Hello everyone. The current COVID-19 pandemic is making air travel very difficult. U.S.-flag and foreign flag air carriers are cancelling flights right and left which is making it difficult to demobilize people and get them home. FAR 47.403-1(a) states, "If a U.S.-flag air carrier cannot provide the international air transportation needed or if the use of U.S.-flag air carrier service would not accomplish an agency’s mission, foreign-flag air carrier service may be deemed necessary." My question is, what does the word "agency" mean as used in this sentence. Does it mean the contractor or the government?
For example, an employee has a flight out of Dubai, UAE to London on a foreign flag air carrier without a codeshare but has a Fly America Act compliant flight from London to Chicago but there is only an hour and a half between when the traveler lands in Chicago and the next flight. Right now with COVID-19 all travelers coming from overseas are being screened for the virus. There's no way the poor traveler is going to make the connecting flight back home. He could take a flight in the morning but he just wants to get back home after being gone for so long. There's a direct flight from Dubai to Los Angeles on a foreign flag air carrier and a reasonable layover to make the connecting flight back home. If there was no other exception to the Fly America Act compliant flight could we, the contractor, make the executive decision that the flight does not accomplish our mission of avoiding a COVID-19 infested London putting them at risk of infection and book the flight on the direct foreign flag air carrier? Or do we have to go to contracting officer and get them to give us permission to book the foreign flag air carrier?
I'm trying to think outside the Fly America Act box to get people back to the States as quickly as possible without getting infected.