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NORTHWEST ALABAMA REGIONAL AIRPORT

1729 T. Ed Campbell Drive, Suite A, Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35661-2016

Phone: (256) 381-2869 Fax: (256) 381-2915

customerservice@flytheshoals.com www.flytheshoals.com

SERVING THE SHOALS

December 13,2013

Kevin Schlemmer

Director EAS Program.

West Building I'

1200 New Jersey Ave. SE

Washington D.C. 20590

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The purpose of this letter is to update the Department on recent events related to the status of our current Essential

Air Service, provided by Silver Airways.

Silver Airways assumed The Shoals air service on October 1, 2012. Due to the poor air service we have received

since Silver began service, our traffic has declined by 66%. We are preparing a very detailed documentation of

our struggles to work with Silver and support Siler service, which we very much want to do. Our more detailed

documentation will be submitted to the Department in January.

However, the carrier's operational struggles ofthe recent past compel us to write to the Department at this time.

We suffered a very. disappointing operational performance' by the carrier at the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport

(MSL) during the weekofThimksgiving (November 25,.2013 ~ December I, 2QI3). Due to Silver Airways holiday

flight schedule, MSL only had II scheduled flights instead of the usual 12.

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Summary ofSilverAirwavs Operational Performance' at MSL

• Out of the 11.scheduled departures 4 cancelled " '... '

• Out of the remaining 7 flights that.flew 4 ofthe?e were.de!ayed

• Delay lengths were 48mins, 177mins, 28m ins, 127m!ns

• We had 3 out of 11 flights 4epart on time.' l' .' .

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MSL does not have the capability to see passengers who were originally booked prior to' delays or cancellations;

however, it was very :appareQt that we, did lose numerous passengers to refunds or to rebooking. Most of these

passengers chose to fly out. of Huntsville International Airport iHS V) during this period.

Unfortunately, these types of operational performance issues seem to be more of the nonn versus a run of bad luck.

As we will document in our January submission, Silver's operational performance in the initial six months of service

(October 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013) was very poor. We do appreciate that a new management team has assumed

the helm at Silver and operational performance did iroprove during the summer and early fall of 2013. However,

the week of Thanksgiving, when we actually had measurable passengers booked due to a $49 fare we had asked for

and worked so hard to promote, 36% of our flights are cancelled. and of the seven that flew, four were late. Not 15

minutes late but an average"of95 minutes late,

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We do appreciate that a significant winter storm moved thru the Atlanta area during a 24 hour period that week.

However, the delays and cancellations went way beyond that which can be attributed to that weather.

Silver Airways personnel advised us at our meeting with the carrier in October in Jackson, Mississippi that they

were working very hard to,ensure a reliable operation, admitting that had not been the case in the initial months of

service" We hope that .SHver Airways will see the fruits of their recovery plan soon, and we will continue to work

diligently on our end to promote air service at MSL.

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We value'out air service 'very much. We ,will .fight to retain it .and only ask for an 8.irJinethat wants'to generate

bookings, at.our airport and theri; within the ot:casional.Jimitati()ns -imposed by.weafhet: or ,Atlanta ATe, carry those

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December 15, 2013

passengers to their destination in a reliable manner. We want Silver Airways to be that airline. But recent events

compel us to document to the Department how inconsistent Silver operations can be.

Please let us know if you need any additional infomtation. We will provide the Department with a very detailed

documentation of our air service experiences since October 1, 20'12 in January.

Thank you for your consideration of this letter.

Cc: Northwest Alabama Regional Airport Authority

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