Carrier lined up for all 4 bereft airports
Posted on Tuesday, August 5, 2008
All four Arkansas airports that lost commercial flights in June now have an airline lined up to take over.
But there’s no telling when service will resume.
Meantime, “it’s pretty quiet around here,” said Gary Harrell, airport manager for South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field. He said that Great Lakes Aviation, the airline that will be taking over service at all four airports, has not yet set any time for starting the contracted flights from El Dorado to Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport.
Mesa Air Group’s wholly owned subsidiary, Air Midwest, shut down June 30, leaving all four Essential Air Service routes in Arkansas without any commercial flights. The program guarantees airports that had air service at the time of deregulation in 1978 can keep it and provides federal subsidies to fund the routes.
Monica Taylor, spokesman for Cheyenne, Wyo.-based Great Lakes, said Monday that the company didn’t have enough airplanes to serve all of its routes. However, the company is in negotiations to buy some of aircraft from Air Midwest, after which Great Lakes might be able to announce start dates, she added.
Bill Mosley, a spokesman for the U. S. Department of Transportation, said in an e-mail that the agency expects service to Jonesboro to start in October and Great Lakes hasn’t given any indications as to when service to the other airports might start.
During the bidding process this spring, Great Lakes won the Jonesboro airport, proposing a flight to St. Louis. Island Air took Hot Springs and Harrison with a proposal to fly to Kansas City. El Dorado did not receive a satisfactory bid.
However, Honolulu-based Island Air backed out of the agreement in June, saying that it decided to expand further in the Hawaiian market rather than branch out onto the mainland. The Department of Transporta- tion asked for more proposals, and awarded the remaining three cities to Great Lakes Aviation, with the cities’ support.
In the meantime, the airports are hurting.
George Downie, director of the Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport, said that revenue has fallen by 30 percent because of lower fuel sales, landing fees and office rent. Federal Transportation Security Administration workers have been transferred out of the city, and several Air Midwest employees lost their jobs. “Financially it’s having a big impact on us,” Downie said. The airport hasn’t heard anything from Great Lakes yet, he said.
In addition, Downie is worried Hot Springs might lose service permanently. The Department of Transportation said in a filing that it is concerned that the subsidy level for the city is too high for the number of passengers using it. Working with passenger numbers from April 2007 through March 2008, the department calculated that the subsidy would be $ 298 per passenger, exceeding the $ 200 cap for airports less than 210 highway miles away from the nearest large or medium hub. Hot Springs is 197 miles from Memphis International Airport, a medium hub.
The department will monitor the per-passenger subsidy for a year, and if it does indeed exceed $ 200, then the city’s service would be discontinued.
“We’re very concerned,” Downie said. “We hope we’re able to work with [Great Lakes ]... and convince the local public to utilize our air service in Hot Springs.” According to the filing, Great Lakes will receive $ 2. 3 million, or $ 1, 884 per flight, for 12 weekly nonstop round trips from El Dorado to Dallas. Harrison will receive 12 weekly one-stop round trips to Dallas and seven weekly nonstop or one-stop round trips to Kansas City for $ 1. 6 million annually, or $ 817 per flight. Hot Springs will have 12 weekly nonstop round trips to Dallas for $ 2 million, or $ 1, 623 per flight.
Great Lakes was awarded Jonesboro in May, with 12 nonstop round trips to St. Louis every week for $ 1. 6 million, or $ 1, 310 per flight, according to a separate filing.
The annual compensation assumes that 98 percent of all flights are completed, and all flights will be on 19-seat Beech 1900 aircraft.
One other airline, Multi-Aero Inc. doing business as Air Choice One, bid on the routes but wanted to serve them with a nine-seat aircraft, either a Cessna Caravan or a twin-engine piston aircraft.
Harrell in El Dorado said that the only date Great Lakes has shared with him is that they should begin service in Joplin, Mo., on Sept. 8, and the Department of Transportation awarded Joplin to Great Lakes at the same time as the three remaining Arkansas airports.
“We’ll be really glad to see them begin service,” Harrell said. “Hopefully when they do start, we’ll have been without service long enough that people will appreciate them.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
