4 cities in state facing loss of air service tied to Mesa
Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/225903/
Mesa Air Group Inc. will leave four Arkansas cities without air service, for possibly up to two months, starting June 30 as it liquidates its regional carrier service.
El Dorado, Jonesboro, Hot Springs and Harrison, whose only commercial provider is Mesa, are mandated by the U. S. Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service program, which 30 years ago during deregulation of the airline industry began subsidizing certain routes as part of an effort to keep cities with service.
In addition, some of the cities’ routes are changing, shifting from current destination Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport to where officials with the new carriers think it will be most cost-sensible to fly.
Not only will Boone County Airport in Harrison lose all commercial service for an unknown period, said Judy McCutcheon, airport director, but it may lose passengers permanently.
“It’s one of those things that I’m concerned about because once you don’t have anything and people get used to not coming here and going elsewhere, then it’s hard to get them back,” McCutcheon said.
Phoenix-based Mesa gave the mandatory 90 days’ notice in January that it wanted to pull out of the routes, citing high fuel and maintenance costs for its fleet of 19-seat Beech 1900 D aircraft. It also announced that it was liquidating its regional airline Air Midwest, a wholly owned subsidiary, which has a fleet of 20 Beech 1900 D 19-seat airliners serving 27 cities, including the Arkansas-mandated routes.
“We can’t continue to function,” said Greg Stephens, president of Air Midwest. “Everything from fuel costs to parts and maintenance costs to crew shortages.... We’ve been stretched very thin, and we can’t continue.”
Honolulu-based Island Air announced earlier this month that it would provide service from Hot Springs to Harrison to Kansas City on a Bombardier Dash 8 37-seat aircraft. Wyoming-based Great Lakes Aviation will provide twice-daily flights from Jonesboro to St. Louis on Beechcraft 1900 D 19-seat turboprops. Both airlines did not respond to requests for comment.
Federally subsidized airlines are usually locked into specific routes, which are reviewed every two years, until a successor can be found, but Air Midwest is an exception because it’s being dismantled, said Bill Mosley, spokesman for the department.
Other carriers, such as MAIR Holdings Inc., have also had to drop subsidized routes MAIR announced in December that it would cease East Coast operations of its principal subsidiary, Big Sky Airlines, on subsidized routes because of fuel and maintenance costs.
Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association which represents U. S. regional airlines, said, “The airline industry is going to pay $ 10 billion more for fuel this year than it did last year, and that’s just unsustainable regardless of the size of the route.”
El Dorado is the only airport that has yet to find an airline to take over commercial service, although Island Air has expressed an interest in bidding, said Gary Harrell, airport manager. Island Air proposed flying from Hot Springs, stopping in El Dorado and then continuing onto Dallas / Fort Worth International. The Department of Transportation expects to have an answer for the airport by June 13, Harrell said, but he doubts that El Dorado can avoid a service interruption.
“I’m sure that there will be a slight lapse of service,” Harrell said. Island Air is expected to start service to Hot Springs and Harrison between Aug. 15 and Sept. 1, he said. “I don’t think it would be any later, but I don’t think it could start any earlier.”
Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport requested that Island Air expedite its start dates after Mesa notified the airport that service would be discontinued, said George Downie, airport director. He said he’s hoping that the airline will be able to move the service start date up to mid-July. “I don’t see them doing anything quicker than that,” Downie said. “June 30 is just a little over a month away, and they’ve got a lot to work out.”
McCutcheon said she was told that Mesa’s announcement was a surprise to Island Air, which “put them in a bind.” She said she thinks mid-August will be the earliest service will start.
A big change for Hot Springs will be the new route — Kansas City rather than Dallas / Forth Worth, Downie said. The airport will have two Island Air flights daily to Kansas City. Hot Springs passengers have had a mixed response to the change, he said. While the Kansas City flight will make it easier to transfer to get to the Northeast and West Coast, many passengers either live in Dallas or travel there regularly for business, he said.
McCutcheon, director for the Harrison airport, said she thinks that airport might lose 200 passengers per month because of the destination change. Through Mesa, the airport had two flights a day to Kansas City and two flights a day to Dallas. The airport serves about 8, 000 commercial fliers a year, she added.
Air Midwest also provides the regional carrier service for US Airways Express at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field. A US Airways spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Stephens said Air Midwest is working with US Airways to transition to a new regional carrier.
Philip Steed, airport manager for Jonesboro Municipal Airport, said he’s not sure of a planned starting date for Great Lakes Aviation’s flights to St. Louis. While some have expressed interest in flying to St. Louis, Frito-Lay’s manufacturing facility employees were frequent fliers on the Dallas route, he said. “We’ve had the Dallas route for a number of years, and I know people had gotten used to it,” he said. “I know Frito-Lay is really going to miss ’em.”
He said he assumes that the Jonesboro airport will be without commercial service for at least a short time.
“We hate to see Mesa pull out, but it’s just a business decision for them,” Steed said.