Last week, the Department of Transportation revoked certificates of four airlines that have not flown in years: AirTran Airways, Continental Airlines, US Airways and Virgin America.

What’s weird is that the most recent flight by any of these was in 2018. And DOT is supposed to pull certificates after one year without operations under 14 CFR § 204.7(a). The fitness rule says certificates “shall be revoked” after one year but in practice the agency doesn’t follow the law. In practice, they have to get around to it. I guess they’ve been busy.

• AirTran: final flight December 28, 2014 (Atlanta-Tampa), with the brand sunset after Southwest integration.

• Continental: final departure was March 2, 2012 (Phoenix – Cleveland, landed early March 3 as United 1267). The last Continental flight in the air was Tokyo Narita – Houston on March 3.

• US Airways: final flight was 1939 (so-designated for airline’s founding year) Philadelphia – Charlotte – Phoenix – San Francisco – Philadelphia, departing October 16, 2015 and arriving in Philadelphia after a redeye on October 17.

• Virgin America: last departure was San Francisco – Los Angeles on April 24, 2018 (VX1948), while the last arrival was San Francisco – Newark, landing the morning of April 25. However there was an employee charter Los Angeles – San Francisco that took off after flight 1948.

The DOT issued an order dated September 3, 2025 revoking the interstate certificate authorities of AirTran, Continental, US Airways, and Virgin America for dormancy long after each ceased flying.

Now, these certificates were no longer valuable. What’s valuable is an FAA operating certificate (AOC), not the economic certificate. The operating certificate isn’t transferable, but you’ll often see near-dormant airlines completely sold so that a new airline has a quick path to commecial operations. Avelo, for example, acquired Xtra Airways because it already held an operators certificate, then renamed and transitioned it to the new carrier.

In contrast this is DOT economic authority (certificate of public convenience and necessity under 49 U.S.C. § 41102). Transfer is possible only with DOT approval under 49 U.S.C. § 41105; the transferee still must be found “fit, willing, and able.”

Here, the certificates were effectively useless once merger integration happened and the airlines achieved a single operating certificate for the merged carrier.

The FAA side of things was consolidated years ago via single operating certificates. This was housekeeping at the Department of Transportation – stuff they never got around to doing even though they were legally required to.