Order 2002-2-18 - EAS at Iron Mountain/Kingsford, Manistee and Ironwood, MI and Oshkosh, WI

Order 2002-2-18 - EAS at Iron Mountain/Kingsford, Manistee and Ironwood, MI and Oshkosh, WI - Requesting Proposals

Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd.

Order 2002-2-18 OST-1999-5175 OST-1996-1711 OST-1996-1266 OST-1999-5712	Issued February 27, 2002 Served March 4, 2002	Order Requesting Proposals	Ninety Day Notice to Terminate Essential Air Service at Iron Mountain/Kingsford, Michigan; Manistee, Michigan; Ironwood, Michigan; Oshkosh, Wisconsin
		Attachments: Map, Historical O & D

We will solicit proposals from carriers interested in providing replacement service at Iron Mountain/Kingsford, Manistee/Ludington, Ironwood/Ashland, and Oshkosh. We request proposal options that would provide the communities with service to any of the designated hubs of Chicago, Milwaukee, or Minneapolis/St. Paul (as appropriate), consisting of at least two round trips a day (we encourage carriers interested in serving Iron Mountain/Kingsford to submit proposals offering three round trips a day), nonstop or one-stop, six days a week, with twin-engine, two-pilot, 15-passenger-seat, pressurized aircraft. The proposals should offer at least enough daily seats to accommodate the most recent average daily enplanements at a 60-percent load factor. Notwithstanding Oshkosh's almost 20-year-old essential air service determination, we request proposals for two round trips each day providing sufficient capacity to accommodate recent traffic levels; as service at nearby Appleton has grown, traffic levels at Oshkosh have fallen to very low levels. We will also entertain proposals to serve other hubs that provide access to the national air transportation system in order to give the Department and the communities as broad an array of proposals as possible from which to choose. Of course, as always, we will formally solicit the communities' views on any service options we receive before making a long-term carrier selection decision. In order to assist carriers in making their traffic and revenue forecasts, we have included historical traffic data in Appendix B.

By: Read Van de Water