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ItampertOtlon March 29. 2010 Washington, DC 20590 

Office of the Secteftary 

of Transportation 

The Honorable William Schirf 

Mayor of the City of Aitoona 

1301 12* Street 

Aitoona, PA 16601 

Dear Mayor Schirf, ? 3 

I would like to update you on the essential air service (EAS) situation at Altoona/Blair County Airport and 

John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport and give you an opportunity to offer any comments on the record 

before we submit a recommendation to the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs. As 

you know, Colgan Air Inc., operating as United Express (Colgan), is the current EAS provider at your 

community, and their contract expires June 30,2010. In anticipation of that, we issued Order 2010-2-28, 

February 26, 2010, soliciting proposals from carriers interested in providing subsidized EAS for a new, 

two-year period, beginning July 1, 2010. In response to our request, four carriers responded: Charter Air 

Transport (Charter), Colgan, Gulfstream International Airlines (Gulfstream), and Sovereign Air, Inc. 

(Sovereign Air). 

You should have received a copy of the proposals from each carrier, and they can be accessed at 

www.regulations.gov by entering the numbers DOT-OST-2002-11446 for Aitoona and DOT-OST-2002-

11451 for Johnstown in the search block. As a result, we will only briefly summarize them here. 

Charter has proposed one service option using 30-seat Embraer EMB-120 aircraft operating two round trips 

each day except Saturday over an Altoona-Johnstown-Washington Dulles routing, and one round trip each 

day except Saturday over an Altoona-Johnstown-Pittsburgh routing for a combined annual subsidy of 

$2,960,205. 

Colgan has proposed one service option to provide both communities with three round trips each weekday 

and each weekend (18 a week), with a mix of nonstops and one stop service over an Altoona-JohnstownWashington Dulles or Johnstown-Altoona-Washington Dulles routing using 34-seat Saab 340 aircraft for 

an annual subsidy of $3,348,294. 

Gulfstream has proposed four service options, all of which would use 19-seat Beechcraft 1900 aircraft. 

Option 1 would operate to Cleveland as Continental Express; Options 2-4 would operate to Pittsburgh and 

be unbranded. Option 1 would offer four weekday round trips and a total of four weekend round trips (24 a 

week), over a Cleveland-Altoona-Johnstown-Cleveland routing or Cleveland-Johnstown-AltoonaCieveland routing, for an annual subsidy of $3,874,464. Option 2 would offer three nonstop round trips 

each weekday and weekend (18 a week) over an Altoona-Pittsburgh routing for an annual subsidy of 

$1,983,918. Option 3 would offer three nonstop round trips each weekday and weekend (18 a week) over a 

Johnstown-Pittsburgh routing for an annual subsidy of $ 1,749,981. Option 4 would offer four weekday 

roundtrips and a total of four weekend round trips with a mix of nonstop and one-stop service over a 

Pittsburgh-Altoona-Johnstown-Pittsburgh routing or Pittsburgh-Johnstown-Altoona-Pittsburgh routing for 

an annual subsidy of $3,.101,212. 

Sovereign Air has proposed three service options. While all three options would use King Air 350 aircraft, 

under Option I, it would be configured for 12 seats, and under Options 2 and 3, 9 seats. Option 1 would 

offer five daily round trips (35 a week) over a Johnstown-Altoona-Washington Dulles routing for an annual 

subsidy of $1,103,603. Option 2 would offer four daily nonstop round trips (28 a week) over a JohnstownWashington Dulles routing for an annual subsidy of $1,117,417. Option 3 would offer four daily nonstop 

roundtrips (28 a week) over an Altoona-Washington Dulles routing for an annual subsidy of $1,231,939. 
The schedules that the carriers have proposed are illustrative only and they may make schedule changes to 

reflect changing conditions, e.g., to better meet shifting connecting bank times at the hub. However, the 

Department does expect a subsidized air carrier to maintain well-timed and well-spaced flights in order to 

ensure full compensation. 

We request that you review the proposals and submit any comments you may have as soon as possible, but 

no later than April 23. We will carefully consider your comments before we submit a recommendation to 

the Assistant Secretary for a decision. 

Please send your comments via e-mail to EAS@dot.gov or by fax to 202-366-7638. If you have any 

questions, please feel free to contact Michael Martin of my staff at michael.f.martin@dot.gov or 202-366-

6494. 

Sincerely, 

Dennis J. DeVas^, Chief ' 

Essential Air Service Division 

Office of Aviation Analysis 

cc: The Honorable Thomas Trigona, Mayor of the City of Johnstown 

Chuck Pillar, Altoona/Blair County Airport 

Scott Voelker, John Murtha Johnstown Cambria Airport