NHL fuming over flight ban

"Cabotage." It sounds like a Beastie Boys B-side, but it's actually a term used in aviation to describe the rights of an airline to fly passengers between domestic destinations in a country. It's also at the heart of a breaking story in Canada that has NHL and government officials outraged after the U.S. Department of Transportation banned Air Canada's charter fleet from flying between U.S. cities,

Here's the deal: The D.C.-based Air Line Pilots Association initiated this action from the Obama Administration by complaining that Air Canada charter flights were transporting passengers to and from U.S. cities who weren't also transported to or from Canada, according to these findings from the U.S. Department of Transportation (.pdf). The ALPA claimed this practice was a violation of U.S. Code Title 49, which "prohibits the transportation of persons ... between points of the U.S. in a foreign civil aircraft."

For example, an NHL team would charter an Air Canada flight to a U.S. city, pick up more passengers in that city for whatever reason, and then fly to the next U.S. city where the team would play. The U.S. DOT said it found instances of that occurring after an audit of Air Canada charter programs from the Boston Bruins and the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. The Bush Administration last year allowed the Bruins to fly Air Canada charter flights for the 2008-09 season.