Essential Air Service at Athens and Macon, Georgia

Order 2008-3-21
OST-2002-11348 - Athens
OST-2007-28671 - Macon

Issued March 24, 2008 | Served March 27, 2008

Order Resoliciting Proposals

By this order, the Department is re-soliciting proposals from air carriers interested in providing essential air service at Athens and/or Macon, Georgia, for a new two-year term beginning when a replacement carrier inaugurates full service at one or both communities, with or without subsidy. Carriers should file their proposals no later than April 21, 2008.

Because of each community’s traffic generating potential and proximity to Atlanta, we also encourage proposals for more frequent service with smaller aircraft, e.g., three, four, or even more daily round trips with 9- to 15-seat aircraft. All service to Atlanta should be nonstop. We recognize that there is convenient ground transportation to Atlanta at both communities, and therefore, air service to a more-distant hub, such as Memphis or Charlotte, may be more appropriate.

On May 3, 2007, Air Midwest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mesa Air Group, Inc., d/b/a US Airways Express filed a 90-day notice of its intent to terminate its subsidized service at Athens, as well as three other communities, effective August 1. In response to the carrier’s notice, the Department issued Order 2007-5-14, May 21, 2007, requiring the carrier to continue to serve Athens and the other communities, and requesting proposals for replacement service. By Order 2007-7-21, July 31, 2007, we selected Gulfstream International Airlines, Inc., the only applicant, to provide subsidized EAS at Athens (with service to Charlotte) and at the other three communities, for a combined annual subsidy of $4,077,792. However, Gulfstream never inaugurated service at Athens, or at the other communities. As a result, by Order 2008-2-11, February 6, 2008, we re-solicited carrier proposals. However, we received none for Athens, so we are here requesting proposals for the third time.

On July 2, 2007, Atlantic Southeast Airlines filed a 90-day notice of its intention to suspend its subsidy-free service at Macon effective October 1, 2007. By Order 2007-6-12, July 13, 2007, we prohibited ASA from suspending service, required it to provide Macon with two daily nonstop round trips to Atlanta with regional jets or ATR-72 turboprop aircraft, the only aircraft in its fleet, and requested proposals from carriers interested in providing replacement service, with subsidy if necessary. That order noted that Macon is a major community of 100,000 residents, 79 miles from the Atlanta airport, and had never previously needed subsidy support from the EAS program. We also previously noted that ASA uses Macon as a maintenance base, and, thus, its schedules have been typically driven by operational needs to move aircraft through its system, rather than to serve or optimize the convenience or transportation needs of passengers. We received no long-term proposals and we solicited proposals two more times and still have not received any. (See Orders 2007-8-30 and 2007-10-20) We are here requesting proposals for the fourth time.

By: Todd Homan