Tenakee Springs Business Association 

PO Box 581 

Tenakee Springs, AK 99841 

www.tenakeespringsak.com 

Mr. Todd Homan 

Director, Office of Aviation Analysis 

US Department of Transportation 

1200 New Jersey Ave, SE 

Washington, DC 20590 

Dear Mr. Homan; 

October 10, 2014 ':·,·} 

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Tenakee Springs is a small community located on Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska. There 

are no roads to the commynity or in the community. The only means of transport to and from 

Tenakee's regional hub of Juneau is via boat or seaplane. Essential air service between Juneau 

and Tenakee is critical to the community's survival. 

It has come to our attention that Order 2014-.9.,13 considers the termination of subsidized 

Essential Air Service (EAS) between Tenakee Springs, Alaska and Juneau, Alaska based on the 

premise that Harris Air provides non-EAS qir service from Sitka to Tenakee. Springs. 

Currently, Harris.-Airprovides no.scheduled flights to Tenakee Spri~gs. One reason for this is Sitka 

is not the service hub or regional point for Tenakee Springs. The proposed abandonment of 

service to Juneau in favor of less frequent and reduced capacity service to Sitka would be 

economically devastating to our businesses and the members of our community. 

The residents and visitors to Tenakee utilize Alaska Seaplane Service daily for transport to and 

from Juneau where they have established medical and dental professionals, purchase goods 

and supplies, as well as make connections to the larger air carriers of Alaska Airlines and Delta 

Airlines. Supplies from distributors in Juneau are flown to Tenakee daily for local businesses and 

residents as well as the US Mail. 

The purpose of the EAS program is to ensure thqt communities have air service access where 

there would not otherwise be access. The only scheduled flight service to Tenakee Springs is via 

Alaska Seaplane Service. Under EAS, the minimum service that must be provided to Tenakee is 

seven round trip flights per week during peak season, and three round trip flights per week in 

the off-peak season. The Harris Airproposedfuture flight pattern, between Tenakee and Sitka is 

three roundtrips per week.' This is a reduction of 57% over the minimum peak service level and 

does not meet the needs of the community. · 

According to the US DOT website, the governing statutes require DOT to consider four factors 

when selecting an EAS carrier: 

( 1) Service reliability; 

(2) Contractual and marketing arrangements with a larger carrier at the hub; 
(3) Interline arrangements with a larger carrier at the hub; and 

(4) Community views. 

Alaska Seaplane SeNice has proven seNice reliability as they have had a presence in Tenakee 

for 17 years and are currently Tenakee's sole scheduled flight seNice provider. They have 

contractual and marketing arrangements with larger carriers at Tenakee's regional hub of 

Juneau and the community overwhelmingly supports continued scheduled seNice from 

Tenakee to Juneau. 

The Tenakee Springs Business Association (TSBA) is a community based organization and 

collaboration of business owners, land owners, artists, musicians, fishermen, school board 

members, and religious organizations. The TSBA is comprised of 15 businesses holding general 

membership and four associate members. 

The TSBA understands the critical need for this essential air seNice to our community, and hopes 

that DOT will realize the magnitude of this decision. Air seNice is a basic necessity and essential 

for our business and community suNival. We support continuing EAS from Tenakee Springs to 

Juneau via Alaska Seaplanes. 

~uck 

~~~ Harry, President 

\j Tenakee Springs Business Association