Alternate Airport for Scheduled 135 Operator
 

I fly for a 135 Commuter and being that we are scheduled we have to have approval to run scheduled operations at the airports we fly to. Does anyone know if we need to have approved alternates as well? I can't find a reg or op spec that says so but our POI seems to believe it. We finally got a list this week. The Op Specs do say the certificate holder must determine a list of alternates that meet 4 requirements but nowhere did it say the FAA, FSDO, Administrator or any of that has to "approve" it. Really annoyed on this one because sometimes there were no alternates available. Previously we could only use as an alternate those airports that we were approved to provide scheduled operations but diverting to an alternate is not a scheduled service that we provide.

This is a 121 take...

The OPSPEC must be approved by the FAA, I think the approved alternates are normally listed in the OPSPEC so the feds would get a cut on them.

This situation is kind of weird. Most 135 Ops specs give specific requirements for using an airport as a legal (Flight Plan) alternate however, to my knowledge, there is usually no mast list of airports one may use. You should be able to use any airport in the country that meets the Ops Spec Requirements.

Example Ops Spec;

May use the following mins for filing an airport as an alt...

Take the lowest authorized (No "NA" in alt mins section for that IAP) IAP to the airport desired and... (400:1 Rule)
-Add 400ft to lowest HAT/HAA
-Add 1 SM to lowest Visibility

EX) ILS with 200ft and 1/2 mile mins. In order to file this airport as an alternate, the wx must be at least 600ft and 1 1/2SM.

That is my understanding but it was a big deal there for a couple weeks. Now we have a list that includes some airports that are class G but I know we don't have an op spec to operate IFR in uncontrolled airspace. It gets a little stranger because we do have op sped C80 now which allows for terminal operations at class G airports as long as the list of equipment that follows is operational. Then it lists ASOS/AWOS and CTAF info for certain airports. Does that mean we can only operate IFR at those airports or those are the only ones that require... ah heck it's getting stupid.