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December 12,2013

Jeffery (Jeft) A. Smisek

Chairman of the Board,

President and Chief Executive Officer

United Airlines

PO Box 66100

Chicago, IL 60666

Dear Mr. Smisek,

"

Subject: Why isn't the Essential Air Service program working in some areas?

A passenger using rural airline service expects and should receive safe and dependable

service. When a ticket is issued through any airline serving a particular area the trip

should be run as scheduled.

Recently I scheduled a trip from St Louis, Missouri to Bradford Pennsylvania. The trip

from St Louis to Chicago and to Cleveland, Ohio went very well as scheduled. At this

point everything degraded to the point of discuss from all the passengers scheduled to go

to the various (ESA) airports serviced by United Airlines. My flight was scheduled to

leave Cleveland at 3:30 pm and was to arrive in Bradford at 4:30. For some reason there

wasn't a plane or crew available. The one that was available went to Parkersburg, WV

came back to Cleveland boarded passengers to Du Bois and Franklin, Pa then came back

for the passengers to Jamestown, NY and Bradford, PA. Our plane arrived in Bradford 7

and Y.. hours after the time it was to arrive. All during this time we received the message

please be patient that they were sorry but they appreciated our business.

The trip back was even worse than the trip to Bradford. The trip back should have been

much better because I had a direct flight form Cleveland to St Louis. I was to fly out of

Bradford at 12:25 pm so I arrived at the airport at 10:30. Shortly before the flight was

scheduled to board we were informed there was a problem with the radio the flight would

be delayed until around 3:30 pm. Some time after 3:30 we boarded the plane flew to

Jamestown, NY then had to get off the plane because again the radio didn't work. We had

to go through security again when we were told the plane could fly. Instead of flying to

Cleveland we went back to Bradford to pick up another passenger. Would you believe

again the radio didn't work and they needed to cancel the trip? We were given another

$7.00 for dinner and put up in a motel in Bradford. When I arrived in St Louis 26 hours

after I was scheduled to arrive there was a severe ice storm that greeted me to a four hour

trip home that normally is only two hours.

Listening to other passengers in the Bradford airport two were going to Houston, TX and

had a meeting the next day, one was going to California to a meeting and two were going

to Mexico for meetings. Considering this how many of these people do you think will be

willing to take a chance on using this United Airlines service? While all of this was going

on Silver Airways was getting the blame for all the delays not United.

In the future it might be more important to find out what airline will give safe reliable

service not the lowest bidder. Should airlines not be able to provide crews and equipment

suitable to do the job? Use someone else.
Every time these contracts come up for renewal the subject comes up about not enough

people using the service. Maybe this will answer that question. Not only are the people

that were scheduled for this trip indicating they would not use the service again but will

try not to use United.

It is alright in the eyes of the airlines to blame the customer or their partner for not using

this service but it might be time to analyze the situation and find the real root cause of the

problem. United received the revenue for the trip they made the contract they are

responsible.

There are airlines that give the type service needed to serve these areas. An example of

one of these is Cape Air that flies out of St Louis to Marion IL and several other places.

They are reasonable, safe and very dependable.

Sincerely,

Bud Koch

CC:

EAS and Domestic Analysis Division

Office of Aviation Analysis

1200 New Jersey Ave, SE

Washington, DC 20590

Silver Airways

Customer Relations Department

1100 Lee Wagener Blvd, 20 I

Fort Lauderdale FL 33315 USA

Wilbur Smith Associates

6600 Clough Pike

Cincinnati, OH 45244