Small Community Air Service Development Program - 2008

Order 2008-9-6
OST-2008-0100

Issued and Served September 8, 2008

Order Awarding Grants

By this order, the Department selects 16 communities in 12 states to receive financial grants under the Small Community Air Service Development Program to implement the air service initiatives proposed in their grant applications. Award recipients must execute a grant agreement with the Department before they can begin to spend funds under the grants. Individual agreements must be executed by September 19, 2008, or the Department’s offer may be withdrawn.

Five of the grant awards are made to non-EAS communities experiencing higher-than-average air fares, including Redding, CA; Missoula, MT; State College, PA; Sioux Falls, SD; and Wichita Falls, TX. These communities plan to use their grants to attract new or expanded air services.

Most of the awards to non-EAS communities include funds for marketing programs to support local air services. Such communities include Bullhead City, AZ; Redding, CA; Bloomington, IL; Springfield, IL; Missoula, MT; State College, PA; Sioux Falls, SD; Midland, TX; and Wichita Falls, TX.

Three awards go to communities that are seeking to acquire their first air service or to restore service previously lost, including Bullhead City, AZ; Moses Lake, WA; and an intrastate consortium of geographically isolated communities in Aroostook County, ME.

Two awards go to communities seeking service by a second air carrier. They are Muskegon, MI, and Wichita Falls, TX.

The award to Dover, DE, will enable the community to conduct a study of its air service needs and potential solutions.

Two grant awards are targeted at EAS communities: Merced, CA, which will use its marketing grant to support its transition to a new air carrier, and West Yellowstone, MT, which intends to use its marketing grant to increase ridership and reduce or eliminate its reliance on EAS.

By: Michael Reynolds