OST-2002-11859 - EAS at Decatur, IL

OST-2002-11859

http://www.decatur-airport.org/ - Decatur Airport

Trans States Airlines, Inc.

OST-2002-11859

March 15, 2002

Notice of Termination of Service at Decatur, Illinois

Intent to Terminate Service at Decatur, Illinois

Hereby submits notice, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 41734 and 14 C.F.R. 323.3, of its intent to terminate service to Decatur, Illinois, effective June 9, 2002. No other carrier is currently serving Decatur, Illinois. After TSA terminates service, Decatur will be left with no service. TSA operates these flights with Jetstream 41 aircraft.

By: Trans States Airlines, Hulas Kanodia

OST-2002-11859	March 29, 2002	Comments of Decatur Park District in Support of Subsidy Proposal	Intent to Terminate Service at Decatur, Illinois
		Service List

It has become clear, however, that Trans States no longer believes that its inability to provide the required three daily round trips is a short-term consequence of September 11. In recent months, Decatur has repeatedly asked Trans States to add a third daily St. Louis round trip to its schedule in order to meet the minimum EAS level at Decatur, 80 seats daily. Now, nearly seven months after the September 11 attacks, Trans States continues to operate below the minimum EAS level of service. Trans States' filing in this case indicates the carrier's recognition that it cannot in the near future provide the required three daily round trips without subsidy.

Counsel: Zuckert Scoutt, Richard Mathias, 202.298.8660

Order 2002-4-20 OST-2002-11859	Issued April 25, 2002 Served April 30, 2002	Order Prohibiting Suspension of Service and Requesting Proposals for Replacement Service	Intent to Terminate Service at Decatur, Illinois
		Appendices: Map, EAS Subsidy Calculation
		Service List

Trans States' suspension of service would leave Decatur without any scheduled air service. In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 41734, we will therefore prohibit Trans States from suspending service at the community. In doing so, we will require Trans States to continue operating two nonstop round trips to St. Louis each weekday and weekend. We recognize that 60 seats represents a slight shortfall from the community's seat guarantee of 67 on weekdays, and a considerable one from 134 on weekends. Nonetheless, in view of the community's recent traffic levels, Trans States' current schedule affords sufficient capacity in the short term. We will address the community's long-term service levels in the context of the carrier selection case.

Even before the September 11 attacks, Decatur-St. Louis traffic had been steadily declining over several years. During the 12 months ended August 31, 2001 -- the period immediately before the attacks -- Decatur-St. Louis traffic averaged 37.2 enplanements a day, which represented a 21.6 percent decrease from 47.4 a day during the preceding 12-month period and a 38.5 percent decline from 60.5 a day during calendar year 1997.⁶ Since September 11, of course, traffic has eroded even further. During the six-month period from October 2001 through March 2002, Decatur averaged 25.1 enplanements a day, 33.1 percent below the 36.1 enplanements a day registered during the corresponding six-month period a year earlier. Traffic has been slowly recovering, but still averaged just 31.6 enplanements a day in March. Under the circumstances, two round trips each weekday and weekend, providing 60 seats in each direction, should easily accommodate demand in the short term.

We will also seek proposals, with or without subsidy requests, from carriers interested in providing replacement service at Decatur. We ask that carriers submit their proposals within 20 days of the date of service of this order; we will give full consideration to all proposals that are timely filed. We request proposals that contemplate service frequencies and capacity consistent with the community's determination to the designated hubs of St. Louis and/or Chicago, operated with twin-engine, two-pilot, pressurized aircraft and offering at least 15 passenger seats. As always, we will solicit the community's views on any service options we receive before selecting a carrier.

By: Read Van de Water

OST-2002-11859

April 8, 2002
Docketed May 14, 2002

Letter in Support Filed by The City of Decatur Illinois

Trans States Airlines, Inc. - Notice of Intent to Terminate Service at Decatur, Illinois

By: City of Decatur

OST-2002-11859

May 23, 2002

Proposal of Great Lakes Airlines

Notice of Intent to Terminate Service at Decatur, Illinois

Counsel: Great Lakes, Doug Voss, 307.432.7000

Order 2002-8-5 OST-2002-11859	Issued August 9, 2002 Served August 14, 2002	Order Establishing Hold-In Rate	Notice of Intent to Terminate Service at Decatur, Illinois
		Attachments: Map, Annual Subsidy

By this order, the Department is establishing a final subsidy rate of $487,050 annually for Trans States Airlines, Inc., d/b/a American Connection, for its ongoing essential air service Decatur, Illinois, the period from June 13, 2002, until further Department action.

By: Read Van de Water

OST-2002-11859

September 6, 2002

Proposal of Great Lakes Aviation

90-Day Notice of Suspension at Decatur, IL

By: Great Lakes, Douglas Voss

OST-2002-11859

December 16, 2002

Re: Withdraw of Proposal by Great Lakes

Essential Air Service at Decatur, Illinois

Pursuant to recent conversations and in light of United's recent restructuring events, Great Lakes would hereby respectfully request that it be allowed to formally withdraw from the Decatur carrier selection case. Having spent seventeen years providing EAS service to Chicago O'Hare, its quite disappointing that we find ourselves now in a position that providing a competitive air service product has become economically unfeasible at such a powerful Worldwide Hub.

We do wish to encourage you to increase service frequencies for the community to its St. Louis Hub. While we do believe the EAS program needs serious reform, Decatur is a classic example of an EAS community that would respond to and be significantly stimulated by a high frequency service level. Given its drive - divert options anything less than four round trips a day would cause continuous deterioration of consumer usage. This is a very serious issue that needs to be attended to in next years Congressional review of the program.

By: Douglas Voss

OST-2002-11859

December 18, 2002
Docketed December 20, 2002

Correspondence

Intent to Terminate Service at Decatur, Illinois

With the withdrawal of the Great. Lakes proposal for. service to O'Hare, there are no proposals pending for Decatur-Chicago service, and it is clear that there is not likely to be a proposal for Decatur-Chicago service in...the near term. We therefore request:

That the Department expeditiously issue an order increasing the current subsidized. service being operated by Trans States Airlines, Inc. to St. Louis (under Order. 2002-4-20) from two to three round trips per day; in order to meet the seat minimums under Order 80-2-124; and That in the same order the Department reiterate its still-pending request for air carriers to propose service in the Decatur-Chicago market, a request made most, recently eight months ago in Order 2002-4-20.

By: William VanAlstine

Order 2003-1-1 OST-2002-11859	Issued January 2, 2003 Served January 7, 2002	Order Selecting Carrier and Establishing Final Subsidy Rate	Essential Air Service at Decatur, Illinois
		Appendices A-C: Map, EAS Calculation

By this order, the Department is selecting Trans States Airlines, Inc., d/b/a American Connection, to provide essential air service at Decatur, Illinois, for a two-year period at a subsidy rate of $917,077 annually. In the absence of a proposal for service to Chicago, Trans States' Option A best meets Decatur's essential air service determination, since it offers 90 seats each weekday and 120 each weekend. Ninety seats each weekday easily meets the 67 contained in Decatur's essential air service determination. Although 120 seats over the weekend falls slightly short of the 134 seats contained in Decatur's determination, Trans States projects 23,352 passengers on 1,946 completed flights annually -- an average of 12 passengers per flight on 30-seat aircraft. It is clear from the carrier's traffic projection that the additional round trip required to meet Decatur's seating guarantee on weekends is not necessary as a practical matter.

By: Read C. Van de Water

Order 2004-11-13
OST-2002-11859 - EAS at Decatur, Illinois
OST-2003-14492 - EAS at Quincy, Illinois

Issued and Served November 16, 2004

Order Requesting Proposals

By this order, the Department is requesting proposals from carriers interested in providing essential air service at Decatur and/or Quincy, Illinois, for two-year periods beginning April 1 and August 1, 2005, respectively.

By: Karan Bhatia

OST-2002-11859 - EAS at Decatur, Illinois
OST-2003-14492 - EAS at Quincy, Illinois

Proposal of Mesa Air d/b/a Air Midwest for Provide Essential Air Service

A surprising characteristic of these markets, especially in Decatur, has been a much higher percentage of leisure traffic compared to business travel. Mesa believes that this has been driven primarily by the lack of service to the Chicago area, especially nonstop from either Decatur or Quincy. Mesa proposes offering service to Chicago Midway (MDW) as the primary hub, which enables business traffic to once again fly out of Decatur and Quincy instead of other local airports, but also allows connecting opportunities to Southwest, ATA, or any other carrier operating from Midway.

By: Mesa, Mickey Bowman

December 16, 2004

Proposal of Multi-Aero d/b/a Air Choice One

By: Multi-Aero, Shane Storz, 800-795-7192

OST-2003-14492 - EAS at Quincy, Illinois

December 15, 2004

Proposal of Corporate Airlines d/b/a American Connection

Corporate Airlines proposes to offer 4 weekday and 3 weekend roundtrips between Quincy and St. Louis operating British Aerospace Jetstream 32 aircraft. The flights will be operated as American Connection, using the American Airlines code. Corporate Airlines is currently providing air service at Quincy.

Corporate Airlines has entered into a long‑term lease of hangar space at Quincy and intends to begin performing a significant portion of its maintenance functions at that facility.

It should be noted that although operating costs for airlines have increased significantly over the past year, lead by drastic increases in fuel prices, Corporate Airlines has actually reduced its compensation requirement by $12,000 per year.

By: Corporate Airlines

December 15, 2004

Proposal of Trans States Airlines to Provide Essential Air Service for Decatur, IL

By: TSA

December 17, 2004

Re: Request for Comments of The Honorable Paul Osborne, Mayor of Decatur

By: Dennis DeVany

December 27, 2004

Re: Decatur Airport Letter in Support of Trans States

By: Chris Riley

December 28, 2004

Re: The Chamber of Commerce for Decatur and Macon County Letter in Support of Trans States

By: Randy Prince

December 29, 2004

Re: Economic Development Corporation of Decatur and Macon County Letter in Support of Trans States

By: J. Craig Coil

December 30, 2004

Re: The City of Decatur Letter in Support of Trans States

By: Paul Osbourne

Order 2005-1-17
OST-2002-11859 - EAS at Decatur, Illinois
OST-2003-14492 - EAS at Quincy, Illinois

Issued January 21, 2005 | Served January 26, 2005

Order Selecting Carriers and Establishing Final Subsidy Rates

By this order, the Department is selecting Trans States Airlines, Inc., d/b/a American Connection, to provide essential air service at Decatur, Illinois, for a new two-year period beginning April 1, 2005, at a subsidy rate of $954,404 annually, and selecting Corporate Airlines, Inc., d/b/a American Connection, to provide essential air service at Quincy, Illinois, for a new two-year period beginning August 1, 2005, at a subsidy rate of $1,097,406 annually.

By: Karan Bhatia