OST-02-11347

OST-02-11347

CCAIR Inc.

OST-02-11347

January 11, 2002
Docketed January 17, 2002

Notice to Terminate Service

Terminate Service Between Hickory, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina

Although CCAIR would prefer to continue providing scheduled air service to Hickory, the substantial cost increases resulting from increased federal regulations for regional carriers makes it impossible to continue without an EAS subsidy. The absence of any subsidy requires CCAIR to advise the Department of Transportation that scheduled air service will be discontinued.

At present, CCAIR is providing the only scheduled air service in Hickory, North Carolina.

Counsel: CCAIR, William Kostel

CCAIR Inc.

Order 02-3-26
OST-02-11347

Issued March 28, 2002
Served April 2, 2002

Order to Show Cause

Terminate Service Between Hickory, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina

Order 2002-3-26 is tentatively allowing CCAir, Inc., d/b/ US Airways Express (CCAir) to suspend its scheduled service at Hickory, N.C., on April 16, 2002.

Under Public Law 106-69, the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2000, the Department is precluded from compensating a carrier under the Essential Air Service program for serving any community within 70 driving miles of a medium or large hub airport. Using a 1996 Rand McNally software program, we have measured the distance from the center of Hickory to the entrance of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport as 54 miles.

We tentatively find, therefore, that we are prohibited from paying subsidy to CCAir for providing air service at Hickory under the EAS program, and thus that we are also precluded from requiring the carrier to continue service at the community after the end of its 90-day notice period. Consistent with program practice, we will give the community 20 days after the service date of this order to file an objection if it believes that we have made a mistake in our distance calculations.

Although we have no authority to require CCAir to continue to serve Hickory after April 16, we note that the community generated a total of 24,761 O&D passengers in the HKY-CLT market for the year ended June 2001. With traffic levels averaging 68 passengers a day, we would encourage other carriers to examine the feasibility of providing service to the community.

By: Read Van de Water