The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has granted California Pacific Airlines (San Diego McClellan Palomar) a 180-day waiver from dormancy provisions for the operation of scheduled interstate flights. Issued on April 14, the DOT was sympathetic to California Pacific Airlines' (CPAir) request due in part to the COVID-19 crisis. It marks the second extension granted by the DOT to the carrier in the last 15 months.
Having ceased commercial operations on January 16 2019, Theodore Vallas, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ADI Aerodynamics, Inc. (trading as CPAir) wrote to the DOT in late 2019 asking for an extension to the airline's scheduled flight authority, which would expire on January 16, 2020. At that time, Vallas suggested that the company intended to restart operations in 1Q 2020 and because CPAir was "taking steps to be refound fit and resume operations", the DOT granted a 90-day extension until April 16 2020. In its letter to CPAir on January 16, 2020, the DOT stated that it expected "the company to be fully operational in the next three months."
However, on April 4, the DOT received another letter from Vallas requesting a 180-day extension adding to the original 90-day one. The airline CEO suggested that the COVID-19 outbreak had caused "extraordinary disruption to business and operations" and as a result, CPAir was "facing significant and unforeseen obstacles in its efforts to resume air operations." He asserted that despite the current issues, that the airline "is working towards and remains committed to a successful resumption of operations as quickly as possible." To that end, CPAir had retained key postholders but furloughed administrative staff and external consultants.
The DOT responded to Vallas' letter on April 14, saying that in light of the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacting the aviation industry, it found it "reasonable" to grant CPAir’s request for an exemption of 180 days, i.e. until October 13, 2020. The DOT issued additional requirements to the airline which must be met by the October date, failure in which would result in the DOT revoking CPAir's certificate.
CPAir had intended to relaunch operations from San Diego McClellan Palomar to San José, US, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Las Vegas Harry Reid, Reno/Tahoe, and Los Cabos, Mexico with four E145s in year one, before adding two E170s in the second year of operations.
