News Content
National Air Cargo: UAL win of US$145 million military contract unfair
AIR freighter operator National Air Cargo (NAC) is in court alleging the US Government unlawfully awarded a contract to United Airlines (UAL) as it was an "abuse of discretion", reported London's Loadstar.
NAC also urged the court to grant an injunction or restraining order to force disclosure of the procurement decision information.
The Request For Proposal (RFP) for the contracts, worth up to US$296 million, was published in February last year, and involved "a full range of international commercial transportation services to move cargo on behalf of DoD [Department of Defence] and the US government".
Awarded on the basis of performance and price, the brief suggests much of the work would involve shipments between Afghanistan or the Middle East, and the US.
The contracts were initially to ro-ro carrier Farrell Lines; Liberty Global Logistics, a heavy equipment transporter; container shipping line APL; Kalitta Air and National Air Cargo.
But in July, belly carrier UAL was added to the list, for contracts worth up to $145 million, by the Illinois-based contracting office.
TRANSCOM had said it reserved the right to reopen the competition if there was a shortfall in requirements.
National claims TRANSCOM gave no notice, there was no "shortfall" and, as United had 'no past performance" the addition of a new contractor was "improper"
NAC then filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, which was dismissed.
Not content with that decision, the all-cargo airline next protested at the Court of Federal Claims in October - and its complaint was dismissed in November.
The court argued that National had not proved it would be directly affected, or lose business.
National is now arguing that "UAL has no experience with international commercial multimodal transportation of cargo" and that the contract award was "unreasonable and inconsistent" and "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law".
NAC also urged the court to grant an injunction or restraining order to force disclosure of the procurement decision information.
The Request For Proposal (RFP) for the contracts, worth up to US$296 million, was published in February last year, and involved "a full range of international commercial transportation services to move cargo on behalf of DoD [Department of Defence] and the US government".
Awarded on the basis of performance and price, the brief suggests much of the work would involve shipments between Afghanistan or the Middle East, and the US.
The contracts were initially to ro-ro carrier Farrell Lines; Liberty Global Logistics, a heavy equipment transporter; container shipping line APL; Kalitta Air and National Air Cargo.
But in July, belly carrier UAL was added to the list, for contracts worth up to $145 million, by the Illinois-based contracting office.
TRANSCOM had said it reserved the right to reopen the competition if there was a shortfall in requirements.
National claims TRANSCOM gave no notice, there was no "shortfall" and, as United had 'no past performance" the addition of a new contractor was "improper"
NAC then filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, which was dismissed.
Not content with that decision, the all-cargo airline next protested at the Court of Federal Claims in October - and its complaint was dismissed in November.
The court argued that National had not proved it would be directly affected, or lose business.
National is now arguing that "UAL has no experience with international commercial multimodal transportation of cargo" and that the contract award was "unreasonable and inconsistent" and "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law".
Latest News
- For the first time, tianjin Port realized the whole process of dock operati...
- From January to August, piracy incidents in Asia increased by 38%!The situa...
- Quasi-conference TSA closes as role redundant in mega merger world
- Singapore says TPP, born again as CPTPP, is now headed for adoption
- Antwerp posts 5th record year with boxes up 4.3pc to 10 million TEU
- Savannah lifts record 4 million TEU in '17 as it deepens port
