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## HAY 7 2014 The Honorable Susan M. Collins United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Collins: Thank you for your April 3 letter regarding Essential Air Service (EAS) at Presque Isle, and the carrier selection case that is currently being processed for a new contract to begin July 1,2014. In your letter, you state the Peninsula Airways, Inc. (PenAir) submitted a proposal to continue serving Presque Isle. Further, you state that you support continued service to Presque Isle and Bar Harbor, both communities which PenAir has served since 2012. As you state in your letter, PenAir was the only carrier to submit a service proposal. The Department is currently reviewing PenAir's proposal, including both service options for Presque Isle that it submitted. We solicited comments from the communities involved and we are also reviewing those. We expect to issue an Order on this matter in the weeks ahead. Thank you for interest in the EAS program and the communities it serves in Maine. As is our standard practice, I am placing a copy of your letter and my response in Docket DOT-OST-2000-8012. You may track the progress of this case and view the publicly available documents filed in the docket by accessing the Federal Docket Management System at www.regulations.gov and searching for "DOT-OST-2000-8012." Sincerely,

Kevin Schlemmer Chief, Essential Air Service & 

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