U.S. Department 

of Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

of Transportation 

Mr. Geoff Rodgers 

Chairman, Los Alamos County Council 

1000 Central Avenue, Suite 350 

Los Alamos, NM 87544 

Dear Mr. Rodgers: 

Assistant Secretary 

AUG 0 8 2014 

: !·. 1200 New Jersey !\venue. SE 

Washington. DC 20590 

I am responding on behalf of Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx to your letter of 

April28, 2014, forwarded to the Department by Senators Udall and Heinrich. I am keenly aware 

of the importance of scheduled air service to America's rural communities. The Small 

Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) was designed for communities to 

engage in various strategies to initiate or improve air service. I am pleased to hear of the success 

that Los Alamos has had with SCASDP and New Mexico Airlines in bringing air service to your 

community. 

In your letter, you state that you seek designation as an eligible point for the Essential Air 

Service Program (EAS). In the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of201 2 (Public Law No. 

I 12-95), signed into law by President Obama on February 14,2012, Congress explicitly limited 

eligibility under the EAS program to those communities that were receiving subsidized EAS 

between September 30, 2010 and September 30, 2011 (inclusive). As Los Alamos was not 

receiving subsidized EAS during that timeframe, the Department has no authority to include Los 

Alamos in the EAS program. 

The Department has received Los Alamos' application to participate in the Air Transportation to 

Noneligible Places (ATNEP) Program (49 U.S.C. § 41736). This program allows a state or local 

government to propose to the Secretary that compensation be provided to an air carrier in order 

to provide air transportation to a place that would otherwise be ineligible tor such compensation. 

The program provides for 50'% of the required subsidy to be paid by the Department with the 

remaining 50% to be provided by the state, local government, or other private party. ln order to 

be approved, the Secretary will have to find the application reasonable, taking into account the 

traffic generating potential of the location, the cost to the government, and the distance to the 

nearest hub airport. I can assure you that we will give careful consideration to Los Alamos' 

application. 

510-140621-016 
I appreciate your concerns in this area. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of further 

assistance. · 

Sincerely yours, 

Susan L. Kurland 

Assistant Secretary for 

Aviation and International Affairs 

2 
\initnt ~tatcs ~mate 

The Honorable Anthony Foxx 

Secretary 

US Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Ave, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

Dear Secretary Foxx: 

WASHINGTON, DC 20510 

May 7, 2014 

We write to share the enclosed letter we received from Mr. Geoff Rodgers, Chairman of the Los 

Alamos County Council, regarding eligibility for inclusion in the Essential Air Service (EAS) 

program. We respectfully request that you look into this matter and respond directly to Chairman 

Rodgers. We also request that DOT work with representatives ofthe county to explore other 

possible subsidy or cost-sharing options to provide commercial air service to Los Alamos 

County. 

Through a partnership with New Mexico Airlines, the county currently provides commercial air 

service between Los Alamos and Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his letter, Mr. Rodgers 

indicates ridership has grown 100% over the past year, and the county believes continued air 

service is critical to economic development in the area and maintaining a link between the 

community and the national air transportation system. 

Thank you for your consideration of our request and for your willingness to work with us to 

improve the economic vitality of our New Mexico communities. Please do not hesitate to contact 

our staff, Sabrina De Santiago with Senator Udall and Dan Alpert with Senator Heinrich, if you 

have questions on this matter. 

Tom Udall 

u~ United States Senator 

Sincerely, 

Martin Heinrich 

United States Senator 
LOS ALAMOS COUNTY 

The Honorable Tom Udall 

US Senate 

1000 Central Allllllua, Suila 3$0 • Los Alamos, NM 87544 

Phone (505) 663-1750 Fax (505) 652-8079 

Websl!s: www.losl!lam9s!Jm.us 

April 28, 2014 

11 0 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington DC, 20510 

Dear Senator Udall, 

COUNTY COUNCIL 

Council Chair 

Geoff RodiJers 

Coonc1J 'lic8-CMir 

Kristin Henderson 

Council om 

Ftana1S M. Baffil'l(} 

Stewn GifTBnS 

Dallid lzraelevflz 

Rick Reiss 

PateSheehey 

COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR 

Harry Burgess 

:: .. -·-

0 

Thank you for your steady support of Los Alamos County and the greater community of North1?m New 

Mexico. We are pleased to share that almost one year ago our county in partnership with New 

Mexico Airlines launched commercial air service between Albuquerque and Los Alamos. The travel 

distance to and from Albuquerque was causing us to lose out on the many community benefits of 

business and government travel afforded by effective commercial transportation service. 

With that in mind, we launched commercial air service. A $49 one way ticket will get the traveler to 

Albuquerque in 20 minutes versus the 90 minute drive. The County originally received a USDOT 

grant for $272,000 and has invested over $365,000 In county funds to help us through the startup 

phase. The estimated annual subsidy needed at this time is $480,000, or approximately $96 per 

passenger. 

In partneririg with New Mexico Airlines we chose a cost-effective platform, three daily flights on its 

nine-passenger Cessna Caravan operating at a nominal cost above the reasonable ticket price. We 

started by filling 2-3 seats per flight. Over the past year we have grown ridership by nearly 100% and 

have experienced almost 100% user satisfaction with the service, including positive comments and 

steady use from federal employees at the highest levels of Los Alamos National Laboratory 

management. We are closing the gap toward financial sustalnability, but not fast enough to avoid 

going back to our council for additional startup funds. And; as this process unfolds, Laboratory 

employees and other business travelers Including federal contractors are demanding additional daily 

flights to and from Los Alamos. 

The economic impact of these existing and proposed flights on the community is substantial, including 

significant savings to the federal government in travel time and expense for their employees and 

contractors. It is estimated that the current investment of $640,000 in startup funds for year one 

returned over $1.2 million in direct, indirect and induced economic impact to Los Alamos, including a 

substantial benefit to the national lab itself. 

As the attached briefing indicates Los Alamos had federally funded commercial air service ten years 

before the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, and decades before airline deregulation. In fact, Loa Alamos 

as a community clearly met the guidelines for Essential Air Service designation, but since federallysubsidized service was already in place, our carrier, Ross Aviation, had no need for a Certificate of 

Public Convenience and Necessity which was a critical factor used to determine EAS eligibility. 

Several communities were added to the EAS roles after 1978 and before EAS was further restricted in 

2012, and yet Los Alamos stands as a key example of the type of community that should be 

designated as eligible for essential air service, but it is not. 
The ability of the Los Alamos community to grow our economy in the face of federal and local 

spending decline is predicated in part on the ability to maintain our commercial air service, which also 

returns significant benefits to the federal installations at Los Alamos. In addition, the existing Los 

Alamos commercial air service program has proven, within the first year, to be very cost-effective and 

impactful in a positive way to the local economy, while also overwhelmingly supported by the 

community and Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

In summary, Los Alamos County respectfully requests our federal delegation direct their staff to 

engage with the appropriate contacts at USDOT and FAA to designate Los Alamos as officially 

eligible for inclusion In the federal Essential Air Service program. The attached brief and data charts 

provide supporting documentation to this effort. I will be pleased to answer any questions as they may 

arise. 

We greatly appreciate your support for the economic vitality of Los Alamos in the form of Essential Air 

Service designation by the US Department of Transportation. 

Sincerely, 

Chairman, 

~~o/ Los Alamos County Council 

Enclosure 

Cc: Los Alamos County Council 

Harry Burgess, County Administrator