U.S. Department of 

Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

of Transportation 

Mr. Francisco Torres 

President 

Air Charter, Inc. dba Air Flamenco 

P.O. Box 224 

Culebra, PR 0077 5 

Dear Mr. Torres: 

Assistant Secretary 

October 25, 2012 

1200 New Jersey Ave.: S.E. 

Washington, DC 20590 

t--··' 

.. :·· 

Thank you for your letter of September 6, 2012, to Secretary Ray LaHood, regarding the 

Department's Small Community Air Service Development Program (the "Program" or 

"SCASDP"). In your letter, you express a number of concerns, including that a grant award 

made under the Program was based on inaccurate information about the community's service 

needs, and that the air carrier contemplated for providing the service lacks suitable aircraft. 

Secretary LaHood asked me to respond to your letter. 

As background, SCASDP was enacted in 2000 as part ofthe Wendell H. Ford Aviation 

Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century to assist communities served by airports that are 

not larger than a small hub and that have insufficient air carrier service or unreasonably high air 

fares. The criteria for participation and types of assistance available under the Program can be 

found in Title 49 of the United States Code, at Section 41743. Awards are made to communities, 

not air carriers, and applications for the grants are solicited once each year through a Request for 

Proposal (RFP) published in the Federal Register (see 77 FR 28655, May 15, 2012, for this 

year's notice). Applications are received and grants are awarded through a public docket. 

For fiscal year 2012, the Department was able to make available up to $14 million in grant 

awards under the Program. A total of 61 applications were received and evaluated, and 

ultimately the Department made awards to 33 communities. Among those was an award to a 

consortium of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company and the Rhode Island Airport Corporation to 

provide revenue guarantee support for seasonal service to Culebra, PR, from San Juan, and to 

Block Island, RI, from Providence. Your concerns relate to this award. 

First, you state that the consortium's application incorrectly represented that Culebra did not 

have direct air service to the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport at San Juan (SJU), as Air 

Flamenco and other carriers fly the route. However, according to Air Flamenco's current 

website, Air Flamenco lists scheduled operations from Culebra to Isla Grande and Ceiba airports, 

but not to SJU. A similar check on the website for Culebra airport did not show any scheduled 
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flights to SJU. While Air Flamenco and others may operate charter flights, the grant would 

support new scheduled service. 

You also contend that the consortium's application inaccurately stated that the residents of 

Culebra do not have access to the mainland for medical, shopping, and professional reasons 

because Air Flamenco has a contract to provide lift for such needs. In fact, though, the relevant 

passage from the application stated that ''residents in Culebra need access to the mainland for 

medical, shopping, [and] professional reasons," and that "a direct service to the Luis Munoz 

Marin International Airport would provide another alternative for residents to reach the mainland 

for their everyday necessities." This statement indicates that the consortium is seeking 

alternative, or additional, service, and hence we do not find a misrepresentation or inaccuracy in 

its statement .. 

Another of your concerns relates to the fact that the proposed service may be operated by Cape 

Air, a carrier that provides Essential Air Service (EAS), and the RFP specified that no funds 

would be authorized to support additional flights by EAS carriers or changes to those carriers' 

existing schedules. However, any SJU-Culebra flights supported by the grant would not be ones 

under the EAS program. In addition, the language you recited from the RFP is focused on 

additional flights by EAS carriers in the EAS markets they serve, and Cape Air does not provide ' 

EAS at Benjamin Rivera Noriega Airport (CPX). 

You further assert that Cape Air lacks suitable aircraft for operations to Culebra. In a letter 

included in the docket from Cape Air, its Vice-President for Planning stated that, while Cape Air 

currently lacks suitable aircraft for short runways like those at Culebra, it is "now poised to 

acquire" such aircraft. We took notice of this letter, but, as we stated above, SCASDP grants are 

awarded to communities and not to specific carriers. To accomplish this grant project, and to 

receive funding under SCASDP, the consortium will need to secure the SJU-Culebra service 

from a carrier able to safely operate at CPX. 

In your letter, you also express concern about the corporate leadership of Cape Air, arguing that 

having a state senator as a CEO creates a conflict of interest in the operations of Cape Air. 

While it is not clear that this concern directly relates to the SCASDP selection process, we have 

found no evidence of any conflict of interest in the Department's grant selection process. In 

addition, we note that all members of the public - including prospective grant applicants, air 

carrier management, and state and local officials - have access to the same information. The. 

notice seeking SCASDP applications is published in the Federal Register and posted on the 

Program's website, and the applications and all correspondence related to the applications are 

available on a public docket. 
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After considering your concerns, we have found no basis to suspend the award of the grant as 

you requested. 

As is our normal practice, I am placing a copy of your letter and this response in Docket 

DOT-OST-2012-0069 as a contact outside the record of this matter. 

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me. 

Sincerely, 

Susan L. Kurland 

Assistant Secretary 

for Aviation and International Affairs