(a) General. This policy statement describes the general standards which will be used by the Department in determining the order in which it will designate for hearing those matters on its docket which are to be decided after notice and hearing. Among such matters are applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity or for foreign air carrier permits; complaint cases; and various rate-making proceedings.

(b) Standards. Matters will be assigned for hearing in accordance with the degree of relative priority which each matter is entitled to on the basis of the comparative public interest involved therein. Among other things, the Department will take into account:

(1) Statutory requirements for preference or statutory limitations on the time within which the Department shall act;

(2) The impact of delay on the public or particular persons;

(3) The need for promptly securing compliance with the provisions of the Act;

(4) The time for which the matter has already been pending and which would be required to dispose of it;

(5) Whether the application requests renewal of an existing temporary authorization; and

(6) In matters relating to operating authority:

(i) Whether a proposal might reduce subsidy or increase economy of operations;

(ii) Whether an application proposes new service;

(iii) The volume of traffic that might be affected by the grant or denial of the proposal;

(iv) The period that has elapsed since the Department considered the service needs of the places or areas involved; and

(v) The relative availability of necessary staff members of the carriers, communities and the Department, in the light of other proceedings already in progress, to handle the processing of the case.

Interested persons may urge upon the Department such considerations as they believe should lead it to accord a particular application a priority different from that which the Department has given it.

[PS-21, 29 FR 1446, Jan. 29, 1964, as amended by Doc. No. DOT-OST-2014-0140, 84 FR 15947, Apr. 16, 2019]