Order 03-04-3

Order 03-04-3

Essential Air Service at Bradford, Pennsylvania

Order 03-04-3
OST-03-14528

Issued April 2, 2003
Served April 7, 2003

Order Prohibiting Termination of Service and Requesting Proposals

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Essential Air Service at Bradford, Pennsylvania

Order 2003-4-3, the Department (1) prohibits Air Midwest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, Inc. from terminating its unsubsidized services at Bradford, Pennsylvania; (2) requiring the carrier to maintain service between the community and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for an initial 30-day period following the end of the notice period; and, (3) requests proposals from carriers interested in providing replacement service at the community.

Air Midwest is the only carrier serving Bradford. Its current service at Bradford consists of two nonstop round trips on weekdays and two over the weekend to Pittsburgh using 19-seat Beech 1900D aircraft. The Niagara Falls International Airport, serving Buffalo, New York, the closest medium-hub airport to the community, is approximately 103 miles north of Bradford, while Pittsburgh International Airport, a large-hub airport, is located approximately 186 highway miles southwest of Bradford.

We request that any carriers interested in providing essential air service at Bradford file their proposals within 20 days of the service date of this order. We ask that carriers submit proposals for two or three round trips each weekday and weekend to Pittsburgh with 15-19 seat aircraft, or two round trips a day with larger aircraft. We will also entertain proposals to other hubs 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. Bradford-Pittsburgh service should be nonstop, while service to other hub airports may be either nonstop or one-stop. Of course, 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