DHL Airways responds to unfounded claims by competitors

DHL Airways, Inc. today filed its response with the Department of Transportation to the unfounded claims made by UPS and Federal Express concerning DHL Airways’s U.S. citizenship status.

“DHL Airways continues to satisfy unequivocally the statutory citizenship requirements applicable to U.S. airlines and we find the allegations made by our much larger competitors to be wholly without merit,” commented Steven Rossum, DHL Airways’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

Under federal law, a domestic airline must have at least 75 percent of its voting interest owned or controlled by U.S. citizens and at least two-thirds of such carrier’s board of directors and other managing officers must be U.S. citizens. The DOT has previously confirmed that DHL Airways satisfies each of these and other applicable requirements.

In 2001, DHL Airways completed a significant corporate and management restructuring, the purpose of which was to strengthen the carrier as a competitor and refocus the DHL brand in the U.S. Key elements of that restructuring included an increase in U.S. ownership of DHL Airways, the sale of the carrier’s ground operations to DHL Worldwide Express and the hiring of a new management team with extensive airline experience in the U.S. marketplace.

DHL Airways’s largest shareholder is William A. Robinson, a private investor. Robinson, a U.S. citizen, controls 75 percent of the voting stock and appoints three-quarters of the airline’s board of directors, each of whom must be citizens of the United States. The board of directors and senior managers of DHL Airways satisfy the statutory requirements. DHL Holdings (USA), Inc., a U.S.-based company and the indirect subsidiary of Brussels- based DHL International Limited, owns a minority interest in DHL Airways, Inc.

“We believe the frequent and unsubstantiated claims of UPS and Federal Express mask the true and anticompetitive intent of the two largest express service providers in the U.S.,” said Rossum. “The public will be best served by robust competition in the airfreight business and we will continue to compete aggressively for all opportunities in the United States. DHL Airways will defend vigorously any regulatory challenges to our franchise.”

DHL Airways operates 36 aircraft and provides air cargo services within the U.S. for airlines, freight forwarders and other air cargo customers.