, ·· j ,:~rr:>Is!\rL o ~" 

Sid Napier-3460 Casino Creek Rd,tewii~-4~ijf;Mt. 59457 

To: United States of America 

Department of Transportation 

Office of the Secretary 

Washington, D.C. 

Sb 

I am writing this letter as a private citizen, of the City of Lewistown, Montana. This Jetter is in 

regards to the Docket Order giving notice to termination of Essential Air Service, for the 

Montana communities of Lewistown and Miles City. I would like to offer my objections and 

plea NOT to discontinue this service. I will explain my initiative to continue the EAS program. 

Since January, of 2010, I have worked, at the Lewistown Airport, as a Security Screener. My 

company is the private contractor that supplies TSA required security screening of passengers 

and their baggage for all commercial flights out of the Lewistown Municipal Airport. While I 

have knowledge about the passenger counts and the airline flights, I am still writing this letter, 

as a concerned private citizen and taxpayer. 

Since I have worked here, for 3 years, I have worked many flight schedules and have 

experienced the up and downs of maintaining a good passenger flow. There have been two 

different airlines, that were awarded the bid, to operate at the seven communities in Montana, 

that are under the Essential Air Service program. Both airlines have made efforts to keep the 

passenger count above the allotted requirements. There have been several factors that have 

worked for or against maintaining an acceptable level. Some are controllable; some not! 

What was not in the airlines control is weather conditions. They operate with Beechcraft 1900 

aircraft that are NOT equipped with the proper instrumentation for landing in inclement 

weather when ceiling conditions fall near or at minimal standards. This is the nature of smaller 

Class 4 airports. This would cause delays and cancelations and loss of passenger revenue. This 

cannot be changed other than the 19 seat aircraft being equipped with LPV's allowing for takeoff and landing's in lower ceiling requirements. Having the GPS or Wide Area Augmentation 

System would help in allowing more flights to continue on schedule or not be canceled. I don't 

know the price of equipping the aircraft with this WAAS system, but it would help in the one 

area that the Airlines cannot control, and that is the weather! 

There have been area's that the Airlines DOES have control over. Because ofthe weather 

conditions, that are a part of being in the Northwest, the aircraft requires de-icing, when ice 

collects on the aircraft. The Airline then has to make sure their equipment can operate in the 

winter conditions. We had many flights where either the de-icing equipment at our local 

airport or the de-icing equipment at a connecting airport was not operational. This would 

result in either fly-over's or canceled flights. This left passenger's left to scramble to figure out 
how they were to get to their connecting flights in Billings, Montana. This resulted in driving on 

icy road conditions for the 2 and a half hour 130 mile trip from Lewistown to Billings. While 

most passengers understand about canceled flights due to weather conditions and having safe 

flights; they were not as tolerable to the malfunctioning of support equipment, as in the de~ 

icing machines. 

The other area, I would like to address, that was in control of the Airlines, that played a big part 

on ridership was flight destination's. When I first started working, at the airport, the Airline 

that was operating, at that time, was offering direct flights to Denver. Denver, of course, is a 

main hub for all of the western states. This was not a true direct flight, as they did make a stop 

in Worland, Wyoming, before continuing on to Denver. But we had far more passengers on 

those flights for a couple of reasons. Our ridership then, was in line with the revenue amounts 

that are required for keeping EAS funding. We had a lot of our local business people frequent 

fly on these flights. Also, it made it a lot easier for the community, in general, to fly out of 

Lewistown, to Denver and then make connecting flights to other parts of the country. There 

would be no long lay-over in Billings, because they got out of Lewistown early enough to bypass Billings, and allowed them to get to Denver and to make their other connections. 

What destroyed this set-up and made it start to deteriorate was this: It seemed every two 

months, the airlines began changing their departure schedule, out of Lewistown. Having a later 

and later departure, until finally, they were not getting passengers to Denver, early enough to 

make their connections out of Denver. The changing of schedule became a detriment to 

maintaining a positive passenger count. While this became evident; I do not know the 

reasoning behind their decision to change schedule's so often. 

I have heard the rumbling's about losing our EAS service. The people that use it, DO NOT want 

to lose it I And more and more people would use it, if it became more reliable. We sit 130 miles 

from the next airport that would offer commercial flights. In bad weather, that is a dangerous 

drive when you have to get to other parts ofthe country. While we are Montanan's and we DO 

understand about severe weather conditions and flying, we do not accept what could be 

controlled by the airlines. Control what's controllable and EAS will work in Lewistown. 

I firmly believe, that if the direct Denver flights were offered again and the flight schedule 

reflected early morning arrivals in Denver there would be a dramatic increase in ridership. Also, 

requiring the contract Airlines to maintain equipment that does not breakdown on a regular 

basis would help eliminate more ofthe negativity and bolster more reliability in the Airlines. 

This in turn, would install more confidence from the community, into a service that is much 

needed here in Lewistown, Montana. I would hope the DOT will reconsider their decision to 

terminate EAS here and give the community a chance to secure the tools to fix our situation! 

I thank you for your time! 

~dN~ 1 ap1er 

3460 Casino Creek Rd 

Lewistown, Montana. 59457