All air travel funded by the federal government is subject to the restrictions of the Fly America Act, including travel supported on federal grants, contracts and cooperative agreements, and travel undertaken by CU employees and non-employees.ⁱ While there are no exceptions to the requirement to use a US carrier for domestic travel, the Fly America Act does allow some exceptions and permit the use of a non-US carrier when conducting international travel. Most often the exception to the Fly America Act applied by travelers is the use of an Open Skies Partner air carrier.ⁱⁱ

Generally, the federal government expects federally funded travel to be conducted on US carriers. Additionally, we are expected to justify, document and receive approval (if required) for any exceptions to the Fly America Act. CU Boulder explicitly requires the PI and their department to document any federally funded travel that is not conducted on a US carrierⁱⁱⁱ, including the use of an Open Skies carrier.

We have confirmed with the CU Procurement Service Center (PSC) that the university's authorized travel procurement systems (CBT and Concur) do not sufficiently instruct travelers on how to comply with the Fly America Act, nor do they assist departments in documenting exceptions to the Fly America Act if they are applied to a travel booking on a sponsored award. When using either of the two required travel procurement systems, there are no thorough compliance checks that prevent travelers from booking airfare on their sponsored awards that does not comply with the Fly America Act.^iv

Airfare that does not comply with the Fly America Act cannot be considered an allowable project cost. Airfare for which no documentation supports the use of a Fly America Act exception does not comply with CU Boulder's explicit requirements and, therefore, cannot be considered an allowable project cost; undocumented exceptions to the Fly America Act would also likely be dismissed as unallowable project costs by an auditor or sponsor upon scrutiny, as well.^v

This policy is intended to inform travelers of the expectation to use US carriers for international travel, regardless of comparable cost or personal preferences of the traveler, and to describe responsibilities for documenting any exceptions to the Fly America Act for travel funded by CIRES-managed sponsored awards.

Federally funded air travel within the 50 United States, the District of Colombia, and the territories or possessions of the United States (including American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands) is considered domestic travel and must be conducted on a US carrier.

Check out our detailed instructions for submitting Domestic Travel trip requests here.

Federally funded air travel between the US and an international location or between two points outside of the US is considered international travel and must be performed by a US carrier or under a codesharing arrangement with a US carrier flight number^vi. Tickets or documentation for electronic tickets must identify the US carrier's designator code and flight number.

Check out our detailed instructions for submitting International Travel trip requests here.

There are limited exceptions to the Fly America Act that permit the use of a non-US carrier for one or more segments of an international trip. Exceptions to the Fly America Act must be documented by the traveler (or their designated arranger) in coordination with CIRES Travel and at the time that the trip is approved. The required documents for exceptions to the Fly America Act are:

1. A completed Fly America Act Exception form.
2. Detailed travel itinerary from CBT or from Concur, which includes the flight numbers for each segment of the trip.
3. Search results performed at the time of booking, verifying that a US carrier is not available for a specific segment, if that exception will be applied to the travel.

Exceptions to the Fly America Act include the following:

A US air carrier is not available because:

• Use of a foreign air carrier is necessary for medical reasons.
• Seat on a US air carrier is not available in an allowable class of service.
• No US air carrier provides services for that route or segment of a route.

Using a US air carrier adds excessive travel time, in the following manner:

• Extending the total travel time, including delays at the travel point of origin, by 24 hours or more.
• A US air carrier does not offer nonstop service and using a US carrier increases the number of aircraft changes by 2 or more.
• A US air carrier does not offer nonstop service and using a US carrier extends the travel time by at least 6 hours.
• A US air carrier does not offer nonstop service and using a US carrier requires a connecting time of 4 hours or more at an overseas interchange point.

Changes outside the traveler's control and/or avoiding unreasonable risk to traveler's safety:

• The US carrier rerouted traveler on a foreign air carrier after the initial ticket was purchased.
• Use of a non-US carrier is necessary to avoid unreasonable risk to traveler's safety. See 41 CFR 301-10.138(b)(2).

One of the following Open Skies Exceptions can be applied:

• Air travel is on a European Union (EU) Member State, Norway or Iceland carrier to/from the US.
• Air travel is on a Switzerland, Australia or Japan carrier to/from the US and there is no city-pair contract fare in effect between the point of origin and the destination. City pair fares can be verified using GSA Airline City Pairs.
• Travel is between two points outside of the US and is conducted by a EU Member State, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Australia or Japan carrier.

Additionally, there are sponsor-specific restrictions on the acceptability of applying an Open Skies Exception to an international trip, including:

• The Open Skies Partner exception cannot be used for travel funded by the Department of Defense.
• The use of the Open Skies Partner exception for travel funded by the Department of Commerce, which includes cooperative agreements from NOAA, must receive prior written approval from the agency's administrative office

And, as of January 1, 2021, the Open Skies Agreement between the US and European Union no longer includes the United Kingdom as a member state.

The following are not considered exceptions to the Fly America Act:

• A comparable or similar service can be provided at less cost by a non-US carrier.
• A non-US carrier is preferred by or more convenient for the traveler.

Travelers are responsible for ensuring that all travel cost incurred and assigned to the funding sources supporting their trip are reasonable, allowable, allocable, and appropriate. CIRES Travel can help inform travelers on applicable rules for conducting travel and can help ensure that travelers arrange compliant airfare itineraries through CBT or Concur, during the trip approval process. Travelers that do not complete the trip approval process in accordance with CIRES policies and procedures may be held financially responsibly for the cost of non-compliant or unallowable airfare charges, if they were incurred without review and approval from CIRES Travel.