UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 17-2349

AIR EVAC EMS, INC.,

Plaintiff – Appellee,

v. TED CHEATHAM, in his capacity as Director of the Public Employees Insurance Agency; JOHN A. MYERS; RAYMOND S. WHITING; GEOFF S. CHRISTIAN; AMANDA D. MEADOWS; JARED ROBERTSON; LEE R. DINZNOFF; JASON MYERS; WILLIAM MILAM; MICHAEL T. SMITH, in their capacities as members of the Public Employees Insurance Agency's Finance Board; ALLAN L. MCVEY, in his capacity as West Virginia Insurance Commissioner; BILL J. CROUCH, in her capacity as the Secretary for the West Virginia Department of Health & Human Resources,

Defendants – Appellants, ------------------------------ AMERICA’S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS, Amicus Supporting Appellant, TEXAS MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Amicus Supporting Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, at Charleston. Thomas E. Johnston, Chief District Judge. (2:16-cv-05224)

Argued: October 31, 2018 Decided: December 7, 2018 Before WILKINSON, FLOYD, and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Floyd and Judge Richardson joined.

ARGUED: Lindsay Sara See, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WEST VIRGINIA, Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellants. Joshua Lee Fuchs, JONES DAY, Houston, Texas, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Patrick Morrisey, Attorney General, Erica N. Peterson, Assistant Solicitor General, Katherine A. Schultz, Senior Deputy Attorney General, Sean M. Whelan, Assistant Attorney General, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WEST VIRGINIA, Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellants. Carte Goodwin, FROST BROWN TODD, LLC, Charleston, West Virginia; Charlotte H. Taylor, JONES DAY, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. Julie Simon Miller, Thomas M. Palumbo, AMERICA’S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS, Washington, D.C.; Hyland Hunt, Ruthanne M. Deutsch, Anne J. Jang, DEUTSCH HUNT PLLC, Washington, D.C., for Amicus America’s Health Insurance Plans. Karen Vladeck, WITTLIFF CUTTER AUSTIN PLLC, Austin, Texas; Mary Nichols, TEXAS MUTUAL INSRUANCE COMPANY, Austin, Texas; Matthew Baumgartner, GRAVES, DOUGHERTY, HEARON & MOODY, P.C., Austin, Texas; Paul Schlaud, REEVES & BRIGHTWELL LLP, Austin, Texas, for Amicus Texas Mutual Insurance Company.

2 WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (ADA) expressly preempts state efforts to regulate the prices, routes, and services of certain air carriers. Beginning in 2011, West Virginia enacted various laws to limit the reimbursement rates of air ambulance companies. Air Evac, an air ambulance company and registered air carrier, sued to enjoin the enforcement of these provisions, arguing that the state’s laws were preempted by the ADA. The district court agreed with Air Evac and enjoined the challenged provisions. We now affirm.

I.

A.

The market-driven system for commercial air travel, familiar to travelers today, arose from nearly a century of regulatory change. In 1938, the federal government developed a comprehensive scheme to support the growing use of the nation’s skies for commercial aviation. Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, Pub. L. No. 75-706, 52 Stat. 973. Since its inception, this regulatory regime has included both safety and economic regulations. Id. tit. IV, §§ 401-416 (economic regulations); Id. tit. VI, §§ 601-610 (civil aeronautics safety regulation). Twenty years later, federal authority over commercial aviation, which had previously been scattered among different agencies, was consolidated under the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB). Federal Aviation Act, Pub. L. No. 85-726,