Order 03-02-10

Order 03-02-10

Essential Air Service at Grand Island, Nebraska

Order 03-02-10
OST-02-13983

Issued February 12, 2003
Served February 18, 2003

Order Prohibiting Termination of Service and Requesting Proposals

Essential Air Service at Grand Island, Nebraska - Great Lakes AviationBy:

By this order, the Department is (a) prohibiting Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., from terminating its unsubsidized essential air service at Grand Island, Nebraska; (b) requiring the carrier to maintain service between the community and Denver, Colorado, for an initial 30-day period following the end of the notice period, through April 2, 2003; and (c) requesting proposals from air carriers interested in providing essential air service at Grand Island.

We will solicit proposals from carriers interested in providing replacement service at Grand Island. We note that Grand Island has averaged impressive levels of enplanements in past years, peaking at over 64 enplanements a day for calendar year 1993. During the community’s period of peak traffic, however, the carrier(s) serving the point offered service to as many as five different hubs—far more than current EAS program funding levels permit us to underwrite with subsidy support. However, we note that traffic at Grand Island has declined sharply to sixteen enplanements a day for the most recent annual period for which we have data. Therefore, we request proposal options that would provide the community with service to either of its designated hubs of Denver or Omaha consisting of at least two or three round trips a day, nonstop or one-stop, six days a week, with twin-engine, two-pilot, 15-passenger-seat or larger, 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. We will also entertain proposals to serve other hubs, such as Kansas City, Minneapolis, St. Louis, or Chicago, that provide access to the national air transportation system in order to give the Department and the community as broad an array of proposals as possible from which to choose. As always, we will formally solicit the community’s views on any service options we receive before making a long-term carrier selection decision.

By: Read C. Van de Water