DOT will distribute up to a total of 85% of the compensation for which a carrier is eligible under the Air Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act, including any funds already provided. Procedures for distributing the remaining funds will be issued at a later date.

Signed by President George W. Bush on September 22, the act provided $5 billion in direct payments to carriers to assist them in recovering from financial losses sustained as a result of the attacks. Up to $4.5 billion will be provided to passenger carriers and $500 million to all-cargo carriers.

In order to be eligible for payments, carriers must report financial data that includes their losses between September 11-30 and estimated losses for the rest of the year. The department is making these payments in stages in order to assure that all carriers are paid according to the law and that no carrier is overpaid.

The act requires compensation to be paid to carriers based on the lesser of the direct and incremental losses attributable to the attacks, or a formula amount based on a carrier’s proportionate share of reported available seat-miles for passenger flights or revenue ton-miles for cargo-only flights. Up to $4.5 billion will be provided to passenger carriers and $500 million to all-cargo carriers.

Airborne Inc. and FedEx Corp. announced this month they have received compensation. Airborne received $8.8 million, while FedEx’s FedEx Express subsidiary received $101 million. To date, DOT has provided nearly $2.43 billion to 111 air cargo and passenger carriers.