Originally Posted by
FXLAX
I’m trying to follow you here. Common operational control is not required. AA and it’s WOs have no shared operational control. Yet AA and it’s WOs are an obvious STS but they haven’t been declared so. Would this also apply for non-wholly owned like UAL and ComutAir?
That would seem to support that common operational control is required. Maybe we are arguing the definition of operational control? Maybe my use of the term operational control is not the correct term?
My point was that for there to be a single transportation system, you need more than just common ownership. You also require that one entity is calling the shots of all entities (what I was calling operational control), not acting independent of each other, each with their own departments (labor relations, marketing, scheduling, dispatch, payroll, etc).
The established precedent applying today *appears* to require some common operational control. Skywest consolidated the ASA/XJT certs but kept them at arms length from Skywest Airlines, and everybody knew it was to avoid a common carrier petition which would have resulted in ALPA for the entire combined group.
This despite the fact that the three carriers overlapped as UAX/DCI in various places.