~UNIVERSITY 

OF WYOMING 

Athletic Department 

Dept. 3414 • 1000 E. University Ave. • Laramie, WY 82071 

(307) 766-2292 • fax: (307) 766-5414 • www.wyomingathletics.com 

June 18, 2012 

Michael Martin- Transportation Industry Analyst 

Office of Aviation Analysis 

US Department of Transportation 

400 Seventh Street, S.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20590 

RE: USDOT Essential Air Service Bids for Laramie, Wyoming 

Dear Mr. Martin: 

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Please accept this as a letter of support for consideration of SkyWest Airlines as the air carrier for the 

Essential Air Service (EAS) to Laramie, Wyoming. 

It is extremely important to citizens of Laramie (and surrounding communities), to the University of 

Wyoming and the Laramie business community that the air carrier providing service, be dependable, 

reliable, be customer service oriented, have sufficient seating capacity and provide a highly competitive 

airfare (especially for customers connecting to flights in and out of Denver International Airport). 

The number of potential boardings (per WYDOT Aeronautics leakage studies) lost to the Laramie 

Regional Airport has been substantial. Feedback appears to point to poor customer service, cancelled 

flights, late departures, high airfares and insufficient seating capability as key reasons why many 

individuals choose to drive to Denver to catch their flights. Being late for connections, having flights 

cancelled, spending additional monies on hotel rooms/meals (due to flight cancellations), and finding it 

to be more cost effective to pay mileage reimbursements compared to airfares ... are issues that 

business owners/managers (even college students) are not willing to consistently deal with. 

From the perspective of the CFO for the UW Athletic Department, all of the above mentioned issues 

have contributed to decisions on both business and personal travel. 

Our organization travels for a variety of reasons including business meetings, recruiting of potential 

student athletes and transportation of our sports teams for purpose of competition. 

The sports teams (16-25 avg. travel party) that we transport have found it impossible to fly out of 

Laramie to connect to flights in Denver ... due to the limited seating capacity (19 seats) provided by the 

current Laramie air carrier and the fear that the team flights might be cancelled. 

The potential of having 30 seat planes from SkyWest ... and/or the possibility of adding an occasional 

extra flight for our teams could open up some exciting travel options for our sport programs. 
A recent analysis of our sport programs number of trips/travel party sizes ... revealed the potential for an 

additionall,OOO to 1,200 additional boardings for the Laramie Regional Airport each year. 

Related to this travel limitation, is the fact that we annually spend approximately $229,540 on charter 

buses to transport or sport teams to and from Denver International Airport. These monies could be 

going to the local air carrier ... if there were a sufficient number of seats available to fly our teams to and 

from Laramie. 

So, from a community member and business professional from Laramie, having the chance to consider a 

new carrier (who is producing satisfied customers in other Wyoming communities) is an exciting 

opportunity. 

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these comments. 

Department of Intercollegiate Athletics 

University of Wyoming