Essential Air Service at 

Garden City, KS 

Under 49 U.S.c. §41731 est seq. 

BEFORE THE 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

WASHINGTON, DC 

DOT -OST -1998-3503 

AMERICAN EAGLE AIRLINES PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE ESSENTIAL AIR SERVICE AT 

GARDEN CITY. KS 

American Eagle Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of AMR Corporation, ("American Eagle") respectfully 

submits its proposal to provide subsidized Essential Air Service to Garden City, Kansas. American Eagle 

contemplates service from AMR's largest hub at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport ("DFW") to the 

Garden City Regional Airport ("GCK") with two roundtrips on Embraer Regional Jet aircraft. 

American Eagle is the predominate regional carrier for American Airlines, offering more than 1,700 daily 

departures with service to more than 180 cities. Through our relationship with American Airlines, our 

customers have access to more than 250 cities, 40 countries and more than 3,400 daily departures. In 

addition, our oneworld@, alliance provides our customers access to over 700 destinations in 140 

countries worldwide. Schedules and pricing are coordinated across the expanse of the 

American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia Airlines and Japan Airlines network through an immunized 

alliance under the oneworld@ banner. At DFW alone, American and American Eagle will offer almost 

800 daily departures this summer to 178 cities. This direct access to the vast American and 

oneworld@ network will help stimulate traffic in southwestern Kansas with significantly more 

convenient connecting options than have been offered in the community for years. 

Although American Eagle has recently re-entered the subsidized Essential Air Service program with 

service to Joplin, Missouri, in February 2011 and was the successful bidder at Grand Island, NE and 

Watertown, NY, we have been serving smaller communities for many years. In the case of 

Roswell, New Mexico, we took a market that was on the verge of subsidized service after Mesa Airlines 

announced its departure, and turned it into a self-sustaining market with three daily flights to DFW. 

In Manhattan, Kansas, American Eagle was brought in to serve the community through a partnership 

with the state of Kansas and have made the service self-sustaining. American Eagle hopes and believes 

that we will have as much success serving Garden City and southwestern Kansas as we have had in other 

regions of the country. 
American Eagle would like to request the ability to operate any of our three varieties of Embraer 

Regional Jets for the same subsidy amount. We plan on operating 37 or 44-seat regional jets on the 

route, but allowing us to substitute larger regional jet aircraft would allow us the flexibility to match 

supply with demand, as well as provide operational flexibility, which will improve dependability. 

American Eagle also requests that DOT and Garden City waive the right to hold-in American Eagle upon 

issuance of a 120 day's notice to terminate service. Although we do not foresee this to be an issue and 

plan on being in Garden City for many years to come, we cannot be operationally constrained and kept 

in a market indefinitely, without the ability to adapt to the marketplace. 

We believe that these recent examples of great success in smaller communities are a demonstration of 

the quality of American Eagle's product and of the strength of the American and oneworld@ brands and 

network. Further, American Eagle is the only regional airline with a dedicated Marketing and Sales 

group that works with smaller communities to promote and stimulate traffic. 

We look forward to serving the Garden City and southwestern Kansas for many years to come and 

appreciate the community's and the Department ofTransportation's consideration of American Eagle. 

~ VP Planning and Marketing 

American Airlines Regional Network 
MARKET: 

AIRCRAFT 

Garden City, Kansas to Dallas Fort Worth 

EMS 140 

Mileage 

Daily RTs 

Annual Deps (Factored) 

Block per Dep 

Annual Block Hours (Factored) 

Completion % 

Revenues 

Annual Passengers 

Avg Fare - Onboard 

Expenses 

Flight operations 

Fuel 

Stations 

Other 

Profit/(Loss) 

Profit Element ( @5%) 

Subsidy required 

Subsidy I Departure 

Subsidy I Passenger 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

405 

2 

1,431 

1.53 

2,183 

98% 

39,347 

156.71 

6,166,046 

2,706,065 

3,224,022 

1,339,908 

1,699,914 

8,969,909 

$ (2,803,864) 

$ 448,495 

$ 3,252,359 

$ 2,273 

$ 82.66 

Number of Seats per Dep 

Annual ASMs (Factored) 

Annual RPMs 

Annual LF 

44 

28,973,700 

15,935,535 

55%