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## BEFORE THE:" 

## C?~;:.;"i,:';,.S DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATI~N"] '.~CI i 

## A S:

## 31

WASHINGTON, DC

Essential Air Service at 

### GARDEN CITY, KANSAS Under 49 U.S.C 941731 et seq. 

### DOT-OST-1998-3503

AMERICAN AIRLINES PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE ESSENTIAL AIR SERVICE AT GARDEN CITY, KANSAS
American Airlines, awholly owned subsidiary ofAMR Corporation, respectfully submits its proposal to continue subsidized Essential Air Service to Garden City, Kansas. American Airlines seeks to continue service from American's largest hub, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport ("DFW"), to the Garden City Regional Airport ("GCK"), with two daily roundtrips. The service would be operated bythe American Airlines regional brand, American Eagle using 50 seatjet aircraft. American Airlines regional feed is operated under the American Eagle and American Connection brands. American Airlines customers have access tomore than 2~0cities, 40 countries and more than 3400 daily departures. Through our oneworld alliance, customers have access tomore than 700 destinations and 140countries. These flights will continue tobe operated with theAA code, pursuant to acodesharing agreement with American Airlines. Additional codes ofthe oneworld carriers are also applied tothis route, and would continue tobe. The service proposed by American Airlines continues existing service toAmerican's largest hub, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. At DFW, American and American Eagle offer more than 800 daily departures to over 160destinations, making itone ofthe largest hubs inthe country. This direct access to somany places has helped stimulate traffic from Garden City with significantly easier connecting options than what had been offered to Garden City travelers prior to our award ofthe current Essential Air Service bid. Garden City has performed well under subsidized Essential Air Service since American's EAS subsidy award inApril 2012. Passenger numbers increased fromjust over 10,380 in2011, to more than 17,500 injust one year. We have made great progress indeveloping air-service in Garden City, bringing new business and industry to the Southwest Kansas region. Our current bid should reflect ourbelief that the Essential Air Service subsidy isvital, asthe market ison a trajectory to one day be self-sustaining.

### ".

American would like to also request that the DOT and Garden City allow us flexibility in

substituting aBombardier CRJ200 (50 seats) aircraft and Embraer Regional jets when needed for the same rates. Allowing us to substitute 44- or 50-seat RJswill provide us the flexibility to match supply with demand, as well asprovide operational flexibility, which will improve reliability. American also requests that the DOT and Garden City waive the right to hold-in American Airlines service upon issuance of 120days-notice toterminate service. Although we do not foresee this to be an issue andplan to continue developing the Garden City market, we cannot be operationally constrained and kept in amarket indefinitely, without ability to adapt to changing circumstances. We believe that ourto-date success in Garden City isdemonstrative ofthe American Airlines network andmarketing programs. American Airlines isthe only airline with adedicated Regional Partnerships group that will continue itspromotion ofthe brand and service in Garden City. We look forward to serving the Garden City area formany years to come and appreciate the community's andthe Department ofTransportation's consideration ofcontinued American Airlines service.
Sincerely,

Charles Schubert Vice President American Airlines Network Planning

# ..•..

Market:

Aircraft Garden City. KS to Dallas Fort Worth
Mileage Annual Deps (Factored) Block per Dep Annual Block Hours (Factored) Completion Percentage Revenues Annual Passengers Avg Fare - Onboard Total Revenues Expenses Flight Operations (incl Fuel) Aircraft Ownership Pax Variable Other Total Expenses

. Profit I(Loss) Profit Element (@ 5%) 404 1,431 1.50 2,146 98.0%
46,866 $119 $5,578,214
$5,365,626 $285,269 $667,031 $371,012 $6,688,939 ($1,110,725) $334,447 Number of Seats per Dep

Annual ASMs (Factored) Annual RPMs (Factored) Annual LF 50 28,902,160 18,555,187 64.2%

Subsidy Required Subsidy IDeparture Subsidv IPax $1,445,172 $1,010 $30.84 Previous Subsidy $2,919,026

Previous IDeparture $2,040 Previous IPax
Proposed Schedule Seqment Depart Arrive Frequency GCK-DFW 6:15 7:45 Daily GCK-DFW 15:25 16:55 Daily DFW-GCK 13:20 14:55 Daily DFW-GCK 19:40 21:15 Daily

• Schedule is shown for illustrative purposes only and American Airlines reserves the right to change without notice.