& 

us. Department of 1200 New jersey Avenue, SE 

Transportation Washington, DC 20590 

Off ice Of the Secretary 

of Transportation 

March 24, 2010 

Doug Vap 

Airport Advisory Commission 

P.O. Box 448 

McCook, NE 69001 

Dear Mr. Vap: 

I would like to update you on the essential air service situation at McCook and give 

you an opportunity to submit any comments if you wish. In anticipation of the end of 

Great Lakes' current contract on May 31, 2010, the Department issued Order 2010-2-14, 

February 16, 2010, to solicit proposals from all interested air carriers to provide service at 

McCook. In response to that order, we received proposals from three carriers: Great 

Lakes Aviation, Ltd. ("Great Lakes"), TransportAzumah, and Alaska Juneau 

Aeronautics, Inc. d/b/a SeaPort Airlines ("SeaPort"). 

We have directed each carrier to serve its proposal(s) on you; in addition, copies of the 

proposals may be accessed online through the Department's Dockets Management 

System at: http://www.regulations.gov/ by entering "DOT-OST-1997-3005" in the "Enter 

Keyword or ID" field, so we will only briefly summarize them here. 

Great Lakes' proposal would continue to offer 12 nonstop round trips per week from 

McCook to Denver International Airport utilizing 19-seat Beech 1900 aircraft, for an 

aimual subsidy of $1,796,795. 

TransportAzumah proposes to offer 14 nonstop round trips per week from McCook to 

Denver International Airport using 30-passenger EMB-120ER aircraft, for an annual 

subsidy of $2,412,865. This proposal offers two more round trips per week than the 

Department solicited using 15-seat or larger aircraft. 

SeaPort's proposal offers 18 nonstop round trips per week between McCook and 

Denver's business aircraft center using 9-seat Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, for a first year 

subsidy of $1,963,367, and a second year subsidy of $1,991,516. 
2 -

My purpose in writing to you at this time is to request any final comments you might 

have on the carriers' service and subsidy proposals before we submit a recommendation 

on the carrier-selection issue to the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International 

Affairs. 

Please note that the average passenger fares shown in each proposal do not necessarily 

reflect the average local fare McCook would actually pay, but, rather, reflect a prorated 

portion of the total ticket price, e.g., the McCook - San Francisco portion of a McCook -

Denver - San Francisco ticket that the subsidized carrier would realize. Also, the fare 

shown is net of certain charges such as Federal transportation security fees, excise or 

ticket taxes, and Passenger Facility Charges. Of course, carriers have the discretion to 

charge fares they deem appropriate, and the passenger fares presented in their proposals 

have been developed for subsidy rate computation purposes only. 

You should also note that the schedules that the carriers have submitted are illustrative 

only, and that they may make schedule changes to reflect changing conditions, e.g., to 

better meet shifting connecting bank times at the hub. The Department expects 

subsidized air carriers to maintain well-timed and well-spaced flights in order to ensure 

full compensation. 

We request that you review each proposal and service option and submit any 

comments you may have before we submit a recommendation to the Assistant Secretary. 

We ask that you submit any comments you may have as soon as possible, but in any case 

no later than April 23, 2010. We will carefully consider your comments before we 

submit a recorrmiendation to the Assistant Secretary for a decision. We appreciate that 

there are significant issues for you to consider, so if you have any questions or if you find 

that you need additional time to draft your comments, please let us know. 

Please send your comments to me at the following e-mail address: EAS@dot.gov or 

by fax to 202-366-7638. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kevin 

Schlemmer of my staff at kevin.schlemmer@dot.gov or 202-366-3176. 

A similar letter has been sent to the Mayor of McCook and to the City Manager. 

Sincerely, 

Dermis J. DeVany 

Chief, Essential Air Service Division, X-53 

Office of Aviation Analysis