The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced it will institute a frequency allocation proceeding to determine which of six applicants should gain use of the three, daily United States-Havana International, Cuba, frequencies Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines relinquished earlier this year.

As previously reported, Spirit and Frontier withdrew their respective services from the Cuban capital market citing overcapacity coupled with insufficient loads. With their departures on May 31, 2017, and June 4, 2017, respectively, a total of twenty-one (21) weekly Havana frequencies became available as per the terms of the US-Cuba air services agreement.

As such, following a motion triggered by JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) and supported by American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) and FedEx Express (FX, Memphis International), the DOT, on Tuesday, August 29, agreed to institute an allocation proceeding to determine which of the six proposals submitted, should gain use of the relinquished frequencies.

The submitted applications entail:

Aside from dealing with the allocation of the vacant US-Havana frequencies, the proceeding will also deal with the request of United Airlines for flexibility to use its aircraft, or those of capacity provider Mesa Airlines, on the Saturday-only Houston-Havana frequency allocated to it in August last year, or any such other Houston-Havana frequencies as may be allocated to United during this proceeding.

As such, in order to reach a prompt, final decision, the DOT has requested all interested parties to submit their applications by September 12.