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- -,' I December 12,2013 Jeffery (Jeft) A. Smisek Chairman ofthe 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 aticket is issued through any airline serving aparticular area the trip should be run as scheduled. Recently Ischeduled atrip from StLouis, Missouri to Bradford Pennsylvania. The trip from St Louis to Chicago and to Cleveland, Ohio went very well as scheduled. Atthis point everything degraded tothe point ofdiscuss from allthe 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 inBradford at4:30. For some reason there wasn't aplane orcrew available. The one that was available went to Parkersburg, WV came back to Cleveland boarded passengers to Du Bois and Franklin, Pathen came back for the passengers to Jamestown, NY and Bradford, PA. Our plane arrived inBradford 7 and 

### Y.. hours after the time itwas 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 Ihad adirect flight form Cleveland to St Louis. Iwas to fly out of Bradford at 12:25 pm so Iarrived atthe airport at 10:30. Shortly before the flight was scheduled toboard we were informed there was aproblem 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 offthe plane because again the radio didn't work. We had to go through security again when we were told the plane could fly. Instead offlying to Cleveland we went back to Bradford topick 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 inamotel in Bradford. When Iarrived in St Louis 26 hours after Iwas scheduled to arrive there was asevere ice storm that greeted me to afourhour trip home that normally is only two hours. Listening to other passengers inthe Bradford airport two were going to Houston, TX and had ameeting the next day, one was going to California to ameeting and two were going to Mexico formeetings. Considering this how many ofthese people do you think will be willing to take achance on using this United Airlines service? While all ofthis was going on Silver Airways was getting the blame for allthe delays not United. Inthe future itmight be more important to find out what airline will give safe reliable service not the lowest bidder. Should airlines not be able toprovide crews andequipment suitable to do thejob? Use someone else.Every time these contracts come up forrenewal 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 forthis trip indicating they would not use the service again but will try not to use United. Itis alright inthe eyes ofthe airlines to blame the customer ortheir partner for notusing this service but itmight betime to analyze the situation and find the real root cause ofthe problem. United received the revenue forthe 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 ofthese is Cape Air that flies out ofSt 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 ofAviation Analysis 1200New Jersey Ave, SE Washington, DC 20590 Silver Airways Customer Relations Department 1100 Lee Wagener Blvd, 20I Fort Lauderdale FL 33315 USA Wilbur Smith Associates 6600 Clough Pike Cincinnati, OH 45244