THIEF AIVEA FALLS 

REGIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY 

August 4, 2011 

Dennis DeVany 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

Chief, EAS 

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

W86-308 

Washington, DC 20590 

g~'!}[l.is .deva.m (dldot. gov 

Michael Martin 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

Transportation [ndustry Analyst 

J 200 New Jersey A venue, SE 

W86-472 

Washington, DC 20590 

michael.f.martin@dot.gov 

RE: Objection to Tennination of Service at Thief River Falls, MN 

, .' 1 

Mr. DeVany and Mr. Martin: 

~..J 

This letter serves as formal objection to Mesaba Aviation, Inc. and Pinnacle Ai'r+tnes, 

Inc. (operating as Delta Connection) announcement to tcnninate service at the Thicf 

River Falls Regional Airport dated July 15,2011. As the Airport Authority discussed 

this recent development, several points of contention between the Airport and the 

Airline emerged as the basis for this objection outlined below. 

In the Notice of Tennination, the Airline identi fied three areas that justify the need 

for said termination: aircraft retirement, higher fuel cost, and low passenger demand. 

The Airport Authority feels thesc issues can either be explained or remedied with 

very little effort and docs not constitute a valid reason to end service at the Thief 

River Falls Airport. 

1) Aircraft Retirement The Authority sees the retirement of the SAAR 340 as an 

opportunity to improve passenger enplancments. Through a recent survey the Airport 

Authority ha') learned that size and image of aircraft serving our market plays just as 

much a role in enpJancments as schedule, connections, and cost. Travelers would 

much rather fly out on a luxurious jet aircraft than on an outdated turboprop. The 

Authority feels that if our market were served by the CRJ-200 (as proposed by Delta 

as an interim measure between the time the SAAB 340 is phased out and a new 

13722 Airport Drive 

(218) 681-7680 

PO Box 672 Thief River Falls MN 56701 

emoil: trfoirport@mocable.net 
THIEF RIVER FALLS AEG~ONAl AIRPORT AUTHOA~TY 

carrier is selected) our enplanements would see incredible growth. 

The potential for this growth can be seen in oLir historical enplancments dating back 

to the beginning of commercial service at Thid River Falls Airport (see attached). 

2) Higher Fuel Cost Through the EAS bidding process. carriers an.: allowed to 

recalculate projected expenses to serve our essential market every two years. Tn this 

manner, carriers (both current and prospective) can figure rising fucl prices as part of 

total operating cost. For this reason the Airport Authority feels this is not a valid 

argument to discontinue service. 

3) I,ow Passenger Demand As previoLlsly mentioned, an updated aircraft such as the 

CRJ will go a long way to attracting more travelers to the ThiefRivcr market. In 

addition many other issues affect enplanements at the Thief River Airport, many of 

which are directly controlled by the Airline. 

a) Albeit denied by Delta, allocation of SC<lts out of Thief River Falls Airport is a 

major concern [or the airport and a key reason the enplanements are reported at 

12%. Aftcr leaving Thief River Falls the 34 seat SAAH 340 travels to the 

Chisholm/Hibbing airport to load, 110t only its own respective passengers, but also 

Delta employees that travel daily from the Delta Air Lines Reservation Center in 

Hibbing, to Atlanta Airport for training. In some cases these scats are deemed a 

"positive space seat" where the seat is actually taken off of the list from paying 

customers. In short, because of' the shared night with Chisholm/J ribbing, load 

factors acceptable to Delta are impossible to achieve when counting passengers 

fi·om Thief River Falls alone. 

b) Another issue affecting low passenger demand is the one-stop flight in Hibbing 

itself. Because of this diversion, passengers are less likely to make any 

connecting /lights once reaching the hub in Minneapolis, giving passengers yet 

another reason to dri ve elsewhere for non-stop air service. 

c) Recently the cost of /lying from the Thief River Falls Airport has been more 

expensive then flying from nOI1-EAS served communities. This seems counter 

intuitive given the f'act that Thief River Falls' route is subsidi7.ed, utili zing an 

inexpensive aircraft to operate, and has a one-stop route structure. The Authority 

feels that if our route were competitively priced with comparable markets we 

would sec increased enplanements. 

13722 Airport Drive 

(218) 681-7680 

PO Box 672 Thief Rover lFa~ns MN 567011 

email: trfuirport@mncoble.net 
THIEF RIVER FALLS 

REGIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY 

Through discussions with Delta about their recent decision, the Authority has learned 

that Delta suggests our market continue to be served by Great Lakes 1\ viation using a 

19 scat Beech 1900. While initially cross referencing our most recent historical 

enplanements with the new proposed aircraft, one may seem to bc "right-sizing" the 

route using the Beech 1900; the Airport Authority however feels that passenger 

service will all but stop in our growing community duc to faster, more convenient 

service in other markets as well as the convenience of buying one ticket through Delta 

Connection and having access to world-wide air travel. The proposal by Delta may 

be more agreeable to the Authority if we were allowed to work with a replacement 

carrier on aircraft to be used, route structure, schedule times, cost, and have 

guaranteed code-sharing between airlines. 

The above comments are just a few reasons the Thief River Falls Regional Airport 

Authority objects to Delta's decision to discontinue air service at Thief River Falls 

Regional Airport. Rather than diHcominue service, the Airport Authority would ask 

that we work with Delta to improve the passenger enplanements and thereby route 

profitability to our essential market. 

Joe Hedrick 

Airport Manager 

13722 Airport Drive 

(218) 681-7680 

PO Box 672 Thief River Falls MN 56701 

email: trfolrport@mncabie.net