Originally Posted by
11atsomto
Thank you for doing this research. I also grow very tired of the “Well I heard at Standards”, “a guy I know at TK”, or “a guy on my jumpseat” types.
I certainly don’t have the time to research these things, so Thanks for doing so.
My question to you is:
Since Spirit has ceased operations, would FLL still be an AIAR 21 airport?……since I don’t know but I would guess JetBlue doesn’t account for greater than 50% of traffic…in fact Wikipedia states <20%…..maybe you have more accurate stats.
If however this is not the case….would the very transparent gate distribution process (that was so well explained by you) still be legally mandated?
You’re welcome! I’m tired of the rumors too. And the chat gpt “1 minute research”. I think we can all benefit from reading from the sources.
Anyways, to answer your question, it’s still covered, but only because the FAA runs on a two year data lag. The current list draws from numbers that still show Spirit alive and well. Once that data catches up with reality, the combined share of the top two carriers drops well below fifty percent and FLL comes off the list. That will probably happen in the next update cycle.
Losing covered status does not free the county to hand the place to one airline. Gate access rules are also established into the local lease and the schedule submission policy, not AIR-21. Preferential non-exclusive gates, utilization standards, the priority ladder, those all stay put.
The long term functions of anll of this are the FAA grant assurances. FLL takes federal money, so the county is bound by Grant Assurance 22 and 23 for the life of the airport. No exclusive rights. No unjust discrimination. Any carrier can file a Part 16 complaint and put the airport's funding at risk if the county ever tried to lock things up.
So yes, FLL is technically still on the covered list, but the protections that prevent a JetBlue sweep don't depend on that label. They're in the lease and the grant provisions, all of which can be found on FLL’s website. ++ for them being so transparent, lol. The covered designation is just an administrative reporting headache, and it seems like it will sunset sooner than later.