https://www.tribdem.com/news/skywest-so ... 5ef6b.html

SkyWest Airlines may rescind termination notice for Johnstown, PA (JST) if community will agree to the changes requested by SkyWest.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – If the Johnstown-Cambria County Airport Authority supports contract changes requested by SkyWest Airlines, the carrier will rescind its notice of termination, airport manager Cory Cree said.

SkyWest airline's proposed changes were discussed Friday in a private executive session of the authority's enplanement committee, which included Cree, committee chairman Michael Parrish, authority chairman Rick McQuaide, Jim Loncella and David Kalina.

Could we see more of these with other EAS Cities?

In other news...

https://www.pressrepublican.com/news/ai ... 27a44.html

Plattsburgh expects to get OK to switch to Contour with service to PHL soon.

PLATTSBURGH — Approval of Clinton County’s Alternate Essential Air Service proposal to offer round trip flights from Plattsburgh International Airport to Philadelphia through Contour Airlines could arrive within a week.

Airport Director Chris Kreig told legislators during an airport committee meeting Wednesday that he had been informed by a U.S. Department of Transportation representative the application was “working its way through legal” and the transition from SkyWest to Contour Airlines could occur July 1.

Alex

32andBelow wrote:

I’m not sure if you can amend an EAS contract without a full rebid.

You can if the community requests the changes.

Before SkyWest filed to terminate service to the 29 cities in question, they first requested the DOT to allow them to reduce their frequencies to most of those cities - but the DOT said they can't because, per policy, only the individual communities can request changes to the contract.

NLINK wrote:

Jshank83 wrote:

NLINK wrote:

If CGI is a larger market, in 2020 they boarded 4,573 people total. With 12 flights per week that is 7.32 people per flight. Thats not what I call
a large market.

Not sure using numbers in the heart of the pandemic are the best to use.

Ok in 2019 CGI had 11,838 boardings. With 12 flights per week that is 18.97 people per flight. I still can say that is not a "large market". That is a 37.94% load factor on average which is poor.

The real threshold for these markets is 10,000 pax per year, which CGI easily beat in 2019.

If I recall correctly, they were down line of Quincy or Paducah for part of that time as well?

FlyingElvii wrote:

NLINK wrote:

Jshank83 wrote:

Not sure using numbers in the heart of the pandemic are the best to use.

Ok in 2019 CGI had 11,838 boardings. With 12 flights per week that is 18.97 people per flight. I still can say that is not a "large market". That is a 37.94% load factor on average which is poor.

The real threshold for these markets is 10,000 pax per year, which CGI easily beat in 2019.

If I recall correctly, they were down line of Quincy or Paducah for part of that time as well?

In 2019, they reached an agreement to end CGI-UIN-ORD flights and re route through Paducah-PAH under the 2018 Bid Agreement.

CGI saw 3 flights a day, as did PAH.

CGI would see 1 N/S and 2 Flights through PAH.
PAH would see 2 N/S and 1 flight through CGI.

Ridership didn't increase the way they had hoped but it did grow much better in 2019 compared to 2018.

February 2020, SkyWest did a rebid (From Nov 2019) and started 2 daily non stop flights CGI-ORD.

Source: https://www.paducahsun.com/news/local/s ... 12316.html

CGI was on target to beat 2019 numbers in 2020, like most airports, but alas...

Rest is history in 2020 regarding COVID.

Alex

In the SkyWest Q1 2022 Earnings Call, the termination of EAS was brought up during the business and financial outlook. SkyWest mentioned they will use Southern Airways (whom they have a minority stake in) to try and provide as much service as they can to small and medium sized cities.

hayzel777 wrote:

In the SkyWest Q1 2022 Earnings Call, the termination of EAS was brought up during the business and financial outlook. SkyWest mentioned they will use Southern Airways (whom they have a minority stake in) to try and provide as much service as they can to small and medium sized cities.

As someone who lives and flies out of KPAH, a plan to continue “service” through Southern Airways using single-pilot aircraft seems like a non-starter. There would be no interline connectivity or convenient booking. It would be worse than driving to KBNA or KSTL.

btfarrwm wrote:

hayzel777 wrote:

In the SkyWest Q1 2022 Earnings Call, the termination of EAS was brought up during the business and financial outlook. SkyWest mentioned they will use Southern Airways (whom they have a minority stake in) to try and provide as much service as they can to small and medium sized cities.

As someone who lives and flies out of KPAH, a plan to continue “service” through Southern Airways using single-pilot aircraft seems like a non-starter. There would be no interline connectivity or convenient booking. It would be worse than driving to KBNA or KSTL.

Single pilot? Thats pretty rare for the company. Almost every flight is 2 pilot. 9X also has bilateral interline with AS, AA, and UA.

Sure you aren't thinking of another airline?

hayzel777 wrote:

In the SkyWest Q1 2022 Earnings Call, the termination of EAS was brought up during the business and financial outlook. SkyWest mentioned they will use Southern Airways (whom they have a minority stake in) to try and provide as much service as they can to small and medium sized cities.

I'm just thinking SkyWest at ORD shifting over to Southern. UA probably won't allow Southern to use gates, so they'll be shifted over to the EAS area off the end of L and eventually over to T5 Q3 of this year.

And Southern still is not flying the King Air on DEN-CDR. That was supposed to start Last June, nearly a year ago. Anyone have some news on that?

jcwr56 wrote:

hayzel777 wrote:

In the SkyWest Q1 2022 Earnings Call, the termination of EAS was brought up during the business and financial outlook. SkyWest mentioned they will use Southern Airways (whom they have a minority stake in) to try and provide as much service as they can to small and medium sized cities.

I'm just thinking SkyWest at ORD shifting over to Southern. UA probably won't allow Southern to use gates, so they'll be shifted over to the EAS area off the end of L and eventually over to T5 Q3 of this year.

This is where I wish if Southern is going to be doing this, that they arrange a codeshare agreement with United to earn UA Miles and make it a United destination too.

This works for Cape Air with the STL and ORD Hub. I can book my entire trip on AA, get an AA flight number, arrange it all on the AA app and earn miles for my Cape Air flight!

Alex

I (finally) flew Advanced Air ABQ-SVC-PHX, and I was very impressed. Here's a mini-trip report.

AN uses the ground level C gates (along with Boutique) at ABQ. These gates are just past the ticket counters, and outside security. It took me less than two minutes to walk from the curb of the ticketing level to AN's gate.

AN does not have inflight service, but about half an hour before departure, one of their employees wheeled out a cart with coffee, bottled water, and a basket of chips and granola bars. AN's aircraft also don't have lavatories, so ten minutes before boarding the gate agent reminded passengers to use the facilities in the terminal.

The Beech King Air was parked just a few feet from the gate, and the door was closed as soon as passengers were boarded. Passengers had to gate check their larger items, which were stored in a compartment behind the passenger seats, but were allowed to bring a small item like a backpack to hold in their laps while inflight. I was happy to see that AN doesn't use generic bag tags, they use pre printed tags with each passenger's destination code, like other airlines did 30 years ago.

After the door was closed, we had only a brief taxi to ABQ's Runway 8, and were cleared for an intersection takeoff as soon as we reached the runway. After rotation, we made a sharp right turn, and followed the Rio Grande south for a while. Although it was a little turbulent on departure, because the Beech King Air is pressurized, we climbed above the worst of the turbulence, to 20,000 feet. The King Air has large, comfortable leather seats, with large windows at eye level, so I was able to enjoy the view of the Rio Grande, and later on, the Gila Mountains. SVC is well south of both Silver City and the mountains, so after we were past the mountains, we turned right for a long straight in approach to SVC's runway 26.

Silver City's terminal is a small building with a few chairs, a ticket counter, and restrooms. The "land" side of the terminal looks like a maintenance building, but the "air" side is surprisingly nice; passengers walk under a metal arch that says "Grant County Airport", and there is a tall juniper tree between the ramp and the terminal entrance that provides much needed shade from New Mexico's hot sun.

After the aircraft was fuelled, through passengers from ABQ and SVC originating passengers were invited to board the onward leg to PHX. We had a quick taxi to Runway 26, and took off as soon as we reached the runway. After rotation, we followed the runway heading for a while past a large mine on the west side of Silver City. As with the earlier flight, we climbed to 20,000 feet, which was high enough that we were above most of the turbulence, but enough lower than the jets cruise at that we were able to get a nice view of the scenery enroute. We flew due west for much of the flight, until we were past the Gila Mountains of New Mexico and Arizona's Tortilla Mountains, before making a gentle northwest turn for PHX. Landings were out of the west at PHX, so we flew over much of the Valley of the Sun's sprawl, before lining up for Runway 7R on the south side of the airport complex.

After landing, we had only a brief taxi to the Jackson Jet Center FBO, which is used by AN for all of their PHX flights. Jackson Jet Center is a large two story building; we parked underneath a high canopy outside the FBO; the canopy keeps both aircraft and passengers cool.

I really enjoyed my flights on AN. Both flights were on time, and all of AN's employees in the air and on the ground seemed friendly. I know some of you enjoy flying on EAS airlines as much as I do, and I'd definitely encourage you to log AN when you have a chance.

Substantial news today which I don't think has appeared here yet:

1. Cape has filed to terminate Burlington and Quincy due to pilot shortages

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

2. Sioux City, Dodge City, and Hays have all petition the DoT to reduce their EAS service temporarily to 7x/week in conjunction with Skywest's cooperation.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0131-0136
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3502-0119
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

The 9-seat category is apparently not awash in pilots.
And maybe Skywest is willing to play ball in ways to hang on to many of their EAS markets in hopes of the pilot shortage easing down the road.

knope2001 wrote:

Substantial news today which I don't think has appeared here yet:

1. Cape has filed to terminate Burlington and Quincy due to pilot shortages

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

2. Sioux City, Dodge City, and Hays have all petition the DoT to reduce their EAS service temporarily to 7x/week in conjunction with Skywest's cooperation.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0131-0136
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3502-0119
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

The 9-seat category is apparently not awash in pilots.
And maybe Skywest is willing to play ball in ways to hang on to many of their EAS markets in hopes of the pilot shortage easing down the road.

Can you repost Burlington and Quincy links. The ones you posted aren’t right. Thanks

UIN: https://downloads.regulations.gov/DOT-OST-2003-14492-0099/attachment_1.pdf

BRL: https://downloads.regulations.gov/DOT-OST-2001-8731-0140/attachment_1.pdf

knope2001 wrote:

The 9-seat category is apparently not awash in pilots.

No segment is immune from shortages.

MO11 wrote:

UIN: https://downloads.regulations.gov/DOT-OST-2003-14492-0099/attachment_1.pdf

BRL: https://downloads.regulations.gov/DOT-OST-2001-8731-0140/attachment_1.pdf

knope2001 wrote:

The 9-seat category is apparently not awash in pilots.

No segment is immune from shortages.

Thanks for jumping in -- apparently I have cut & paste challenges tonight!

knope2001 wrote:

Substantial news today which I don't think has appeared here yet:

1. Cape has filed to terminate Burlington and Quincy due to pilot shortages

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

2. Sioux City, Dodge City, and Hays have all petition the DoT to reduce their EAS service temporarily to 7x/week in conjunction with Skywest's cooperation.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0131-0136
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3502-0119
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

The 9-seat category is apparently not awash in pilots.
And maybe Skywest is willing to play ball in ways to hang on to many of their EAS markets in hopes of the pilot shortage easing down the road.

That just leaves MBL for Cape at ORD. Seems safe to assume they’ve withdrawn their proposal for renewal there? Their current contract is up in Sept.

Adding to the EAS Gossip…

Paducah has proposed to keep SkyWest to Chicago operating One Daily. In addition they would bring in Southern Airways Express to fly 2 Daily to Nashville.

https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/barkley ... ok_WPSD-TV

SkyWest has some equity in Southern Airways, this may be a mutual agreement between the two…

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news ... rways-corp

This gets better and better…

Alex

heretothere wrote:

knope2001 wrote:

Substantial news today which I don't think has appeared here yet:

1. Cape has filed to terminate Burlington and Quincy due to pilot shortages

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

2. Sioux City, Dodge City, and Hays have all petition the DoT to reduce their EAS service temporarily to 7x/week in conjunction with Skywest's cooperation.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0131-0136
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3502-0119
https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -3497-0110

The 9-seat category is apparently not awash in pilots.
And maybe Skywest is willing to play ball in ways to hang on to many of their EAS markets in hopes of the pilot shortage easing down the road.

That just leaves MBL for Cape at ORD. Seems safe to assume they’ve withdrawn their proposal for renewal there? Their current contract is up in Sept.

I was wondering, at this time they have not withdrawn the proposal. I have to imagine they would have at the same time they filed to withdraw from Quincy and Burlington?

Alex

atrude777 wrote:

heretothere wrote:

That just leaves MBL for Cape at ORD. Seems safe to assume they’ve withdrawn their proposal for renewal there? Their current contract is up in Sept.

I was wondering, at this time they have not withdrawn the proposal. I have to imagine they would have at the same time they filed to withdraw from Quincy and Burlington?

I have wondered if they weren't over extending themselves with these Midwest bases. Wonder if their services in Nashville are next. Given the pilot situation and the MX issues between teething problems on the 2012 and aging 402s I'm sure they're literally spread thin right now. Aircraft and crew replacements are a bit easier inside their traditional Northeast footprint.

bval wrote:

atrude777 wrote:

heretothere wrote:

That just leaves MBL for Cape at ORD. Seems safe to assume they’ve withdrawn their proposal for renewal there? Their current contract is up in Sept.

I was wondering, at this time they have not withdrawn the proposal. I have to imagine they would have at the same time they filed to withdraw from Quincy and Burlington?

I have wondered if they weren't over extending themselves with these Midwest bases. Wonder if their services in Nashville are next. Given the pilot situation and the MX issues between teething problems on the 2012 and aging 402s I'm sure they're literally spread thin right now. Aircraft and crew replacements are a bit easier inside their traditional Northeast footprint.

I am pretty sure they are smaller in the Midwest now than they were in the past. I guess you could argue instead of having STL/BNA/ORD as "hubs" now if they were still all STL it might make it easier. I'll be curious if they rework these back to STL only, maybe with less frequency.

WA707atMSP wrote:

I (finally) flew Advanced Air ABQ-SVC-PHX, and I was very impressed. Here's a mini-trip report.

AN uses the ground level C gates (along with Boutique) at ABQ. These gates are just past the ticket counters, and outside security. It took me less than two minutes to walk from the curb of the ticketing level to AN's gate.

AN does not have inflight service, but about half an hour before departure, one of their employees wheeled out a cart with coffee, bottled water, and a basket of chips and granola bars. AN's aircraft also don't have lavatories, so ten minutes before boarding the gate agent reminded passengers to use the facilities in the terminal.

The Beech King Air was parked just a few feet from the gate, and the door was closed as soon as passengers were boarded. Passengers had to gate check their larger items, which were stored in a compartment behind the passenger seats, but were allowed to bring a small item like a backpack to hold in their laps while inflight. I was happy to see that AN doesn't use generic bag tags, they use pre printed tags with each passenger's destination code, like other airlines did 30 years ago.

After the door was closed, we had only a brief taxi to ABQ's Runway 8, and were cleared for an intersection takeoff as soon as we reached the runway. After rotation, we made a sharp right turn, and followed the Rio Grande south for a while. Although it was a little turbulent on departure, because the Beech King Air is pressurized, we climbed above the worst of the turbulence, to 20,000 feet. The King Air has large, comfortable leather seats, with large windows at eye level, so I was able to enjoy the view of the Rio Grande, and later on, the Gila Mountains. SVC is well south of both Silver City and the mountains, so after we were past the mountains, we turned right for a long straight in approach to SVC's runway 26.

Silver City's terminal is a small building with a few chairs, a ticket counter, and restrooms. The "land" side of the terminal looks like a maintenance building, but the "air" side is surprisingly nice; passengers walk under a metal arch that says "Grant County Airport", and there is a tall juniper tree between the ramp and the terminal entrance that provides much needed shade from New Mexico's hot sun.

After the aircraft was fuelled, through passengers from ABQ and SVC originating passengers were invited to board the onward leg to PHX. We had a quick taxi to Runway 26, and took off as soon as we reached the runway. After rotation, we followed the runway heading for a while past a large mine on the west side of Silver City. As with the earlier flight, we climbed to 20,000 feet, which was high enough that we were above most of the turbulence, but enough lower than the jets cruise at that we were able to get a nice view of the scenery enroute. We flew due west for much of the flight, until we were past the Gila Mountains of New Mexico and Arizona's Tortilla Mountains, before making a gentle northwest turn for PHX. Landings were out of the west at PHX, so we flew over much of the Valley of the Sun's sprawl, before lining up for Runway 7R on the south side of the airport complex.

After landing, we had only a brief taxi to the Jackson Jet Center FBO, which is used by AN for all of their PHX flights. Jackson Jet Center is a large two story building; we parked underneath a high canopy outside the FBO; the canopy keeps both aircraft and passengers cool.

I really enjoyed my flights on AN. Both flights were on time, and all of AN's employees in the air and on the ground seemed friendly. I know some of you enjoy flying on EAS airlines as much as I do, and I'd definitely encourage you to log AN when you have a chance.

I have flown them before, one of the first EAS Cities that I visited (I am now at 41). I rode them from ABQ all the way to Hawthorne which isn’t EAS, but it’s how they get their planes to the SVC network and their base on the west coast.

bval wrote:

atrude777 wrote:

heretothere wrote:

That just leaves MBL for Cape at ORD. Seems safe to assume they’ve withdrawn their proposal for renewal there? Their current contract is up in Sept.

I was wondering, at this time they have not withdrawn the proposal. I have to imagine they would have at the same time they filed to withdraw from Quincy and Burlington?

I have wondered if they weren't over extending themselves with these Midwest bases. Wonder if their services in Nashville are next. Given the pilot situation and the MX issues between teething problems on the 2012 and aging 402s I'm sure they're literally spread thin right now. Aircraft and crew replacements are a bit easier inside their traditional Northeast footprint.

My Cape Air flight MWA-STL was cancelled due to Mechanical on the T2012.

It's happened 3 times now where MX cancelled when I am traveling.

I know it's happened more often even when not traveling.

It's unfortunate, and hopefully Cape Air can fix it.

I am wondering if MWA is next to be dropped. MWA is my hometown airport.

On Sundays Cape Air flies 2 to STL and 4 to BNA from MWA. Cape Air could stand to reduce MWA-BNA from 4 flights to 1 or 2 to help out unless it's really doing good.

Alex

atrude777 wrote:

bval wrote:

atrude777 wrote:

I was wondering, at this time they have not withdrawn the proposal. I have to imagine they would have at the same time they filed to withdraw from Quincy and Burlington?

I have wondered if they weren't over extending themselves with these Midwest bases. Wonder if their services in Nashville are next. Given the pilot situation and the MX issues between teething problems on the 2012 and aging 402s I'm sure they're literally spread thin right now. Aircraft and crew replacements are a bit easier inside their traditional Northeast footprint.

My Cape Air flight MWA-STL was cancelled due to Mechanical on the T2012.

It's happened 3 times now where MX cancelled when I am traveling.

I know it's happened more often even when not traveling.

It's unfortunate, and hopefully Cape Air can fix it.

I am wondering if MWA is next to be dropped. MWA is my hometown airport.

On Sundays Cape Air flies 2 to STL and 4 to BNA from MWA. Cape Air could stand to reduce MWA-BNA from 4 flights to 1 or 2 to help out unless it's really doing good.

Alex

Better AA connections from BNA these days, than from STL.

Fort Dodge, Iowa-FOD has submitted request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... 10682-0263

Butte, Montana-BUT has submitted to request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0136-0058

Alex

atrude777 wrote:

Fort Dodge, Iowa-FOD has submitted request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... 10682-0263

Butte, Montana-BUT has submitted to request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0136-0058

Alex

Butte, MT is BTM. .Seems logical they stay with the SLC link.

atrude777 wrote:

Fort Dodge, Iowa-FOD has submitted request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... 10682-0263

Butte, Montana-BTM has submitted to request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0136-0058

Alex

Correcting my Error--Won't let me go back to edit.

Alex

sprxUSA wrote:

atrude777 wrote:

Fort Dodge, Iowa-FOD has submitted request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... 10682-0263

Butte, Montana-BUT has submitted to request to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DO ... -0136-0058

Alex

Butte, MT is BTM. .Seems logical they stay with the SLC link.

Ugh..I knew that in my head but typed BUT....

I recopied and corrected...

Thanks!

Alex

I lol'd when I saw 'BUT'

sprxUSA wrote:

I lol'd when I saw 'BUT'

So are the residents of Butte known as Butte-Heads, or....?

SyracuseAvGeek wrote:

WA707atMSP wrote:

I (finally) flew Advanced Air ABQ-SVC-PHX, and I was very impressed. Here's a mini-trip report.

AN uses the ground level C gates (along with Boutique) at ABQ. These gates are just past the ticket counters, and outside security. It took me less than two minutes to walk from the curb of the ticketing level to AN's gate.

AN does not have inflight service, but about half an hour before departure, one of their employees wheeled out a cart with coffee, bottled water, and a basket of chips and granola bars. AN's aircraft also don't have lavatories, so ten minutes before boarding the gate agent reminded passengers to use the facilities in the terminal.

The Beech King Air was parked just a few feet from the gate, and the door was closed as soon as passengers were boarded. Passengers had to gate check their larger items, which were stored in a compartment behind the passenger seats, but were allowed to bring a small item like a backpack to hold in their laps while inflight. I was happy to see that AN doesn't use generic bag tags, they use pre printed tags with each passenger's destination code, like other airlines did 30 years ago.

After the door was closed, we had only a brief taxi to ABQ's Runway 8, and were cleared for an intersection takeoff as soon as we reached the runway. After rotation, we made a sharp right turn, and followed the Rio Grande south for a while. Although it was a little turbulent on departure, because the Beech King Air is pressurized, we climbed above the worst of the turbulence, to 20,000 feet. The King Air has large, comfortable leather seats, with large windows at eye level, so I was able to enjoy the view of the Rio Grande, and later on, the Gila Mountains. SVC is well south of both Silver City and the mountains, so after we were past the mountains, we turned right for a long straight in approach to SVC's runway 26.

Silver City's terminal is a small building with a few chairs, a ticket counter, and restrooms. The "land" side of the terminal looks like a maintenance building, but the "air" side is surprisingly nice; passengers walk under a metal arch that says "Grant County Airport", and there is a tall juniper tree between the ramp and the terminal entrance that provides much needed shade from New Mexico's hot sun.

After the aircraft was fuelled, through passengers from ABQ and SVC originating passengers were invited to board the onward leg to PHX. We had a quick taxi to Runway 26, and took off as soon as we reached the runway. After rotation, we followed the runway heading for a while past a large mine on the west side of Silver City. As with the earlier flight, we climbed to 20,000 feet, which was high enough that we were above most of the turbulence, but enough lower than the jets cruise at that we were able to get a nice view of the scenery enroute. We flew due west for much of the flight, until we were past the Gila Mountains of New Mexico and Arizona's Tortilla Mountains, before making a gentle northwest turn for PHX. Landings were out of the west at PHX, so we flew over much of the Valley of the Sun's sprawl, before lining up for Runway 7R on the south side of the airport complex.

After landing, we had only a brief taxi to the Jackson Jet Center FBO, which is used by AN for all of their PHX flights. Jackson Jet Center is a large two story building; we parked underneath a high canopy outside the FBO; the canopy keeps both aircraft and passengers cool.

I really enjoyed my flights on AN. Both flights were on time, and all of AN's employees in the air and on the ground seemed friendly. I know some of you enjoy flying on EAS airlines as much as I do, and I'd definitely encourage you to log AN when you have a chance.

I have flown them before, one of the first EAS Cities that I visited (I am now at 41). I rode them from ABQ all the way to Hawthorne which isn’t EAS, but it’s how they get their planes to the SVC network and their base on the west coast.

I thought about flying them on to Hawthorne, then returning to MSP out of LAX, but instead of doing that, I decided to leave PHX airport and meet a girl I went to high school with for lunch, before returning to the airport for my PHX-MSP flight. I like airports, but I like hanging out with cute girls more

All joking aside, I'm hoping when the EAS contract at Carlsbad comes up for renewal, it will go to Advanced, because they seem to be more reliable than Boutique is right now. I've held off on trying to log CNM because of concerns about Boutique.

Mason City, Iowa-MCW is also filing to reduce flights from 12 to 7 weekly with SkyWest beginning July 1st.

https://www.kimt.com/news/skywest-airli ... 10167.html

During a special meeting Friday afternoon, airport commission members voted to approve a waiver by SkyWest, who operates jet service from Mason City and Chicago O'Hare, to reduce weekly flights from 12 to 7 beginning July 1. This is a temporary measure to combat against pilot shortages.

At the same time, airport manager David Sims says the airport is working with SkyWest to retain service, while also hearing proposals from other airlines to provide essential air service to North Iowa.

Alex

Unless I am mistaken, there has been no word in regards to the new carrier at CEZ (Cortez, CO). DOT asked for community comments months ago. Anyone heard why the delay in announcing whether Southern Express or Denver Air has not been selected?

Frontier 14

Frontier14 wrote:

Unless I am mistaken, there has been no word in regards to the new carrier at CEZ (Cortez, CO). DOT asked for community comments months ago. Anyone heard why the delay in announcing whether Southern Express or Denver Air has not been selected?

Frontier 14

It's not the only one! Everything seems to have ground to a halt. SOW, OGS, ALS also seem to be stuck in limbo with nothing happening in weeks.

Funny letter from Chuck Schumer telling Mayor Pete to stick the proverbial fingers out to ensure PBG and OGS have a replacement carrier quickly ... back in early January

https://www.regulations.gov/docket/DOT-OST-1997-2842/document?postedDateFrom=2022-05-01&postedDateTo=2022-05-07

Forgive the odd link but this was the only source I could find...

Sioux City, Iowa as mentioned above agreed to reduce from 12 to 7 Weekly, but has also been quoted they will be RESCINDING the Bid Proposal and withdrawing from the May 11th Deadline. I assume this means SkyWest is here to stay in SUX and they will NOT be accepting other airline proposals?

Source: https://www.kwit.org/spm-news-english/2 ... l-caucuses

Snippet:Carriers have until May 11 to submit proposals for the EAS markets. But Sioux City officials essentially have asked the DOT for permission to withdraw from that process and accept instead a negotiated agreement with SkyWest.

Alex

Interested to see what the DOT does in cities where OO rebid but a competitor like KG did as well. I would imagine the DOT wouldn’t have too much sympathy for Skywest given their notice of intent to terminate after trying to reduce/change frequency in the first place… but then again, who knows.

I find it rather distasteful they say they claim they can’t staff the flights, but turn right around and rebid on places like HYS (albeit, at a lower frequency). Who’s to say the same problem won’t exist in 6-12 months where they can’t staff (if that’s the real reason) 7x a week instead of 12x.

It feels like staffing is a genuine issue, but that they may have realized 12x on a CR2 into these places is a whole lot of capacity that could be better used elsewhere

joeblow10 wrote:

Interested to see what the DOT does in cities where OO rebid but a competitor like KG did as well. I would imagine the DOT wouldn’t have too much sympathy for Skywest given their notice of intent to terminate after trying to reduce/change frequency in the first place… but then again, who knows.

I find it rather distasteful they say they claim they can’t staff the flights, but turn right around and rebid on places like HYS (albeit, at a lower frequency). Who’s to say the same problem won’t exist in 6-12 months where they can’t staff (if that’s the real reason) 7x a week instead of 12x.

It feels like staffing is a genuine issue, but that they may have realized 12x on a CR2 into these places is a whole lot of capacity that could be better used elsewhere

Most of these contracts were bid and awarded well before their staffing shortage became an issue, and due to the nature of the contracts, OO can't just change the frequencies at-will. It may be entirely possible that their current staffing allows them to maintain reduced frequencies at most of their EAS markets, but due to the strict procedures in place with the DOT, the most efficient way to go about changing their schedules is the exact process that's happening right now.

I don't know what's going on with Southern and the Kingair 200 (N727SA) for den-cdr, looks like it flew a couple of round trips and is still at Chadron since late match (also noticed it did a few charter flights to other places)

The EAS award for PBG is out. Contour with 12x weekly to PHL is confirmed.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOT-OST-2003-14783-0276

BangersAndMash wrote:

The EAS award for PBG is out. Contour with 12x weekly to PHL is confirmed.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOT-OST-2003-14783-0276

OGS awarded to Contour as well. Same service pattern and duration as PBG.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOT-OST-1997-2842-0451

32andBelow wrote:

joeblow10 wrote:

Interested to see what the DOT does in cities where OO rebid but a competitor like KG did as well. I would imagine the DOT wouldn’t have too much sympathy for Skywest given their notice of intent to terminate after trying to reduce/change frequency in the first place… but then again, who knows.

I find it rather distasteful they say they claim they can’t staff the flights, but turn right around and rebid on places like HYS (albeit, at a lower frequency). Who’s to say the same problem won’t exist in 6-12 months where they can’t staff (if that’s the real reason) 7x a week instead of 12x.

It feels like staffing is a genuine issue, but that they may have realized 12x on a CR2 into these places is a whole lot of capacity that could be better used elsewhere

Everyone is going to have staffing problems. SkyWest will be able to stay better than any of these tiny EAS carriers

Maybe. Maybe not.

The main problem with OO's latest proposals is that they are not compliant with basic EAS guidelines, which says a minimum of 2x daily, at least on weekdays. If someone else bids, it's unlikely the communities or DOT will go for that. If no-one else bids, then obviously all bets are off. Chances are though, all OO is left with are the markets nobody else wants, or is able to serve.

Mad rush of activity at DOT. Maybe they realised 29 applications are coming in? Who knows.

Anyhoo, Show Low has been awarded to Southern Airways Express. No surprise since they had the community's recommendation.

2 year contract, on PC-12, 18x weekly to PHX. Modest increase in subsidy to c. $2M a year.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/DOT-OST-1998-4409-0151

Am I correct that Merced (to LAS, LAX) is currently operated with a King Air and no longer with a PC12?

vfw614 wrote:

Am I correct that Merced (to LAS, LAX) is currently operated with a King Air and no longer with a PC12?

It was a PC-12 yesterday.

BangersAndMash wrote:

2 year contract, on PC-12, 18x weekly to PHX. Modest increase in subsidy to c. $2M a year.

All it needs now is a PC-12.

vfw614 wrote:

Am I correct that Merced (to LAS, LAX) is currently operated with a King Air and no longer with a PC12?

Looks like a King Air 350 is now scheduled for MCE now but AN has been running a PC-12 lately. One of those markets that goes either way.