Northern Air Cargo, et al. v. USPS, No. 10-5385 (D.C. Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseThe Postal Service determined, in two informal adjudications, that PenAir was qualified to carry "nonpriority bypass mail" on five Alaska routes. The Postal Service acted pursuant to the Rural Service Improvement Act of 2002, 39 U.S.C. 5402(a)(4), (a)(13), and (g)(4)(A) and (5), which permitted PenAir to enter five routes as what was termed a "mainline bypass mail carrier" only if it met certain statutory conditions. Three competing carriers sued to challenge the Postal Service's determinations as contrary to the Act. The district court ultimately concluded that the Postal Service's position was authorized. The court held, however, that the three relevant statutory sections were quite ambiguous and because the court had no authoritative Postal Service interpretations of the statute at issue, the court vacated the district court's judgment with instructions to remand.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.