domestic
and international airline competition. They also facilitate the development
of broader range studies of the airline industry, which are provided
not only in relation to the Department's policy-making responsibilities,
but also for the public to improve their understanding and access to
information regarding the airline industry.
The
Office of Aviation Analysis is the primary advisor to the Assistant
Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs and the Secretary on
aviation economic issues. The advisory function encompasses recommendations
with respect to specific regulatory cases before the Department, as
well as the development of Department policy on domestic and international
economic air transport issues. The Office's analytical function provides
critical support to these responsibilities through fact-based analyses.
On
the regulatory side, the Office of Aviation Analysis administers several
critical aviation regulatory programs, including the Essential Air Service program which provides subsidy to air carriers for service
to certain small communities; the Small
Community Air Service Development Program which provides federal
grants to small communities (including those in the EAS
program) to address air service and airfare issues; and the Air
Carrier Fitness Program which is responsible for licensing new entrant
airlines and monitoring the continuing fitness of all U.S. passenger
and cargo airlines to serve the public. In addition, the Office administers
certain slot exemption services at Ronald Reagan Washington National
Airport and sets mail rates for intra-Alaska and international services.
The
air transport industry is a key driver of economic growth with a global
economic impact of $1.7 trillion, including over 30 million jobs. The
actions of the airline industry, therefore, have a direct impact on
the public both here and abroad and are watched closely by Congress,
the courts, foreign countries and consumers.
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Last updated: 7/07/2009
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