Essential Air Service at Bluefield/Princeton, West Virginia

Order 2006-6-22
OST-1997-2761

Issued June 21, 2006 | Served June 26, 2006

Order Terminating Subsidy Eligibility and Allowing Suspension of Service

By Order 2006-5-8, May 11, 2006, the Department requested proposals from carriers interested in providing essential air service at Beckley and Bluefield/Princeton, West Virginia, with or without subsidy, for a new two-year rate period beginning August 1, 2006. Under the current rate term, which ends on July 31, Colgan has been operating 18 round trips a week from the two communities to Washington’s Dulles International Airport with 19-seat Beech 1900 aircraft at a subsidy of $1,955,715 annually.

We stated that, if we did not receive realistic proposals with subsidy requests under the ceiling, we would terminate Bluefield/Princeton’s subsidy eligibility and allow Colgan to discontinue its service there at the end of the current rate term.

Without any carrier proposals meeting the program’s statutory eligibility requirement, we must terminate Bluefield/Princeton’s subsidy eligibility and allow Colgan Air to suspend service there, if it chooses. As we indicated in Order 2006-5-8, our decision will be effective August 1, the end of the current rate term.

By this order, the Department is terminating the essential air service subsidy eligibility of Bluefield/Princeton, West Virginia, as of August 1, 2006, and allowing Colgan Air, Inc., d/b/a US Airways Express, to suspend service there as of the same date, if it chooses.

By: Michael Reynolds