Essential Air Service at Grand Island, Kearney, McCook, North Platte and Scottsbluff, NE

Order 2006-3-10
OST-2002-13983 - Grand Island, NE
OST-1996-1715 - Kearney, NE
OST-1997-3005 - McCook, NE
OST-1999-5173 - North Platte, NE
OST-2003-14535 - Scottsbluff, NE

Issued and Served March 13, 2006

Order Requesting Proposals - Bookmarked

By Order 2004-5-15, May 25, 2004, the Department selected Great Lakes Aviation, Ltd., to provide essential air service with subsidy support at Grand Island, Kearney, McCook, North Platte, and Scottsbluff. Nebraska, through June 30, 2006, at a total annual subsidy of $5,233,287. Under that order, Great Lakes provides three nonstop round trips to Denver with Beech 1900D aircraft for each community. The associated annual subsidy rates for each community were set at $1,198,396 for Grand Island, $1,166,849 for Kearney, $1,502,651 for McCook, $870,504 for North Platte, and $494,887 for Scottsbluff.

As the end of the current rate term approaches, we are here requesting proposals from carriers interested in providing service at any or all of the five Nebraska communities, with or without subsidy, for the two-year period beginning July 1, 2006. Carriers should file their proposals within 30 days of the date of service of this order.

With respect to the Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte, and Scottsbluff, we expect proposals consisting of service, at a minimum, with two-pilot, twin-engine aircraft with at least 15 passenger seats, and offering two round trips each weekday and each weekend with 30-passenger aircraft or three round trips each weekday and each weekend with 19-passenger aircraft from the essential air service community to a suitable hub. Regarding McCook, we noted in the current carrier selection order that we were concerned about the low traffic levels, but agreed to continue to subsidize three round trips a day, and that we would seriously consider reducing that to two round trips a day if passengers levels did not increase. During the past two years, traffic has not risen to levels that warrant three round trips a day. During 2005, McCook averaged only 7.2 enplanements per day.

With respect to Grand Island, the community has asked that we encourage carriers to consider a proposal that would offer service to a suitable hub to the east, such as Kansas City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, or St. Louis for example. We encourage proposals that meet those requirements in an efficient manner. Carriers are also welcome to propose more than one service option, if they choose; they need not limit themselves to those requirements if they envision other, potentially more attractive service possibilities -- different hubs, for example -- with subsidy requirements that remain competitive.

By: Todd Homan