[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 14, Volume 4]
[Revised as of January 1, 2008]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 14CFR399.91]

[Page 482-483]
 
                     TITLE 14--AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
 
   CHAPTER II--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 
                         (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS)
 
PART 399_STATEMENTS OF GENERAL POLICY--Table of Contents
 
    Subpart H_Other Policies Relating to Interests, Activities, and 
                      Relationships of Air Carriers
 
Sec. 399.91  Air carrier participation in programs of technical assistance to 


airlines of less developed countries.

    (a) Applicability. This policy shall apply to proceedings under 
sections 408, 409, and 412 of the Act in which the Board is required to 
make any determination as to the public interest or consistency with the 
Act of any agreement or relationship sought to be entered into by an air 
carrier, or officer or director thereof, with a foreign airline in 
connection with the performance of some activity pursuant to a technical 
assistance contract financed by an agency of the U.S. Government.
    (b) Policy. It is the policy of the Board that all U.S. air carriers 
interested in performing contracts for aviation technical assistance to 
foreign airlines should have equal access to information necessary to 
bid on such contracts, and should be given equal consideration 
thereafter in the award of such contracts based upon customary 
contracting criteria and subject to the considerations set forth below:
    (1) The air carrier selected should possess the necessary technical 
and managerial skills and economic strength to perform the assigned task 
in the recipient country to the credit of the United States. Where 
familiarity with the particular language and culture of the recipient 
country are important to the success of the project, weight should be 
given to the capabilities of all interested carriers in this regard, 
including particularly those which a route carrier may have acquired 
through service to the country or area.
    (2) Where a single U.S. route carrier is serving or is certificated 
to serve the recipient country or the region in which it is located, and 
where initiation or continued operation of the route by such carrier is 
an important national interest objective of the United States, weight 
should be given to any evidence that an award of the contract to the 
route carrier as opposed to any other U.S. carrier would be held to 
achieve this objective.
    (3) An air carrier performing a technical assistance contract will 
necessarily occupy a close special relationship with the airline and 
government of the recipient country. Over and above the terms of any 
specific contract, there is latent in such relationship the possibility 
of a relative preference for such carrier over a competing U.S. air 
carrier in matters of interline traffic, governmental restrictions, etc. 
Accordingly, where more than one U.S. route carrier is certificated to 
serve the recipient country and more than one such carrier wishes to 
perform the technical assistance, none of such carriers should be 
awarded the contract over the objection of any other except under very 
unusual circumstances.
    (4) Technical assistance contracts should contain realistic 
objectives and require competent performance at reasonable cost and 
within a reasonable period of time consistent with the ability of the 
foreign airline to become self-sufficient.
    (5) Technical assistance contracts should not be awarded to a U.S. 
route carrier with major economic interests hostile to those of the U.S. 
route carrier serving the country.
    (6) Technical assistance contracts should not be awarded to 
subsidized carriers except under special circumstances. Such 
circumstances should include at least a showing (i) that the subsidized 
carrier has special qualifications, the utilization of which

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is required in the national interest by the circumstances of a 
particular program, and (ii) that performance of the contract will not 
interfere with the primary business of the subsidized carrier which is 
to provide air transportation in the United States. In the latter 
connection, it is to be recognized that participation with maximum 
effectiveness in a technical assistance program would not only divert 
the attention of top management from certificated services but might 
also involve the assignment of the most competent senior operational and 
technical personnel, the diversion of funds at least on a short-term 
basis, and the possible transfer from certificated services of aircraft 
and related equipment. Normally, therefore, unless substantial evidence 
and arguments are produced to the contrary, participation by subsidized 
carriers in technical assistance programs will be considered 
inconsistent with the public interest.

[PS-22, 29 FR 5788, May 1, 1964]