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News Digest DOT 109-15

Friday, October 30, 2015

Daylight Saving Time to End Sunday, Nov. 1 for Most Americans.  Most of the nation will return to standard time at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015, when clocks will be turned back one hour, providing an additional hour of daylight in the morning.  Under law, daylight saving time is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, with the nation returning to daylight saving time starting Sunday, March 13, 2016.  Federal law does not require any area to observe daylight saving time, but those that do must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law.  No resetting of clocks is required for those parts of the country not observing daylight saving time: Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, and most of Arizona.  The U.S. Department of Transportation has overseen the time laws since 1966, when Congress transferred this responsibility from the Interstate Commerce Commission.  Contact:  Caitlin Harvey:  (202) 366-4570.

DOT Calls for Innovative Research Proposals from Small Businesses.  The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) seeks innovative proposals from small businesses interested in conducting research needed by the Department’s agencies.  On October 14, 2015, DOT’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center released the Fiscal Year 2016 solicitation for the DOT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.  The solicitation contains a total of four (4) research topic descriptions from three (3) DOT agencies: the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Federal Transit Administration.  A complete list of research topics can be found on the DOT’s SBIR website at http://www.volpe.dot.gov/sbir.  The solicitation includes topic descriptions and funding levels and invites small businesses to submit research proposals on these topics no later than December 16, 2015.  Contact:  Nancy Wilochka:  (202) 366-5128.

BTS Releases Directive for 2016 Airline On-Time Reporting.  The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today issued its annual directive detailing the requirements for the reporting of airline on-time data for calendar year 2016.  In 2016, BTS will receive reports from 12 airlines.  Envoy Airlines will no longer be required to report.  Envoy reported on-time data for 15 years, beginning in 2001 when it operated as American Eagle.  American Airlines and US Airways began reporting combined numbers in July 2015.  Airlines with revenue of more than one percent of the total scheduled-service domestic passenger revenue for all airlines for the 12-months ending June 30, 2015 are required to report.

The directive also includes a list of 29 airports with one percent or more of the nation’s total domestic scheduled-service passenger enplanements for the 12-months ending June 30, 2015, for which monthly on-time reports are required.  The list is unchanged from 2015.  Although all reporting airlines voluntarily report on all domestic airports they serve, these 29 airports are listed in the detailed airport tables of the Department’s Air Travel Consumer Report and on BTS’ major airport on-time rankings.  For the complete list of carriers required to report data in 2016 and the airports for which reports are required, see Technical Directive 25.  Contact:  Dave Smallen:  (202) 366-5568, David.Smallen@dot.gov.

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DOT 109-15