Metro Airlines

METRO AIRLINES 35 Metroflight Airlines, Inc., d/b/a Metro Airlines' and Airline, Aerospace and Allied Employees Local Union 19 (I.B.T.), Petitioner. Case 23-RC-3947 July 25, 1973 DECISION AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING AND JENKINS Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held before Hearing Officer Clayton Corley. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na- tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au- thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the rulings made by the Hearing Officer at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board makes the following findings: The Employer, Metroflight Airlines, Inc., d/b/a Metro Airlines, is a Texas corporation, with its princi- pal offices and place of business in Houston, Texas. It operates a commuter airline providing flights out of various cities located within the State of Texas. The Employer is an air taxi operator (or Commuter Air- line) subject to regulation by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), falling under the blanket exemption issued by CAB for air taxi operations, exempting them from certain of the economic regulations of the CAB. The Employer has filed a registration with the CAB as an air taxi operator, as required by the CAB, and pursuant to CAB regulations files reports with the CAB. In connection with its flights, the Company has joint ticketing arrangements (interline) with all certifi- cated air carriers in the United States except Western Airlines and also has joint fare arrangements with Eastern Airlines, Continental Airlines, Texas Interna- tional Airlines, National Airlines, and Braniff Air- lines. All joint fare and interticketing arrangements are filed with and approved by CAB. The Employer, in view of the fact that many passengers originating and/or terminating on Employer's flights are on inter- national journeys, is a party signatory to CAB Order 1 As amended at the hearing Agreement (Warsaw Agreement) establishing the lim- its of liabilities of air carriers for passengers who are in transit to or from point outside the continental limits of the United States. The Employer does business in excess of $1 million yearly, about 98 percent of which is received from passengers being carried on interline tickets. The re- mainder of the Employer's revenues are derived from airfreight 2 air charters and concessions, and 10 to 15 percent of the air charters involve carriage of passen- gers to points outside of Texas. The employees sought by the Petitioner are all captains and first officers who are engaged in the Employer's airflight operations. The Employer moves for dismissal of the petition on the ground that it is a carrier by air engaged in inter- state commerce within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, that its operations and employees are cov- ered by the provisions of the act, and is therefore not subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Rela- tions Board. Because of the nature of the question presented here, we requested as we have in other cases in the past 3 the National Mediation Board (as the agency primarily vested with jurisdiction, under the Railway Labor Act, over air carriers, and having primary au- thority to determine its own jurisdiction) to study the record in this case and determine the applicability of the Railway Labor Act to the Employer. We are ad- ministratively advised by the National Mediation Board, under date of June 27, 1973, that the National Mediation Board had determined that in the light of Metro Airlines, Inc., d/b/a Metro Airlines almost ex- clusive participation in interstate and foreign com- merce as a common carrier by air said Metro Airlines is subject to the provisions of Title II, Section 201 of the Railway Labor Act as a common carver by air. In view of the foregoing, we shall dismiss the peti- tion in its entirety. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition in Case 23- RC-3947 be, and it hereby is, dismissed in its entirety. 2 Ninety-eight to ninety-nine percent of the airfreight handled by the Em- ployer originates from or is destined for points outside Texas All such outgoing freight is handled by airfreight through-bills to point of destination or conversely if the Employer is the terminating carrier 3 Skyway Aviation, Inc, 194 NLRB 555, International Aviation Services of New York, Inc, 189 NLRB 75, Tri-State Aero, Inc, 186 NLRB 60, Lynch Flying Service, 166 NLRB 961 205 NLRB No. 18