Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority

 

Issued on July 25, 2003

 

Basrah Commercial Air Service

Notice Inviting Applications

 

Summary:  By this Notice, the Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) invites all airlines interested in providing scheduled passenger commercial air transportation to and from Basrah, Iraq, to file applications in order to allow CPA to allocate the limited available capacity among interested airlines at Basrah International Airport.

 

Background:  This Notice is being issued in anticipation of the reopening of Basrah International Airport.  Capacity at the airport will initially be limited to three (3) roundtrip flights per day, seven days per week.  In light of these circumstances, CPA has decided to invite applications for Iraq service that will allow CPA to allocate the available capacity at the airport among those airlines that are interested in providing service.  Grants of authority will be for an initial period of three months.  They may be renewed or revoked in the discretion of the CPA.

 

Iraq Air Service Needs

 

Currently, CPA has made the following threshold determinations in order to best serve ongoing efforts to reconstruct and develop the economy of Iraq and restore its civil aviation services:

 

·        Two round trips per day will be made available for conducting Middle East regional services; one round trip per day will be made available for worldwide operations, including global code-share arrangements;

 

·        Each airline chosen must be prepared to conduct at least two flights per week; 

 

·        Each airline chosen must be prepared for a maximum 2-hour ground turnaround without fueling, catering, or other ground services being provided;

 

·        Each airline chosen must be prepared to operate without the carriage of cargo into or out of Basrah; and

 

·        Other factors which may be relevant in the current circumstances.

 

Minimum Eligibility Requirements

 

To be eligible for consideration, airline applicants must submit valid evidence with their applications that they meet each of the following criteria:

 

·        Each airline must be duly licensed by its home government to conduct international air transportation to and from Iraq;

 

·        Each airline must hold the appropriate level of passenger and third-party liability insurance as required by its home government;

 

·        Each airline must be a signatory to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Intercarrier Agreement on Passenger Liability, opened for signature on 31 October 1995, and the IATA Agreement on Measures to Implement the IATA Intercarrier Agreement, opened for signature in May 1996.  In the alternative, each airline must agree to provide equivalent passenger liability protections with respect to their Iraq operations; and 

 

·        Each airline must meet certain safety standards (see attachment to this Notice).

 

Application Procedures, Selection Decision, and Timetable:  CPA invites all interested airlines, which meet the eligibility requirements indicated above, to submit applications with CPA by noon, 31 July 2 August (Baghdad time) 2003.  CPA intends to make its selection(s) based on which airline(s) proposal(s) will best serve ongoing efforts to reconstruct and develop the economy of Iraq.  Therefore, each airline’s application should describe in detail how its proposed operations would best meet the air service needs identified above. 

 

At a minimum, applications from eligible airlines should include the following: a complete description of the proposed operations, including complete routings and flight schedules; frequency of service, including a statement as to whether an applicant would be willing to accept fewer frequencies than the amount proposed and, if so, how many; days and times of operation, including a statement as to whether an applicant would be willing to accept different days and times than those proposed and, if so, which other days and times would be acceptable; illustrative fares; start-up date; equipment type; and whether services will be operated directly or by code share.  If applying to serve the market by using tickets issued through a code share, in addition to the foregoing, provide the identity of the operating airline and the code share partners. 

 

Applications must be submitted electronically, in English, through the following CPA electronic mail account: biap@orha.centcom.mil.  This Notice will be made available on the CPA website at the following address http://www.cpa-iraq.org and will be distributed through the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the National Air Carrier Association of America (NACA), the Association of European Airlines (AEA), the Arab Air Carrier Organization (AACO), the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), and the African Airlines Association (AFRAA).   CPA’s selection decision will also be available on the CPA website.  

 

ATTACHMENT

 

Safety Criteria

 

1) Airlines from countries that are currently listed as Category 1 under the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program are acceptable.

 

2) Airlines from a country that is IASA Category 2 or that is not currently categorized by the FAA may be acceptable.

 

a) An airline's acceptability depends on whether it is capable of conducting its operations in accordance with minimum international standards.

 

b) Determinations of acceptability will be made on a case-by-case basis considering all relevant information that may be available, including:

 

·        ICAO USOAP reports

·        FAA IASA reports

·        Reports of audits of the airline by code share or alliance partners

·        Reports of FAA surveillance of the airline's U.S. operations, if applicable

·        Information from other Civil Aviation Authorities on the airline's operations

 

c) Other considerations on whether an airline is acceptable include

 

·        Whether special emphasis ramp inspections or other direct monitoring should be performed to ensure safety.

·        Whether additional conditions or limitations should be required to ensure safety (e.g., whether operations must be under visual flight rules (VFR) only).

 

Note that U.S. airlines need to be appropriately approved by their respective FAA certificate management offices in order to fly into Iraq.