USPS Auction Crash Lands

The Court of Federal Claims in Asia Pacific Airlines v. U.S. (Oct. 14, 2005) grounded USPS when it indicated to bidders that varying flight schedules for mail transport would be permissible and then disqualified the low bidder on two lanes after two rounds of internet auction for failing to conform to the suggested tender times. The court enjoined not only the awards for those two lanes, but for several others that the airline said it would have bid on if it had known the true ground rules.