OST-1996-1903 - EAS at Silver City/Hurley/Deming, NM

OST-1996-1903

http://www.grantcountynm.com/airport.html - Grant County Airport

Kingman and Prescott, Arizona / Cortez, Colorado / Alamogordo/Holliman Air Force Base, New Mexico / Clovis, New Mexico and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico (EAS)

Order 97-11-9 | OST-96-1899 | OST-96-1900 | OST-96-1901 | OST-96-1902 | OST-1996-1903 - Silver City/Hurley/Deming

Issued November 6, 1997 | Served November 13, 1997

Order Revising Service Levels and Subsidy Rates

By this order the Department of Transportation is authorizing increased service levels and subsidy rates for the subsidized essential air service provided by Mesa Air Group at the six communities listed above beginning when the increased service is implemented (but no earlier than October 1, 1997) through September 30, 1998.

Exhibit A: Map | Exhibit B: Calculation of Compensation Requirement | Exhibit C: EAS Service | Exhibit D: Historical Traffic

By: Charles Hunnicutt

Order 98-12-26 OST-96-1899 OST-96-1901 OST-96-1902 OST-96-1903	Issued December 22, 1998 Served December 24, 1998	Order to Show Cause	Essential Air Service - Kingman & Prescott, AZ; Alamogordo/Hollman AFB & Silver City/Hurley/Deming, NM - Mesa Airlines
		Appendix A: Map of the States of Arizona and New Mexico
		Appendix B: Historical Origin-Destination Passenger Traffic and Average Daily Enplanements
		Appendix C: Mesa Air Group Provision of Basic Essential Air Searvice at Kingman and Prescott, AZ
		Appendix D: Basic EAS to Be Provided
		Appendix E: Service List

The Department directs all interested persons to show cause within 20 days from the date of service of this order why it should not reselect Mesa Air Group to provide basic essential air service at Kingman and Prescott, Arizona, and Alamogordo/Holloman Air Force Base, Clovis, and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico, as described in Appendix D to this order, for the period of October 1, 1998, through September 30, 2000;

By: Charles Hunnicutt

Order 99-9-17
OST-96-1899
OST-96-1901
OST-96-1902
OST-96-1903

September 27, 1999

Final Order

EAS at Kingman and Prescott, Arizona; Alamogordo/Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico; Clovis, New Mexico; Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico

Final Order 99-9-17 is making final the tentative selection originally proposed in show-cause Order 98-12-26, December 22, 1998, of Mesa Air Group to provide basic essential air service with subsidy support at Kingman and Prescott, Arizona

By: Bradley Mims

Order 01-5-18 OST-96-1899 OST-96-1901 OST-96-1902 OST-96-1903	Issued May 15, 2001 Served May 18, 2001	Order To Show Cause	Kingman and Prescott, AZ; Alamogordo/Hollman AFB and Silver City/Hurley/Deming, NM
		Appendixes: Map, O&D Traffic, EAS to be Provided
		Service List

We have tentatively decided to reselect Mesa to provide essential air service at the five Arizona and New Mexico points for another two-year period. We have reviewed the service and traffic history for these communities and find that the service proposed is reasonable. We also tentatively find that Mesa's proposed subsidy rates are reasonable.

As is our customary procedure, we contacted Mesa when the end of the selection period at the five points was approaching and requested that, if the carrier found that subsidy was necessary for its continued service at the communities, it submit a proposal to the Department. Mesa responded by submitting and negotiating with us a proposal to continue to provide the current service levels (all with 19-passenger Beech 1900 aircraft): 18 one-stop or nonstop Kingman-Phoenix and 18 nonstop Prescott-Phoenix round trips each week for $1,083,003 per year; 18 nonstop Alamogordo-Albuquerque round trips each week for $923,789 annually; 18 nonstop Clovis-Albuquerque round trips each week for $1,118,197 annually; and 18 nonstop Silver City-Albuquerque round trips each week for $935,667 annually.

By: Susan McDermott

Order 2003-5-25
OST-96-1899 - Kingman and Prescott, Arizona
OST-96-1901 - Alamogordo/Holloman AFB, New Mexico
OST-96-1902 - Clovis, New Mexico
OST-96-1903 - Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico

Issued May 23, 2003 | Served May 29, 2003

Order Setting Interim Subsidy Rates | Word

By Order 2001-5-18, May 15, 2001, the Department selected Mesa Airlines to provide subsidized essential air service at Kingman, Prescott, Alamogordo/Holloman Air Force Base, Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming through March 31, 2003. Those rates have expired without our having established new rates as yet. Consequently, it is necessary for us to extend the expired rates as interim rates, subject to retroactive adjustment, in order to ensure that Mesa will continued to be paid for its services until the we can establish new final rates, retroactive to April 1, 2003. The new final rates may be higher, lower or the same as the interim rates we are extending here.

The Department extends as interim rates the recently expired subsidy rates for the essential air services operated by Mesa Airlines, Inc., d/b/a US Airways Express, at the five communities, until new final rates can be established.

By: Randall Bennett

Order 2004-8-22
OST-96-1902 - Clovis, New Mexico
OST-96-1903 - Silver City/Hurley/Deming, New Mexico

Issued August 19, 2004 | Served August 24, 2004

Order Setting Final Subsidy Rates and to Show Cause | Word

Because of the extensive past-period rate issues that are combined with the carrier selection process in this case, we have decided to process the carrier selection for Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming through show-cause procedures, rather than by initially soliciting proposals from all interested applicants. Potential applicants will have an opportunity to submit competing proposals in response to our tentative selection decision here.

As is customary when we use show-cause procedures, we contacted Mesa and requested that if the carrier found that subsidy was necessary for its continued service at the communities, it submit a proposal to the Department. Mesa responded by submitting and negotiating with us a proposal to continue to provide the current service level, three nonstop round trips each weekday and each weekend to Albuquerque, at each community with 19-passenger Beech 1900D aircraft: Mesa’s annual subsidy requirements for this service would be $1,439,865 for Clovis and $1,352,983 for Silver City/Hurley/Deming. (See Appendix B, pages 3 and 6 for summary computations of these rates.)

We have tentatively decided to reselect Mesa Air Group, d/b/a Air Midwest, Inc., to provide essential air service at Clovis and Silver City/Hurley/Deming for the period of June 1, 2004, through July 31, 2006. We find that Mesa’s proposed subsidy rates are reasonable for the proposed level of service.

By: Karan Bhatia

September 21, 2004

Re: The Town of Silver City Letter in Support of Mesa Airlines

In regards to Order 2004-8-22, the Town of Silver City would like to offer this letter of support for the Essential Air Service Program (EAS) and the incumbent carrier, Mesa Air Group.

Silver City depends on the EAS program to maintain scheduled air service, which assists in the mobilization of new businesses, providing much needed and valuable jobs for our area residents. Additionally, over the last several years we have successfully recruited new talent to our community because of the convenience and reliability of air transportation.

We are strongly in support of and request the continuation of Essential Air Service at the current frequency of 3 Round Trips daily to Albuquerque by Mesa Air Group.

By: Alex Brown

OST-96-1902 - EAS at Clovis, NM
OST-96-1903 - EAS at Silver City/Hurley/Demming, NM

September 23, 2004

Proposal of Great Lakes Aviation

In light of the instructions in the order to provide a "last and final" offer for the service to these points, Great Lakes has provided a list of options for service to these Essential Air Service points for the communities and the Department to choose from.

In the recent successful bids for service points in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and South Dakota, Great Lakes bid to provide service in the local markets to Denver as Great Lakes Airlines, and scheduled the service to connect with our code-share partners Frontier Airlines and United Airlines. Great Lakes will provide service at these New Mexico points as Great Lakes Airlines to Albuquerque, and with our interline agreements with all the Major airlines, will be able to offer connecting bag service through the Albuquerque and Phoenix hubs. In addition we will endeavor to extend our code-share arrangement with Frontier and United, who both service the Albuquerque - Denver market, to allow seamless service through Albuquerque and Denver to all the destinations served by our partners. All proposals contemplate the use of 19 seat Beech 1900D Airliner equipment.

By: Dave Thomas

October 8, 2004

Proposal of Mesa Airlines

Mesa has proudly served both of these communities for over two decades. We continue to maintain an active presence throughout the state of New Mexico, and can leverage existing infrastructure ‑ maintenance facilities, crew domiciles, spare aircraft, etc ‑ to ensure reliable and cost‑effective air service.

Of particular note, we have introduced over the last year aggressive bulk ticketing and market development initiatives and are committed to maintaining this level of promotional support going forward. We have established a full‑time community affairs liaison and she has already developed a broad local network of political and community leaders.

Specific to Clovis, the community has asked us to work with them on a strategy to extend air service to Dallas as the existing demand for eastbound connections - particularly from Cannon Air Force base - is substantial They are undertaking a series of initiatives, e.g. an 8000-foot runway extension, and also hope to access funding from a previous grant as well as local matching funds.

By: Lisa Larsen

OST-96-1902 - EAS at Clovis, NM
OST-96-1903 - EAS at Silver City/Hurley/Demming, NM

October 13, 2004

Re: Certificate of Service (Great Lakes)

By: Mary Kelly

November 1, 2004

Re: Letter to David Diaz, Mayor of Hurley, NM, Requesting Final Comments

I would like to update you on the essential air service situation at Silver City/Hurley/Deming and to give you an opportunity to submit any comments if you wish. As you know, by Order 2004‑8‑22, August 19, 2004, the Department provided for all interested air carriers to submit proposals to provide essential air service at Silver City/Hurley/Deming. In response to that order, we received eight proposal options from Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., and Mesa Air Group, Inc., d/b/a Air Midwest. I am attaching brief summaries of these proposals to this letter. Attachment A summarizes the subsidy calculations, while Attachment B summarizes the proposed schedules. (Note that although both applicants also submitted proposals to serve Clovis, I am only including summaries for Silver City/Hurley/Deming service in the attachments.) I would also urge you to review the full proposals as submitted by the carriers.

Please note that Great Lakes Aviation states in its proposal, "In addition we will endeavor to extend our code-share arrangement with Frontier and United, who both service the Albuquerque-Denver market, to allow seamless service through Albuquerque and Denver to all the destinations served by our partners." We wish to clarify that we are unaware of any current code-share arrangement in effect between Great Lakes Aviation and Frontier Airlines or United Airlines, at Albuquerque, although it is reasonable to expect that Great Lakes Aviation could secure such arrangements if it were awarded this subsidized route.